Saving Seafood

Study offers first definitive proof that Gulf Stream has weakened

October 10, 2023 — New research from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution offers the first conclusive evidence that the Gulf Stream has weakened. The powerful ocean current off the East Coast influences regional weather, climate and fisheries, and the finding could have significant implications both for New England and the global climate.

This study “deals with a really, really crucial topic right now,” said Glen Gawarkiewicz, a senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) who was not involved with the study. He said that a shifting Gulf Stream is already having a profound effect on East Coast fisheries, bringing more warm water fish into the area and disrupting seasonal patterns of fish and squid movement. And it has been unclear whether, or how much, the current is slowing down.”We really need to figure out how and why the Gulf Stream is changing.”

Researchers drew on three sets of long-term measurements in the Florida straits, where the Gulf Stream originates. The study found that the Gulf Stream slowed by 4% over the last forty years.

Read the full article at wbur

The U.S. South Atlantic Marine Ecosystem: An Ecosystem In Transition

December 13, 2021 — Today, NOAA released the first U.S. South Atlantic Ecosystem Status Report. This report gives an overview of the current status and long-term trends of key marine ecosystem indicators. Some of the trends it examines are:

  • Sea surface temperature
  • Ocean acidification
  • Gulf Stream dynamics
  • Status of fish communities and harvested stocks
  • Trends in protected species
  • Recreational fishing pressure

This report provides a look at the ecosystem as a whole, rather than its individual parts. This helps resource managers, such as the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council, scientists, and other partners understand how the ecosystem is connected and is changing. The report provides a holistic assessment of the ecosystem that can be used to inform management and policy decisions.

“Having one place for scientific information on the entire marine ecosystem is crucial to enhancing our understanding of how the ecosystem functions and may be changing over time,” said Kevin Craig, Research Fishery Biologist at NOAA’s Southeast Fisheries Science Center. “This is needed to effectively manage the many resources the ecosystem provides, including support for economically valuable fisheries. We all need to see the whole picture, not just one piece.”

Read the full story from NOAA Fisheries

Scientists see stronger evidence of slowing Atlantic Ocean circulation, an ‘Achilles’ heel’ of the climate

February 26, 2021 — A growing body of evidence suggests that a massive change is underway in the sensitive circulation system of the Atlantic Ocean, a group of scientists said Thursday.

The Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC), a system of currents that includes the Florida Current and the Gulf Stream, is now “in its weakest state in over a millennium,” these experts say. This has implications for everything from the climate of Europe to the rates of sea-level rise along the U.S. East Coast.

Although evidence of the system’s weakening has been published before, the new research cites 11 sources of “proxy” evidence of the circulation’s strength, including clues hidden in seafloor mud as well as patterns of ocean temperatures. The enormous flow has been directly measured only since 2004, too short a period to definitively establish a trend, which makes these indirect measures critical for understanding its behavior.

The new research applies a statistical analysis to show that those measures are in sync and that nine out of 11 show a clear trend.

Prior research had suggested that the AMOC was at its weakest point in a millennium or more, and suggested a roughly 15 percent weakening since about 1950. But when it comes to the latest evidence, “I think it just makes this conclusion considerably stronger,” said Stefan Rahmstorf, an author of the research and an oceanographer with the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany.

The study was published in Nature Geoscience by scientists from the Potsdam Institute, Ireland’s Maynooth University and University College London.

The AMOC is driven by two vital components of ocean water: temperature and salt. In the North Atlantic, warm, salty water flows northward off the U.S. coastline, carrying heat from the tropics. But as it reaches the middle latitudes, it cools, and around Greenland, the cooling and the saltiness create enough density that the water begins to sink deep beneath the surface.

Read the full story at The Washington Post

RHODE ISLAND: More Tropical Fish Arriving in Narragansett Bay Earlier

August 18, 2016 — When a tropical fish called a crevalle jack turned up this summer in the Narragansett Bay trawl survey, which the University of Rhode Island conducts weekly, it was the first time the species was detected in the more than 50 years that the survey has taken place.

The Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management’s seine survey of fish in Rhode Island waters also captured a crevalle jack this year for the first time.

While it’s unusual that both institutions would capture a fish they had never recorded in the bay before, it’s not unusual that fish from the tropics are finding their way to the Ocean State. In fact, fish from Florida, the Bahamas and the Caribbean have been known to turn up in local waters in late summer every year for decades. But lately they’ve been showing up earlier in the season and in larger numbers, which is raising questions among those who pay attention to such things.

“There’s been a lot of speculation about how they get here,” said Jeremy Collie, the URI oceanography professor who manages the weekly trawl survey. “Most of them aren’t particularly good swimmers, so they probably didn’t swim here. They don’t say, ‘It’s August, so let’s go on vacation to New England.’ They’re not capable of long migrations.”

Instead, fish eggs and larvae and occasionally adult fish are believed to arrive in late summer on eddies of warm water that break from the Gulf Stream. Collie said they “probably hitch a ride” on sargassum weed or other bits of seaweed that the currents carry toward Narragansett Bay.

Most of these tropical species, including spotfin butterflyfish, damselfish, short bigeye, burrfish and several varieties of grouper, don’t survive long in the region. When the water begins to get cold in November, almost all perish.

Read the full story at ecoRI

Changing Ocean Topic Draws Record Crowd

March 30, 2016 — ROCKPORT, Maine — More than 350 fishermen and others attended a Maine Fishermen’s Forum session, March 3, that focused on the changes fishermen are seeing in the water.

The three-hour event featured a panel of nine speakers and a standing-room-only audience, one of the largest in the 41-year history of the forum. Topics ranged from water temperatures to migrating species. Participants ranged from fishermen with 50 years on the water to marine scientists with the latest data on a changed ocean in the Gulf of Maine. Organizers titled the event “Changing Oceans” and encouraged discussion to revolve around how fishermen might deal with a changing reality.

Cutler lobsterman, and one of the organizers of the program, Kristen Porter said, “We wanted to focus attention on what we can do about working in a changed ocean, rather than debate the causes and who is at fault.” Scientists presented data to verify what fishermen have reported seeing.

Gulf of Maine Research Institute (GMRI) scientist Andy Pershing said, “Climate is what you expect. Weather is what you get.”

Pershing said there has been a lot of variability in the weather since 1980 and the Gulf of Maine has been the most variable water body on the planet. Water temperatures warmed in 2012 and took off. And the Gulf of Maine is experiencing changes in air, salinity, and Gulf Stream currents as well, according to NOAA ecosystem data.

Read the full story at Fishermen’s Voice

New Delware Natural Resources video reveals strong glass eel count

March 9, 2016 — DOVER — The American eel would seem one of the slipperiest species on which to get a population handle, but a new DNREC YouTube Channel video shows otherwise — with Division of Fish & Wildlife biologists conducting a survey of young “glass eels” tallied thousands at a time by “enumerating them volumetrically” with a device known as a splitter box.

On a single splitter capture, as DNREC’s YouTube Channel documented the effort, more than 7,000 eels were counted — which fisheries biologist Jordan Zimmerman said indicated a good abundance of American eels in the Delaware Estuary (a survey day earlier this year turned up 65,000 glass eels, while another day’s count in a recent year reached almost 100,000).

The glass eel count program was established as a fisheries management plan tool for monitoring reproduction in the American eel. “Glass eels” are another stage of the American eel’s life cycle, first stage being the egg, which hatches into larvae drifting on the Gulf Stream and eventually metamorphosing to the glass eel stage and swimming toward shore and the estuaries.

Read the full story at Delaware State News

North Carolina coast included in potential off-shore drilling plan

February 10, 2016 — There might be no Kure for North Carolina’s off-shore drilling problem. One of eight potential planning areas for drilling — as part of the national 2017-22 Oil and Gas Leasing Program — will be off the coast of Kure Beach, North Carolina. This plan, if approved, would drill about 80 percent of the estimated undiscovered, technically available oil and gas resources within the United States.  Residents of Kure Beach are concerned for a drilling accident that could parallel the Deepwater Horizon incident in 2010.  David Rogers, state director of Environment North Carolina, said this plan has downsides if it is approved.

“Number one, there is a multitude of marine mammals and fish species that rely on this area,” Rogers said. “Number two, this area relies on tourism and people come from all over the world to visit our beaches. The possibility of a spill will be devastating and destroy the tourist industry.” Steve Ross, a research professor at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, said the geology of the area is also important to consider when thinking about drilling.  “Drilling in the Gulf Stream, in hurricane zone and in deep water, is risky,” Ross said. “Drilling in high currents and deep water is dangerous and the possibilities of accidents can go up.” Economically, off-shore drilling could also jeopardize the coastal areas of North Carolina and ruin economies if an accident were to occur. “The coastal North Carolina economy is based on tourism and vibrant fishing economy,” said Mike Giles, a coastal advocate for the North Carolina Coastal Federation. “An accident would affect the entire east coast of North Carolina, so over 100 municipalities on the east coast have come up opposing off shore drilling.”

Read the full story at the Daily Tar Heel