Saving Seafood

Species most vulnerable to climate change

April 14, 2024 — NOAA Fisheries’ two new assessments of climate vulnerability for fish species and invertebrates in the Gulf of Mexico and South Atlantic were shared at the end of 2023. While all the species assessed are projected to face significant exposure to climate-driven changes, some are expected to be much more susceptible than others.

John Quinlan, the lead author of the Gulf of Mexico assessment, shared, “These areas are projected to become substantially warmer, saltier, more acidic, and less oxygenated. This means that multiple stressors could operate across the Southeast, and we’ll need to be aware as the system shifts.”

Read the full article at National Fisherman

Developing Alternative Fisheries Management Scenarios to Respond to Climate Change

April 8, 2024 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Seafood is a vitally important source of protein. Worldwide, more than 3 billion people rely on seafood as a significant part of their diets.

The amount that we can sustainably fish and farm is based on historical catches and trends that have been monitored for decades. We need to understand their breeding cycles and growth rates, along with cyclical patterns of ocean currents and climate—and the ecosystems they live in. This allows us to build models that inform sustainable management strategies for harvesting seafood. However, climate change continues to disrupt long-standing expectations, strategies, and the communities that depend on them.

Scientists at the NOAA Fisheries Alaska Fisheries Science Center are collaborating with communities, managers, and other government and academic scientists in the Bering Sea region. They authored a new paper that develops climate-informed management scenarios for fisheries in the eastern Bering Sea.

“Several years ago, we recognized that climate change was going to affect our fisheries in Alaska. So, in 2015, we started a new initiative, the Alaska Climate Integrated Modeling Project, or ACLIM, with the goal of creating climate informed models to help us adapt to a warming planet,” remarks Anne Hollowed, lead author and retired center scientist.

ACLIM is a collaboration among more than 50 interdisciplinary experts that projects and evaluates climate impacts and effective responses for social and ecological systems in and around the Bering Sea. It is also part of NOAA’s Climate, Ecosystems, and Fisheries Initiative (CEFI) to build decision support systems for climate informed decision making in each region.

Kristin Holsman, co-author with the center and co-lead investigator on ACLIM, adds, “The climate change shifts and extreme events that have occurred over the past decade in the North Pacific and Bering Sea really underscore the need for climate innovation in fishery management. ACLIM lets us meaningfully connect cutting-edge science tools and information for fishing communities and resource managers to help prepare for and respond to climate change. The key in this is incorporating social and economic input in addition to biological and oceanographic information.”

The climate-related events that Holsman refers to are the 2015–2016 and 2018–2019 marine heat waves. They caused wide-scale declines in marine species such as snow crabs.

University of Washington scientist and co-author Andre Punt states, “The interdisciplinary nature of ACLIM is what makes it so valuable. Along with NOAA, we have representatives participating from our university, the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council, Native Alaskan communities, international organizations, among others—all dedicated to solving these important issues related to climate change.”

Fishing industry reels over Biden’s destructive wind farm plan: It’s ‘coming at us from every direction’

March 27, 2024 — Time is running out for fishermen and women in the Northeast who fear their industry is being put at risk by the Biden administration’s renewable energy agenda.

“Ground fishermen, lobstermen, whatever you are, you’re under the microscope right now, and it just seems to be something coming at us from every direction,” New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association (NEFSA) COO Dustin Delano said on “The Big Money Show” Monday.

“And with this offshore wind agenda out there to attempt to fight climate change,” he continued, “it’s almost like environmentalists and different folks are willing to destroy the environment to protect the environment.”

Two weeks ago, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), an agency within the Department of Interior, announced the finalization of what is known as a wind energy area (WEA), which is an area of the ocean that would allot for construction of enough wind turbines to produce 32 gigawatts (GW) of energy.

Read the full article at FOX Business

Biden-Harris Administration announces $60 million to advance tribal priorities and address climate change impacts on Pacific salmon and steelhead in the Columbia River

March 23, 2024 — Today, the Department of Commerce and NOAA announced plans to allocate $60 million in funding to advance tribal priorities and address the impacts of climate change on Pacific salmon and steelhead in the Columbia River as part of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda. These funds from the Inflation Reduction Act — the largest climate investment in history —  will also play a crucial role in addressing deferred maintenance and repairs at Mitchell Act-funded hatchery facilities across the Columbia River Basin. 

This funding is consistent with President Biden’s September 2023 Memorandum on Restoring Healthy and Abundant Salmon, Steelhead, and Other Native Fish Populations in the Columbia River Basin and the historic December 14, 2023 agreement between the four lower Columbia River Treaty Tribes, the States of Oregon and Washington (collectively known as the six sovereigns) and the relevant agencies and departments of the United States promising to work together in partnership to restore these species in the Basin.

“This effort aligns with the U.S. government’s commitment to the Columbia Basin Restoration Initiative,” said U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo. “The funding will prioritize tribal initiatives, building upon extensive tribal engagement efforts, to strengthen projects aimed at enhancing climate resilience for tribal fisheries and salmon recovery efforts.”

This funding was first announced in June 2023 as part of the historic $3.3 billion in investments focused on ensuring America’s communities and economies are ready for and resilient to climate change. Of that $3.3 billion, an additional $240 million will support Pacific coastal salmon restoration and recovery through investment in non-Mitchell Act hatcheries, and $42 million will support Pacific salmon populations through the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund and expanded research programs to identify and prioritize restoration strategies. NOAA is also continuing work to reopen migratory pathways and restore access to healthy habitat for fish. 

NOAA Fisheries worked closely with hatchery operators to identify critical deferred maintenance and repairs required for facilities. NOAA collaborated with tribal, state and federal Mitchell Act hatchery program operators to strategize the most effective allocation of funding. Together, these groups identified a range of projects focused on hatchery deferred maintenance and repair activities to ensure the long-term health and sustainability of fisheries in the region.

“This funding from the Inflation Reduction Act reaffirms our commitment to tribal and treaty rights through revitalizing the salmon, steelhead and other native fish populations within the Columbia River Basin,” stated Janet Coit, assistant administrator for NOAA Fisheries. “These funds will support salmon fisheries that have long been the lifeblood of tribes along the Columbia River.”

The Mitchell Act was passed by Congress in 1938 for the conservation of salmon and steelhead fishery resources in the Columbia River Basin in light of hydroelectric, irrigation and flood control development projects across the basin. It authorized the establishment, operation and maintenance of hatchery facilities in Oregon, Washington and Idaho, as well as other fishery conservation activities. Since 1946, Congress has annually appropriated Mitchell Act funds.

Please visit NOAA’s Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law websites to learn about current and future funding opportunities.

CALIFORNIA: Algae bloom fish kills prompt new Bay Area wastewater treatment plant requirements costing $11 billion

March 18, 2024 — Ten years. That’s how much time the Bay Area’s 37 wastewater treatment plants will have to reduce fertilizer and sewage in their water by 40%. The estimated price tag for the facility upgrades is $11 billion.

The San Francisco Regional Water Quality Control Board plans to adopt the change as part of its new discharge permit requirement beginning June 12. Previous permits did not require reductions, according to Lorien Fono, executive director of the Bay Area Clean Water Agencies, which oversees the region’s wastewater treatment plants. She spoke from the Oro Loma Sanitary District in San Lorenzo on Thursday. The facility is considered a model for upgrades.

The regulatory change follows a damaging algae bloom in 2022 and 2023. A brown algae species called Heterosigma akashiwo, which feeds off the nitrogen in wastewater, infected the Bay and damaged aquatic ecosystems.

Read the full article at CBS News

Last month was hottest February ever recorded. It’s the ninth-straight broken record

March 9, 2024 — For the ninth straight month, Earth has obliterated global heat records — with February, the winter as a whole and the world’s oceans setting new high-temperature marks, according to the European Union climate agency Copernicus.

The latest record-breaking in this climate change-fueled global hot streak includes sea surface temperatures that weren’t just the hottest for February, but eclipsed any month on record, soaring past August 2023’s mark and still rising at the end of the month. And February, as well the previous two winter months, soared well past the internationally set threshold for long-term warming, Copernicus reported Wednesday.

The last month that didn’t set a record for hottest month was in May 2023 and that was a close third to 2020 and 2016. Copernicus records have fallen regularly from June on.

February 2024 averaged 13.54 degrees Celsius (56.37 degrees Fahrenheit), breaking the old record from 2016 by about an eighth of a degree. February was 1.77 degrees Celsius (3.19 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than the late 19th century, Copernicus calculated. Only last December was more above pre-industrial levels for the month than February was.

Read the full the Associated Press

Researchers release global database to understand climate impacts on ocean predators

March 9, 2024 — A cross-border science collaboration has yielded a global database that will help researchers understand how climate change is affecting ocean predators like the albacore tuna — which also happens to be an important food source for people around the world.

“Climate change is shifting where species can live, and the pace of change is most intense in the ocean,” says Stephanie Green, associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences and Canada Research Chair in Aquatic Global Change Ecology and Conservation.

“Our big questions are where will marine species go, and what will it mean for communities that rely on the fisheries they support?”

To tackle these questions, researchers at the University of Alberta are collaborating with colleagues in the United States to discover how top predators will respond to climate extremes and changing prey over the coming decades.

Wind and currents in the Pacific Ocean make the west coast of Canada and the United States an attractive feeding ground for migrating predators like tuna where they support lucrative fisheries, and also a hotbed of climate impacts.

The team honed in on albacore tuna, a torpedo-shaped predator known to eat hundreds of different species around the world and whose harvest is regulated by a treaty between the United States and Canada

Read the full article at the University of Alberta 

Catch dips as lobster fishers grapple with climate change, whale rules

March 7, 2024 — America’s lobster fishing business dipped in catch while grappling with challenges including a changing ocean environment and new rules designed to protect rare whales.

The lobster industry, based mostly in Maine, has had an unprecedented decade in terms of the volume and value of the lobsters brought to the docks. But members of the industry have also said they face existential threats from proposed rules intended to protect the North Atlantic right whale and climate change that is influencing where lobsters can be trapped.

Fishermen from Massachusetts, Rhode Island and other Northeast states also harvest lobsters with traps from the cold waters of the Atlantic Ocean, but about 80% comes to the docks in Maine in a typical years.

Maine fishermen’s catch in 2023 fell more than 5% from the year that preceded it, and the total of 93.7 million pounds of lobsters caught was the lowest figure since 2009, according to data released Friday by the Maine Department of Marine

Read the full article at The Daily News

What is a whale native to the North Pacific doing off New England? Climate change could be the key

March 6, 2024 — Scientists have confirmed the presence of a whale off New England that went extinct in the Atlantic Ocean two centuries ago — an exciting discovery, but one they said that illustrates the impact of climate change on sea life.

Researchers with the New England Aquarium in Boston found the gray whale while flying 30 miles south of Nantucket, Massachusetts, on March 1. The whale, which can weigh 60,000 pounds (27,215 kilograms), typically lives in the northern Pacific Ocean.

The gray whale vanished from the Atlantic Ocean by the 18th century, but there have been five observations of the animal in Atlantic and Mediterranean waters in the last 15 years, the aquarium said in a statement. The whale found this month was likely the same animal spotted in Florida late last year, the aquarium said.

The researchers who found the animal off Massachusetts said they were skeptical at first, but after circling the area for 45 minutes, they were able to take photographs that confirmed it was indeed a gray whale.

Read the full article at the Associated Press

Exclusive: World on brink of fourth mass coral reef bleaching event, NOAA says

March 5, 2024 — The world is on the verge of a fourth mass coral bleaching event which could see wide swathes of tropical reefs die, including parts of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said.

Marine biologists are on high alert following months of record-breaking ocean heat fuelled by climate change and the El Nino climate pattern.

“It’s looking like the entirety of the Southern Hemisphere is probably going to bleach this year,” said ecologist Derek Manzello, the coordinator of NOAA’s Coral Reef Watch which serves as the global monitoring authority on coral bleaching risk.

Read the full article at Reuters