Saving Seafood

Warming Gulf of Maine waters may be stunting lobster growth

April 2, 2020 — The Gulf of Maine is warming faster than 99% of the world’s oceans. And the trend may be having an impact on Maine’s most valuable commercial fishery, if temperature affects lobster larvae and their success in growing to adulthood, scientists say.

The University of New England in Biddeford, Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in East Boothbay, the Maine Department of Marine Resources and Hood College in Frederick, Md., have received an $860,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to study that impact.

“We’ll be studying how temperature influences how larvae settle, where they settle and how successfully they settle,” Markus Frederich, a UNE marine science professor helping to lead the project, said in a news release Tuesday. “The findings of this project will help us make more specific predictions of how many lobsters there will be in the Gulf of Maine in the future.”

Maine’s lobster catch was valued at $485.4 million last year, when Maine lobster harvesters landed 100.7 million pounds. It was a 17% decline compared with 2018, but landings still topped the 100-million-pound mark for the ninth year in a row.

Read the full story at MaineBiz

Can kelp help protect shellfish from ocean acidification?

February 27, 2020 — Marine scientist Susie Arnold of the Island Institute will discuss research about kelp farming and ocean acidification Monday, March 9 at 5 p.m. at the MDI Biological Laboratory, as part of the laboratory’s Science Café series.

Maine’s scenic coastlines and long-established fisheries contribute to the state’s economy, making Maine vulnerable to the effects of ocean acidification from both an environmental and socio-economic perspective.

To address this vulnerability, Maine was the first East Coast state to convene a legislatively established commission, tasked with understanding increased ocean acidification and the potential impacts on commercially important species.

Arnold has been part of a joint research effort, undertaken by Island Institute, Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences and aquaculture industry collaborators, to better understand the role of growing and harvesting macroalgae in capturing carbon, and to determine potential benefits of co-cultivating kelp or other macrophytes alongside farmed shellfish.

Read the full story at the Mount Desert Islander

Maine Scientist: Climate Change Is Driving Corals To Cooler Waters. Will They Survive?

July 12, 2019 — Climate change is causing a significant shift in coral reef populations as warmer ocean waters drive them away from the equator, a new scientific study has found.

The study, published this month in the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series, found that young corals on tropical reefs have declined 85 percent over the past four decades, while they have doubled in subtropical waters.

Climate change is the “greatest global threat” to coral reefs as mass coral bleaching and disease outbreaks become more common as the ocean warms, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. But as the coral reefs come under increasing pressure from climate change, they are finding new opportunities to thrive in a changing ocean environment.

“Climate change seems to be redistributing coral reefs, the same way it is shifting many other marine species,” said Nichole Price, a senior research scientist at Maine’s Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences and the lead author of the paper. “The clarity in this trend is stunning, but we don’t yet know whether the new reefs can support the incredible diversity of tropical systems.”

Read the full story at Maine Public

Scientists Sound Alarm After 6 Rare Whale Deaths in a Month

July 5, 2019 — A half-dozen North Atlantic right whales have died in the past month, leading scientists, government officials and conservationists to call for a swift response to protect the endangered species.

There are only a little more than 400 of the right whales left. All six of the dead whales have been found in the Gulf of St. Lawrence off Canada, and at least three appear to have died after they were hit by ships.

The deaths have led scientists to sound the alarm about a potentially catastrophic loss to the population. The deaths are especially troubling because they include females, said Philip Hamilton, research scientist with the Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life at the New England Aquarium.

“If we’re going to have deaths, they just can’t be female,” Hamilton said, adding the population is down to only about 100 reproductive females. “We need a different system.”

Right whales have suffered high mortality and poor reproduction in recent years, particularly in 2017. The whales appear to be traveling in different areas of the ocean than usual because of food availability, said Nick Record, senior research scientist at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in Maine.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The New York Times

Warmed waters linked to diminished food for right whales

June 4, 2019 — Overheated waters pouring into the Gulf of Maine from deep ocean reserves along the Atlantic coast appear to be diminishing the food supply on which North Atlantic right whales rely.

A new report from Oceanography says warming temperatures in the gulf are impacting densities of zooplankton, which the whales rely on for food.

The rapid pace of change near the Bay of Fundy, in particular, now indicates that traditional methods of protecting the whales, including protecting their decadeslong feeding areas, may need to be refined.

“Climate change is outdating many of our conservation and management efforts,” said the report’s lead author, Nicholas Record, a senior research scientist at the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in East Boothbay, Maine.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

Maine: In new cautionary approach, Maine shellfish areas will be closed at first sign of toxins

April 11, 2018 — BOOTHBAY, Maine — Public health officials say they will use extreme caution to manage toxic algae blooms this year to prevent another expensive and potentially dangerous shellfish recall.

In the last two years, sudden toxic algae blooms of a previously unrecorded type of phytoplankton forced the Maine Department of Marine Resources to close huge sections of the Down East coast to shellfish harvesting and to issue rare recalls of tons of clams and mussels from as far away as Utah.

Recalls are bad for public health, business and Maine’s seafood brand, said Kohl Kanwit, head of the department’s public health division, during a workshop Tuesday for harvesters, seafood dealers, regulators and researchers at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in Boothbay.

“The risk is high; you never get 100 percent back” from a recall, Kanwit said. “It is really costly for the industry and bad all around.”

This year, the department isn’t taking any chances as it monitors for pseudo-nitzschia, a single-cell organism that can bloom unexpectedly and make domoic acid, a dangerous biotoxin that may cause amnesic shellfish poisoning, or ASP, in humans and animals. In serious cases, ASP can lead to memory loss, brain damage or even death. The first recorded ASP event, on Prince Edward Island in 1987, killed three people and made at least 100 sick.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

 

NOAA recommends Maine fisheries research projects for $1.5M in funding

June 8, 2017 — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has recommended over $1.5 million in Saltonstall-Kennedy Grant Program funding for six fisheries research projects in Maine.

The goal of the Saltonstall-Kennedy program is to fund projects that address the needs of fishing communities, optimize economic benefits by building and maintaining sustainable fisheries and increase other opportunities to keep working waterfronts viable.

The program has recommended the following projects for funding; final approval is pending:

  • Downeast Institute for Applied Marine Research and Education, $278,000: Demonstrating aquaculture technologies designed to increase the supply, quality and diversification of domestic seafood: Field experiments with cultured arctic surf clams.
  • Gulf of Maine Research Institute, $288,888: Addressing the issue of “Choke” species in a changing climate.
  • Atlantic Offshore Lobstermen’s Association Lobster, $141,092: Migration and growth: Continuation and expansion of 2015 tagging effort on Georges Bank and in the Gulf of Maine.
  • Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, $298,932: A ‘Halo’ for shellfish aquaculture: Discovering the phytoremediation potential of farmed kelp.
  • University of Maine, $299,623: Evaluating the life history and stock structure of yellowfin tuna in the northwest Atlantic Ocean.
  • University of Maine, $275,308: Assessing the potential for sustainability of fishing-dependent communities in coastal Maine in the face of environmental and socioeconomic change.

In a news release announcing the NOAA’s recommendations, U.S Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, characterized the projects as “key to the future of the Gulf of Maine and the thousands of Mainers who make their living from it.”

Read the full story at MaineBiz

Kelp Farming Promises Economic and Ecological Benefits

May 9, 2017 — We tend to think of spring as planting time, but kelp farmers in the Gulf of Maine are in the midst of their annual harvest right now. Growers and ocean researchers say kelp could be a huge win-win-win – improving the local environment, boosting other fisheries, and all while providing a saleable food source.

Ten  years ago, there were no kelp farms in the northeast. Now, there are more than a dozen. So, what gives?

“I think what’s been driving the increase is that the demand for domestically produced seaweed is rapidly growing in the U.S., principally due to American consumers’ increased awareness of the quality of waters where some of their [imported] seaweed may be coming from,” said Paul Dobbins, president of Maine-based kelp distributor Ocean Approved. “And the wild harvest, which has been going on for centuries here along the New England coast, can only provide so much.”

There’s also growing recognition among scientists that farmed seaweed can absorb excess nutrients and carbon dioxide, improving local water quality and boosting nearby fisheries, particularly shellfish. Nichole Price of Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences and Susie Arnold of Island Institute have been working with Dobbins to measure those benefits.

Read the full story at WCAI

Maine Outdoor Heritage Fund Grant Strengthens Public Health Protection, Opportunity for Shellfish Industry

December 2, 2016 — The following was released by the Maine Department of Marine Resources:

A $32,000 grant from the Maine Outdoor Heritage Fund has strengthened Maine Department of Marine Resources’ ability to protect public health and preserve opportunity for Maine’s shellfish industry.

The funds will allow the department to purchase equipment to test for domoic acid, a naturally-occurring biotoxin that can cause serious health risks including amnesic shellfish poisoning (ASP). The equipment will be purchased and DMR staff trained during the upcoming winter months.

While phytoplankton species that cause domoic acid have been detected in Maine waters for years, 2016 was the first year the biotoxin was found in concentrations that could cause adverse health impacts.

Levels of domoic acid detected by DMR’s biotoxin monitoring program in September triggered closures of shellfish harvesting areas between Bar Harbor and the Canadian Border. The event lasted until mid-November when the final closed area was re-opened.

The process of testing for domoic acid involves routine phytoplankton sampling at established sites along the Maine coast throughout the year. The samples are analyzed under a microscope by DMR staff and trained volunteers. If cell counts of the phytoplankton, known as Pseudo-nitzschia, in the water samples reach established levels, a test known as the Scotia Rapid test is conducted to determine if domoic acid is present.

If test results are positive, shellfish sampling in the vicinity begins and shellfish samples are sent to Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences for further confirmation using a method known as high-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC).

If the concentration of biotoxin in the samples reaches a level established by FDA as a baseline for regulatory action, 20 parts per million in the case of domoic acid, the area associated with the toxic shellfish is immediately closed.

“Our partnership with Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences continues to be invaluable,” said Maine DMR Public Health Bureau Director Kohl Kanwit. “We began working with Bigelow Bigelow Laboratory in 2014 to implement HPLC testing for red tide. As a result Maine was the first state in the nation to transition from using mice to test for biotoxins to the more precise HPLC method, which uses chemical analysis instead of live animals,” said Kanwit.

“By transitioning the biotoxin monitoring program to HPLC, DMR is able to respond more effectively to emerging biotoxin threats such as ASP.”

Before HPLC testing was available, the department had no way to test for domoic acid. Instead, notification of possible ASP contamination came to the department from health officials dealing with a potential ASP illness. FDA then tested samples, which could take up to ten days, during which large sections of the Maine coast were closed until results were returned.

In 2012, approximately 50,000 acres of shellfish harvest area on the Maine coast were closed as a precaution for nine days while FDA results were pending. Test results ultimately indicated there were no levels of concern and the areas were reopened.

“HPLC testing by Bigelow Lab was a major improvement for us and for industry,” said Bryant Lewis, the DMR Biologist who wrote the grant and will oversee the project. “The new equipment, which will be housed at the DMR lab in Boothbay Harbor, will further strengthen our ability to deal with this emerging biotoxin.”

Shellfish samples collected as part of the department’s routine biotoxin monitoring program will still go to Bigelow Laboratory for analysis of paralytic shellfish poisoning and diarrhetic shellfish poisoning.

However, samples from areas that are shown by DMR testing to have high Pseudo-nitzschia cell counts and to be positive for domoic acid can be tested immediately with the new DMR equipment. This eliminates the potential need for precautionary closures while waiting for test results from the lab.

“Our partnership with the Bigelow Laboratory enabled us to effectively monitor and manage the ASP event this summer and we will continue to partner with them for routine monitoring,” said Lewis. “This new equipment will improve Maine’s capacity to make rapid, scientifically sound management decisions that protect the health of Maine shellfish consumers while preserving opportunity for Maine’s shellfish industry.”

Warmer waters might prevent baby lobsters from surviving

September 26th, 2016 — Baby lobsters might not be able to survive in the ocean’s waters if the ocean continues to warm at the expected rate.

That is the key finding of a study performed by scientists in Maine, the state most closely associated with lobster, followed by Massachusetts. The scientists, who are affiliated with the University of Maine Darling Marine Center and Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, said the discovery could mean bad news for the future of one of America’s most beloved seafood treats, as well as the industry lobsters support.

The scientists found that lobster larvae struggled to survive when they were reared in water 5 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than the temperatures that are currently typical of the western Gulf of Maine, a key lobster fishing area off of New England. Five degrees is how much the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change expects the Gulf of Maine’s temperature to warm by the year 2100.

The paper appears this month in the scientific journal ICES Journal of Marine Science. It could serve as a wake-up call that the lobster fishery faces a looming climate crisis that is already visible in southern New England, said Jesica Waller, one of the study’s authors.

“There has been a near total collapse in Rhode Island, the southern end of the fishery, and we know our waters are getting warmer,” Waller said. “We are hoping this research can be a jumping off point for more research into how lobsters might do over the next century.”

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The Gloucester Times