Science

Government regulators could boost catch limits for New England fisherman through any of a series of measures without imperiling fish stocks, researchers at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth said today.

Their report urged regulators to alter how they estimate the maximum catch of a particular fish. It suggested using a method that directly estimates stocks rather than the current preferred technique that also takes into consideration a species' ability to spawn in sufficient numbers. Doing so would increase fishermen's yields on such fish as yellowtail flounder and cod on Georges Bank and white hake and winter flounder in southern New England waters.

The researchers, who received help from Massachusetts Marine Fisheries, also said a buffer that regulators build into catch limits might be unreasonably large in New England. That buffer — 25 percent here — is used to account for any uncertainty in measuring a fish's stock. Fisheries in other parts of the nation have used significantly smaller buffers, allowing fishermen's catch to closer approach the overfishing limit.

Read the complete story from The Boston Globe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WASHINGTON – October 22, 2010 – In response to Secretary Gary Locke's recent reply to requests from Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and Congressman Barney Frank (D-Mass.), Steve Cadrin, Kevin Stokesbury, Dan Georgianna, Emily Keiley, and Cate O'Keefe of the University of Massachusetts School for Marine Science and Technology, together with and David Pierce of the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries have drafted a report entitled "Scientific Information Available to Support Increases in Annual Catch Limits for New England Groundfish". Brian Rothschild provided valuable input to the report.

The report was presented today at a meeting of New Bedford Mayor Scott Lang's Oceans and Fisheries Council in the Wattles Family Gallery at the New Bedford Whaling Museum.

The report provides information that can be considered to support Governor Patrick's and Representative Frank's conclusion that increased ACLs can be scientifically justified.

The report argues that scientific information is available to support increased Annual Catch Limits (ACLs) for New England groundfish that do not undermine conservation mandates of the Magnuson Act. A review of scientific analyses used to derive ACLs finds that several decisions favored relatively low ACLs, and scientifically valid alternatives may be available for: 1) direct estimates of FMSY, 2) alternative stock assessment models, 3) smaller uncertainty buffers, and 4) revised rebuilding objectives.    Alternative scientific decisions would support increases in ACLs for all New England groundfish stocks, with substantial increases for 'choke stocks' such as Georges Bank yellowtail flounder, Georges Bank cod, Gulf of Maine cod, Gulf of Maine winter flounder, and southern New England winter flounder. Increased ACLs for 'choke stocks' are expected to allow the fleet to achieve more of their allocation of other stocks, thereby substantially increasing mixed-stock economic yield.

Read the complete report

Continued near-record sea-ice loss and higher-than-normal temperatures are melting the Arctic and these changes may set the stage for a "climate change paradox" of more intense U.S. winters, says a new U.S. report.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's "Arctic Report Card" warns this week that thinning sea ice around the North Pole continues a trend in effect since 2007, reports USA TODAY colleague Dan Vergano. He says NOAA's findings include:

    * Summer sea ice cover was the third lowest extent recorded since satellite measurement began in 1979
    * Snow cover lasted the least time since record-keeping began in 1966

Read the complete story from USA Today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

While scientists continue to monitor fish taken from the Gulf of Mexico for raised levels of chemicals and oil, researchers around the globe are using specific sea species to suck up polluted waters—with a purpose.

Scallops and oysters are being used like proverbial “canaries in coal mines” to warn of the increasing presence of toxins in the ocean and to help clean out the poisons.

In Russia, The Moscow Times reports organic chemists have set up a giant sea scallop garden in Kozmino Bay on the Sea of Japan—seven time zones east of Moscow—near a new, very busy Siberian oil terminal. The sea scallops are being monitored to measure water pollution. Oil discovered in remote Siberia is being delivered to the port by pipeline. Business at the terminal is expected to double this year to 200 million barrels. Nearby in the bay, abandoned Soviet-era ships, pipelines, and old navy infrastructure rot in the saltwater.

Read the complete story from Take Part.

 

 

 

 

 

The scientists tasked with gathering data that will be used to regulate New England fisheries can't help but feel beleaguered. Caught between fishing industry interests suing the government to ease catch limits and environmentalists suing to tighten them, the scientists have been thrust into the political arena.

Last week, Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke said he would use emergency powers to raise fishing catch limits if it can be demonstrated that communities are suffering economic hardship and if scientific research can show that the health of fish stocks would not be adversely affected.

"We often hear things like, 'We don't agree with the assessment, therefore the bottom trawl survey is giving false information,'" said Russell W. Brown, chief of the National Marine Fisheries Service Ecosystems Surveys Branch in Woods Hole. "But our role is to produce unbiased information on living marine resources."

There is plenty of information out there, according to Brown.

"Our multi-species bottom trawl survey has been conducted every year since 1963 in the autumn and since 1968 in the spring," he said.

Read the complete story from the South Coast Today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

NEW ORLEANS — The National Marine Fisheries Service will study whether the Gulf of Mexico oil spill has depleted the population of Atlantic bluefin tuna to the point that the food fish should be placed on the endangered species list.

The fisheries service will make a recommendation by May 24, 2011 – a year after The Center for Biological Diversity filed its petition. The center provided enough scientific information to warrant protecting the fish under the Endangered Species Act, the fisheries service said on its website in September.

Bluefin begin spawning in the northern Gulf of Mexico in April – when BP PLC's undersea well blew wild and began spewing millions of gallons of oil – and continue through June. By then, more than one-third of federal waters were closed to fishing because of that oil. The only other place bluefin are believed to spawn is the Mediterranean Sea.

"Any eggs or larva that happen to float into the oil would probably die," said the center's attorney, Catherine Ware Kilduff. Mating itself is stressful, so spawning adults would be more vulnerable to harm from the oil, she said.

Read the complete story from MSNBC.

 

 

 

 

 

 

FALMOUTH — NOAA's 208-foot research vessel Henry B. Bigelow was designed and outfitted to improve scientific sampling and provide an accurate assessment of East Coast groundfish populations for the National Marine Fisheries Service. But two of the New England companies that worked together to design and build trawling gear for the $54 million state-of-the-art ship say the nets are too small, which could affect survey results as it gathers critical information about cod, haddock, flounder and other groundfish species in the Northeast fishery.

Net designer Tor Bendiksen, of Reidar's Manufacturing in Fairhaven, who worked on the gear project with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said industry input only went so far.

"It's an industry-standard net, and fishermen do use the net they are now set up with," he said. "But I have concerns about the size trawl and the size doors compared to the vessel they are using it on.

"A 100-horsepower boat towing a 100-horsepower net is going to catch more fish than a 1,000-horsepower boat towing a 100-horsepower net. The Bigelow is a 3,000-horsepower vessel, and you could very easily overspread the net. We offered them a bigger net design but they had their own parameters."

Gear designer Bob Taber, of Trawlworks Inc. in Narragansett, who also served on a panel formed to design the trawl gear, agreed that the dynamics with such a large vessel are not the same.

"We tried to talk them into a bigger net or using a bridle to mimic a 400-horsepower tow but they said no," Taber said. "It's a fantastic vessel, but the sea characteristics are totally different and it cannot mimic the package that the net and the doors were designed for.

"There is quite a different action on the whole gear compared to what a smaller vessel would be towing."

Read the complete story from The South Coast Today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Study of ocean migration indicates that local management of the population may be insufficient and supports recently proposed listing for Atlantic sturgeon under U.S. Endangered Species Act

STONY BROOK, N.Y., Oct. 8 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — A first-of-its-kind study that tracked the oceanic migrations of adult Atlantic sturgeon that were caught and tagged in the Hudson River discovered that these fish move vast distances in the Atlantic Ocean, traveling as far south as Georgia and as far north as Nova Scotia, Canada. The findings indicate that recovery of Atlantic sturgeon fisheries will need to address long-range oceanic threats to the species in addition to local measures closer to spawning grounds. These results are particularly timely given the announcement on October 5 by NOAA's Fisheries Service, proposing that five populations of Atlantic sturgeon along the U.S. East Coast, including the population examined in this study, receive protection under the federal Endangered Species Act (http://www.nefsc.noaa.gov/press_release/2010/News/NR1025/index.html).

The researchers used pop-up satellite archival tags (PSAT), which were affixed to sturgeon in their freshwater spawning grounds in the Hudson River. This relatively new technology enabled researchers to track fish movements over a larger area, and without the bias that can occur with other commonly used methods such as fixed acoustic arrays or fishery-dependent observations.

Read the complete story from PRNewswire.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Scientist to whelk fishermen: "Please throw back the marked ones … for now."

Press Release:

North Dartmouth, MA – A former University of Massachusetts Dartmouth marine scientist is calling on whelk fishermen to help with his tagging study … by throwing back the tagged animals.
 
Working with local lobsterman Jarret Drake, Professor Bradley Stevens and graduate student Bhae-Jin Peemoeller landed, marked and released 4000 whelk in Buzzards Bay in August.  But they don't want them back just yet.
 
"We're asking fishermen to release any whelks they trap this season that are marked with numbers between 1 and 4000; we'd rather not see them again until next year or the year after," said Stevens.  "That way, we can collect meaningful growth data."
 
Last year, as a Professor at the UMass Dartmouth School for Marine Science and Technology, Dr. Stevens was awarded $220,000 in Saltonstall-Kennedy funding for a two-year study to improve the conservation of the New England channeled whelk, a large, edible sea snail, locally known as a "conch."  Now at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, Stevens returned to SMAST in August to collect specimens and launch his study in New England waters.  Interim Dean John Farrington provided space and seawater holding tanks, Mr. Drake provided the boat, and the work was underway.  In addition to marking whelks, the researchers also dissected more than 220 whelks to determine the size at maturity and sex structure of the population.
 
"This is an opportunity to study a fishery before it is significantly depleted," said Stevens.  "There are currently 166 conch-pot permits in Massachusetts, but only about 40 of those are actively fished.  If the remainder were to be fully utilized, landings could increase significantly, which could seriously deplete the whelk population.  We need to anticipate the effects of such an expansion."
 
At about $3 million in landings per year in Massachusetts (2007 estimates), the whelk fishery is small compared to fisheries such as lobster and scallops, and it operates with few regulations and virtually no biological information, so the population's degree of vulnerability is a question mark. However, what little is known about their life history—and what is inferred based on studies of related species—does not suggest a population that could bounce back readily from overexploitation.
 
Stevens noted that the whelk fishery has been moving northward for decades.  Directed fisheries for whelks developed in the 1970s in the Carolinas, the 1980s in Virginia, and the late 1990s in New England.
The Massachusetts whelk fishery was a small bycatch fishery until about a decade ago, just as lobster populations were showing the most dramatic drop.  Lobster fishermen have long found whelks in their pots, but as the lobster catch declined, the lobstermen began to target the whelks as an income source.
 
"Wherever such fisheries have sprung up, they started as bycatch fisheries, expanded rapidly as fishermen sought alternative income after sudden declines in other fisheries such as shrimp and lobster, and then just as rapidly began to decline within a few years," Stevens said.
 
Working in cooperation with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries and the Massachusetts Lobstermen's Association, Stevens and Peemoeller will investigate life history, growth rates, age distributions, and size/age of sexual maturity in channeled whelks.  The information will be provided to managers to improve the conservation of whelks in a sustainable manner.  “We hope to return next year, mark a similar number of whelks, and start recovering some of those we released this year,” Stevens said.
 
The Saltonstall-Kennedy Grant Program is a competitive program administered by the National Marine Fisheries Service of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce, to provide financial assistance for research and development projects to benefit the U.S. fishing industry.

Click here to learn more about this research.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

London, England (CNN) — The planet's seas and oceans are richer and more diverse than scientists suspected, the biggest survey of marine life has revealed — but many mysteries remain.

The Census of Marine Life, which announced its full findings Monday, has taken 10 years to complete, employing 2,700 scientists from 80 nations. The $650 million study surveyed from the coldest waters to the warmest lagoons, from the smallest microbes to the largest cetaceans.

It even looked at life 10,000 meters (6.2 miles) down in the Marianas Trench southeast of Japan.

Scientists tagged and tracked marine creatures in order to gain insight into their migratory habits and populations as well as how they breed and what they eat.

Read the complete story from CNN.