Saving Seafood

Science

2024 Northeast Summer Ecosystem Monitoring Cruise Completed

September 17, 2024 — Our ecosystem monitoring cruises help researchers understand and predict changes in the Northeast shelf ecosystem and its fisheries throughout the year. Our core sampling provides data that help us understand ocean acidification as well as changes in:

  • Distribution and abundance of zooplankton and larval fish
  • Temperature
  • Salinity

Researchers also record observations of seabirds, marine mammals, and sea turtles.

We sampled 111 of 162 planned stations from August 12 to 23 aboard the NOAA Ship Henry B. Bigelow. Sailing was delayed from the originally scheduled departure on August 9 so the vessel could replace an essential crew member on short notice. We completed 68.5 percent of our planned research activities. We dropped stations from New Jersey to North Carolina owing to delayed sailing, and focused on stations in the Gulf of Maine, Georges Bank, and Southern New England.

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries 

American lobster show resilience amid climate change

September 12, 2024 — Experiments conducted at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) have shown that female American lobsters groom their offspring, and the grooming behaviors appear to remain stable despite the temperature and acidity conditions projected for Maine’s coastal waters by the end of the century. A study by researchers at William & Mary’s Batten School of Coastal & Marine Sciences shows that the species may be more resilient to the effects of climate change than previously thought.

The study examines how a changing climate may impact the reproductive success of species that brood or incubate and hatch their eggs. The findings were published in the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series and suggested that American lobsters can handle future ocean changes well, as their egg care and survival rates stayed stable under different conditions through the study’s tests.

Digging into the study

The study’s researchers partnered with the Maine Department of Marine Resources to obtain 24 lobsters from commercial operations for the study for five months. They secured female lobsters at market size with all legs intact, which are commonly lost in the wild.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Why Can’t Killer Whales Find and Capture Food? The Ocean Is too Noisy

September 12, 2024 — New research shows that vessel noise—the rumble and churn of boats and ships—disrupts killer whales’ ability to find and capture food. This can have serious consequences for these whales, especially considering the challenges they already face. The findings were published recently in the scientific journal, Global Change Biology.

How Killer Whales Hunt and Why Noise Matters

Killer whales are sophisticated hunters. They use echolocation, a kind of biological sonar. They emit clicks that bounce off objects, creating echoes that help them “see” with sound. These echoes they receive back are crucial for finding prey, especially fast-moving salmon. The underwater noise made by vessels can be particularly disruptive for animals like killer whales, which rely heavily on sound to accomplish important activities like hunting.

Researchers wanted to know how vessel noise interferes with killer whales’ foraging success. So, they attached special tags to killer whales that recorded their movements and the sounds they made and heard. By comparing these data to noise levels, they could see a clear connection. As the noise from vessels increased, the whales’ foraging success decreased. They spent more time searching for prey, but with less success.

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries 

Thanks to humans, Salish Sea waters are too noisy for resident orcas to hunt successfully

September 11, 2024 — The Salish Sea—the inland coastal waters of Washington and British Columbia—is home to two unique populations of fish-eating orcas, the northern resident and the southern resident orcas. Human activity over much of the 20th century, including reducing salmon runs and capturing orcas for entertainment purposes, decimated their numbers. This century, the northern resident population has steadily grown to more than 300 individuals, but the southern resident population has plateaued at around 75. They remain critically endangered.

New research led by the University of Washington and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has revealed how underwater noise produced by humans may help explain the southern residents’ plight. In a paper published Sept. 10 in Global Change Biology, the team reports that  pollution—from both large and small vessels—forces northern and southern  orcas to expend more time and energy hunting for fis

Read the full article at PHYS.org

Krill harvesting threatens whale recovery

September 11, 2024 — Human harvesting of krill in the Southern Ocean could threaten the recovery of whale species that were nearly wiped out by industrial whaling in the 20th century, according to a Sept. 10 study in Nature Communications.

The tiny, shrimp-like crustaceans known as krill are the essential food source for baleen whales such as blues and humpbacks. To feed, these giant marine mammals take in great gulps of ocean water, filtering krill through bristly mouth structures. Booming demand for krill as fish meal and omega-3 fatty acid nutritional supplements, however, could leave whales without enough victuals to sustain even their diminished numbers.

“Our calculations suggest an alarming possibility that we might harvest krill to the point where we do real damage to recovering whale populations,” said lead study author Matthew Savoca, a research scientist in the lab of Jeremy Goldbogen, associate professor of oceans in the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability.

The results highlight a need for scientists, regulators, and industry to carefully assess the impacts of krill harvesting in the Southern Ocean at current levels before expanding. “With this study, we want to draw

attention to how there likely isn’t enough krill to support fully recovered whale populations, and now on top of that, we’re harvesting krill and plan to harvest more krill in the near future,” said Goldbogen, the study’s senior author.

Read the full article at The Stanford Review

Study offers hope for the resilience of the American lobster fishery

September 11, 2024 — According to a study by researchers at William & Mary’s Batten School of Coastal & Marine Sciences, the American lobster may be more resilient to the effects of climate change than expected. For the first time, experiments performed at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) have documented how female American lobsters groom their offspring, providing evidence that these behaviors are not significantly impacted by temperature and acidity levels forecasted for Maine’s coastal waters by the end of the century.

The findings are published in the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series.

Despite being one of the largest commercial fisheries in the U.S. with an annual economic impact of more than $460 million in Maine alone, few studies have documented the reproductive  of female American lobsters. With the Gulf of Maine warming faster than nearly any other ocean surface on the planet, it’s important to understand how the effects of climate change will impact the sustainability of the species and the fishery it supports.

“Brood grooming by female lobsters has been anecdotally observed, but it had not been quantitatively recorded before,” said Abigail Sisti, who is completing her Ph.D. in Marine Science at the Batten School and is lead author on the study. “In other crustaceans, these behaviors can have a significant impact on the survival of their offspring. Because the environment supporting the lobster fishery is rapidly changing, we wanted to understand how it might impact the way they care for their offspring.”

Female American lobsters can produce thousands of eggs that they hold under their tails for long periods of time, between five to 12 months, as the embryos develop. In other crustaceans, grooming behaviors help clear out parasites, remove dead eggs and facilitate the flow of water carrying oxygen and nutrients through the densely packed egg masses.

The study was part of a larger effort to determine how multiple stressors affect the reproductive success of the species. In this study, the researchers were testing whether increases in  and acidity had an impact on grooming behaviors and embryo survival.

Read the full article at PHYS.org

Just how rare is a rare-colored lobster? Scientists say answer could be under the shell

September 9, 2024 — Orange, blue, calico, two-toned and … cotton-candy colored?

Those are all the hues of lobsters that have showed up in fishers’ traps, supermarket seafood tanks and scientists’ laboratories over the last year. The funky-colored crustaceans inspire headlines that trumpet their rarity, with particularly uncommon baby blue-tinted critters described by some as “cotton-candy colored” often estimated at 1 in 100 million.

WBUR is a nonprofit news organization. Our coverage relies on your financial support. If you value articles like the one you’re reading right now, give today.

A recent wave of these curious colored lobsters in Maine, New York, Colorado and beyond has scientists asking just how atypical the discolored arthropods really are. As is often the case in science, it’s complicated.

Lobsters’ color can vary due to genetic and dietary differences, and estimates about how rare certain colors are should be taken with a grain of salt, said Andrew Goode, lead administrative scientist for the American Lobster Settlement Index at the University of Maine. There is also no definitive source on the occurrence of lobster coloration abnormalities, scientists said.

“Anecdotally, they don’t taste any different either,” Goode said.

In the wild, lobsters typically have a mottled brown appearance, and they turn an orange-red color after they are boiled for eating. Lobsters can have color abnormalities due to mutation of genes that affect the proteins that bind to their shell pigments, Goode said.

Read the full article at wbur

North Carolina Oyster Restoration Project Trains the Next Generation of Marine Scientists

September 9, 2024 — The North Carolina Coastal Federation is taking a new, transformational approach to restoration. They are partnering with the state Division of Marine Fisheries to construct more than 100 acres of oyster reef habitat in the Pamlico Sound. They’re also preparing science students to tackle the country’s conservation and coastal resilience challenges. NOAA’s Office of Habitat Conservation awarded the Federation $14.9 million through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act for this work.

They are partnering with North Carolina State University’s Center for Marine Sciences and Technology (CMAST) and North Carolina Central University (NCCU), a Historically Black University. These partnerships are expanding opportunities for underrepresented students.

“With climate change, sea level rise, and all the other things the environment is experiencing, we need to train the next generation of restoration practitioners,” says Dr. Dave Eggleston, Director of CMAST. “We also know that the more diverse the workforce, the better the ideas generated.”

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries 

In Harpswell Sound, Bowdoin researchers are unlocking the secrets of a red tide hot spot

September 6, 2024 — Collin Roesler wants us to have a better understanding of the algae that cause red tides in Maine.

A professor in the Earth and Oceanographic Science Department at Bowdoin College, she studies phytoplankton, notably Alexandrium fundyense. This single-celled marine plant is the source of a neurotoxin that can contaminate shellfish such as mussels, clams and oysters. People who consume shellfish tainted by the toxin can experience paralytic shellfish poisoning, which can be fatal.

One of her current research projects is focused on Alexandrium in Harpswell Sound and in Lombos Hole, near the head of the sound. Her work is unlocking information that has implications for efforts to monitor and predict serious red tide events.

Read the full article at The Harpswell Anchor

Biden-Harris Administration invests $101.5 million for ocean observing systems

September 5, 2024 — Today, the Department of Commerce and NOAA announced $101.5 million in funding across 12 awards to expand equitable service delivery and support the modernization of the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) Regional Associations. U.S. IOOS supports ongoing data collection in U.S. ocean, coastal and Great Lakes waters and develops infrastructure and tools to make that data accessible. These funds are made possible by the Biden-Harris Administration’s Inflation Reduction Act.

“Thanks to President Biden and Vice President Harris’ ambitious climate agenda, we are giving communities, particularly frontline and underserved communities, the tools and information they need to build resilience to devastating weather and climate disasters,” said U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo. “With this $101.5 million investment, NOAA’s IOOS will be able to improve and deliver critical information and tools to help coastal communities become more resilient to the impacts of climate change.”

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries