Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences Archives

Changes in Gulf of Maine may endanger lucrative fish stocks, experts say

July 8 2022 — Scientists have known the Gulf of Maine is warming rapidly, but new research suggests it’s also getting saltier, more acidic and increasingly stratified — raising concerns for its fish stocks.

The dramatic shifts in the gulf’s biochemistry are raising questions about the future of a region that has historically produced some of the world’s richest fish stocks — from cod to lobsters — and has built billion-dollar industries around them.

“We found that primary productivity, the rate at which the phytoplankton is fixing carbon in the ocean, has dropped to about a third of what it was in the early 2000s,” Barney Balch, a biological oceanographer and senior researcher at the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, told UPI. “That really raised alarm bells with us.”

According to Balch, decreases in primary productivity — the carbon fixing — may affect life in the gulf from phytoplankton all the way up the food chain, including fish that humans eat.

For more than 20 years, Balch and his research partners have been helping NASA calibrate and validate ocean surface temperature data collected by the agency’s polar-orbit satellites.

Many researchers have pointed to the Gulf of Maine as one of the world’s most rapidly warming bodies of water, but Balch’s paper, published this month in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, is one of first to showcase the full scope of the gulf’s regime change.

While it’s not yet clear how these changes will impact the region’s ecosystems, data collected by Balch’s team suggest the base of the marine food web in the gulf is in the midst of a transformation.

Over the last 30 years, warming has mostly proven a boon to lobsters in the Gulf of Maine, especially in places, like the Penobscot Bay and the Bay of Fundy, that were historically on the chillier side of a lobster’s comfort zone.

And though Balch isn’t privy to the data being collected by Wahle and his research partners, he says it’s not a stretch to hypothesize that declines in diatoms, a primary source of nutrients for copepods, are likely to have ripple effects up the food chain — ripple effects that will ultimately impact the lobsters and some number of other fisheries.

Read the full story at UPI

NASA-funded Study: Gulf of Maine’s Phytoplankton Productivity Down 65%

June 8, 2022 — The Gulf of Maine is growing increasingly warm and salty, due to ocean currents pushing warm water into the gulf from the Northwest Atlantic, according to a new NASA-funded study. These temperature and salinity changes have led to a substantial decrease in the productivity of phytoplankton that serve as the basis of the marine food web. Specifically, phytoplankton are about 65% less productive in the Gulf of Maine than they were two decades ago, scientists at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in East Boothbay, Maine, report in new results published today.

The Gulf of Maine helps fuel New England’s marine ecosystems and economy. Like plants on land, phytoplankton absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and use photosynthesis to grow, and then become a food source for other organisms. Disruptions to their productivity can lead to adverse effects on the region’s fisheries and the communities that depend on them.

“Phytoplankton are at the base of the marine food web on which all of life in the ocean depends, so it’s incredibly [significant] that its productivity has decreased,” says William Balch, the Bigelow Laboratory scientist who led the study. “A drop [of] 65% will undoubtedly have an effect on the carbon flowing through the marine food web, through phytoplankton-eating zooplankton and up to fish and apex predators.”

Read the full story from NASA

Scientists want to use artificial intelligence to save Maine’s coast

October 13, 2021 — Forecasting isn’t just for weather. A new center at Bigelow Laboratory is using cutting-edge artificial intelligence algorithms to forecast ocean activity, from toxic algal blooms to right whale migration, with the hopes of benefitting both coastal industries and the environment.

“There’s a big demand for forecasting. People are expecting forecasts of all different kinds now, from COVID forecasts to political forecasts,” said Nick Record, a senior research scientist at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in East Boothbay. “We’re trying to tap into this societal need and demand for forecasts and apply it to ocean systems that we live in and rely on.”

The ability to accurately forecast complex ocean dynamics alone, such as temperature and salinity, is useful for the industries that use the coastline and the scientists that study it. With artificial intelligence, though, these forecasts will be constantly improving in accuracy even as the climate changes — and, with it, Maine’s ability to adapt to the changing coastline will improve as well.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

MAINE: As gulf waters warm, could quahogs be the next big shellfish product?

August 20, 2021 — A new research project is trying to determine whether a species of hard-shell clam, quahogs, can thrive in enough abundance off Maine’s coast to make for a new business opportunity.

The Brunswick office of Manomet, an environmental research nonprofit headquartered in Plymouth, Mass., is partnering with the University of Maine and the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in East Boothbay to study the presence of quahog DNA in the water column.

Determining the level of DNA is considered useful to understanding to what extent the clams are making themselves at home in the gulf.

The study of DNA in this context is called “eDNA” or “environmental DNA,” Marissa McMahan, a senior fisheries scientist with the Brunswick branch of Manomet, told Mainebiz.

Read the full story at MaineBiz

‘eDNA’ is taking a new look at Maine’s ocean ecosystem

August 12, 2021 — It’s no secret that the Gulf of Maine has been warming in recent years. While the rise in temperature is a concern for some ocean species like lobster, it’s a more suitable environment for others, like quahogs.

The hard-shell clam can be found up and down the east coast but Director of Fisheries at Manomet Marissa McMahan said quahogs could thrive and spawn in Maine.

In 2018, Manomet and the town of Georgetown’s Shellfish Conservation Committee brought 50,000 adult quahogs to Robinhood Cove in hopes of creating a self-sustaining population.

On Tuesday, it was time to use environmental, or ‘eDNA’ to check and see if there was an abundance of the species and if any spawning occurred.

“If this technology can in fact tell us about shellfish spawning events then that’s something that we can utilize in shellfish management and conservation coast-wide,” McMahan said.

Working in partnership with the University of Maine and Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, the scientists collected water samples at various depths around the cove.

Read the full story at News Center Maine

Lobster research explores ocean warming effects

February 22, 2021 — A team of researchers from the University of Maine’s Darling Marine Center in Walpole and Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in East Boothbay and the Maine Department of Marine Resources in West Boothbay Harbor recently published their research on the effects of ocean warming and acidification on gene expression in the earliest life stages of the American lobster.

The work was published in the scientific journal Ecology and Evolution with collaborators from the University of Prince Edward Island and Dalhousie University in Canada.

The team’s experiments examined the gene regulatory response of post-larval lobsters to the separate and combined effects of warming and acidification anticipated by the end of the 21st century. They found that genes regulating a range of physiological functions, from those controlling shell formation to the immune response, are either up- or down-regulated. Importantly, they observed that the two stressors combined induced a greater gene regulatory response than either stressor alone.

Read the full story at The Ellsworth American

Research illuminates lobsters’ genetic response to changing climate

January 29, 2021 — The American lobster, which supports the most valuable fishery in North America, may be more susceptible to the effects of climate change than previously thought, according to a new study published in Ecology and Evolution. This finding could help fishery managers anticipate the long-term effects of climate change for one the nation’s most precious natural resources.

The American lobster’s range extends from Atlantic Canada to the mid-Atlantic waters of the United States, but increased carbon dioxide emissions by humans are warming and acidifying their ocean habitat.

To date, studies of the early life stages of lobsters have concluded that ocean acidification, compared to warming, had relatively limited impact on growth and metabolism. However, according to the new publication, their genes tell a different story.

“Our study indicated that acidification is affecting these lobsters on a molecular scale,” said Maura Niemisto, lead author and research associate at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences. “Because of environmental changes, they have genes firing at an even higher rate.”

Read the full story at PHYS.org

MAINE: Microplastics are harming the Gulf of Maine’s baby lobsters, study finds

July 14, 2020 — A study by scientists at a marine research laboratory indicates that plastic pollution in the Gulf of Maine likely is creating problems for the lobster population.

Researchers at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in Boothbay examined how microplastics — pieces of plastic broken down into tiny particles — affect lobster larvae in the gulf. They found that lobster larvae, which float in the water column and typically are found in shallow water, get fibers caught under their shells and sometimes ingest particles.

The issue of pollution in the Gulf of Maine, where millions of pounds of lobster fishing gear is deployed each year, has environmental and economic implications for Maine. The commercial statewide lobster harvest in 2019 alone accounted for more than $485 million in fishing revenue in the state, nearly three-quarters of all of Maine’s fisheries landings value that year.

The study, published in the scientific journal Marine Pollution Bulletin, showed young larvae are more likely to get microplastic fibers trapped under their shells that protect their gills, and were the least likely to survive heavy concentrations of microplastics. Older larvae had less fiber accumulation under their shells but were shown to ingest the plastic, which could pose health consequences as they get older.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

Maine to collect ocean acidification data with new sensors

May 26, 2020 — Maine marine officials said three new sensors installed in a coastal community will help scientists get a better understanding of ocean acidifcation.

The growing acid levels in the ocean are a hazard for some kinds of sea life, including some of those sought by Maine fishermen. Scientists have linked acidification to factors that also drive climate change.

The Maine Department of Marine Resources said it has installed the three sensors in Boothbay Harbor. The department said the sensors will help researchers get a better understanding of how ocean acidification and dissolved oxygen levels can change the health of the state’s marine life and ecosystems.

Read the full story at the Associated Press

University of New England Shares NSF Grant on Lobsters and Climate Change

April 7, 2020 — A study on how warming ocean water impacts the early life stages of lobster will bring together two undergraduate colleges, a premier research institution, and a state agency.

The University of New England applied for the $860,000 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and intends to share it with Hood College in Maryland, Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, and the Maine Department of Marine Resources.

Read the full story at Seafood News