Saving Seafood

Underwater pile driving noise causes alarm responses in squid

December 17, 2019 — Exposure to underwater pile driving noise, which can be associated with the construction of docks, piers, and offshore wind farms, causes squid to exhibit strong alarm behaviors, according to a study by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) researchers published Dec. 16, 2019, in the journal Marine Pollution Bulletin.

“This study is the first to report behavioral effects of pile driving noise on any cephalopod, a group including squid, cuttlefish, and octopuses,” says lead author Ian Jones, a student in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology-Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Joint Program in Oceanography.

Squid use natural alarm and defense behaviors like inking, jetting, and changing color and patterns on their skin for communication and also for survival when they’re trying to avoid capture. Squids’ changeable skin gives them the ability to create extraordinary camouflage, enabling them to blend into the background and avoid becoming a meal.

Jones and his colleagues in the Sensory Ecology and Bioacoustics Lab at WHOI exposed longfin squid (Doryteuthis pealeii) to pile driving sounds originally recorded near the construction site of the Block Island Wind Farm in Rhode Island. The squid exhibited the same types of natural alarm and defense behaviors when they were exposed to the noises, but it’s what they did next that surprised the researcher team.

“The alarm behaviors occurred within the first several noise impulses, but they diminished quickly within the first minute of playback,” Jones says. “That suggests a learned lack of response to the noise, as the squid perceive the noise stimulus may not pose an immediate threat, unlike the imminent threat of a nearby predator. This phenomenon is called habituation.”

Read the full story at Science Daily

New paper shows evidence of tuna spawning in marine protected areas

August 30, 2019 — New research showed that there is evidence of tuna spawning inside the large marine protected area of the Phoenix Islands in the Pacific nation of Kiribati.

The research conducted by MIT and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution points to evidence that marine protected areas (MPAs) can play a critical role in protecting adult fish, including highly migratory species such as tuna, during spawning.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Chinese Hackers Target Universities in Pursuit of Maritime Military Secrets

March 5, 2019 — Chinese hackers have targeted more than two dozen universities in the U.S. and around the globe as part of an elaborate scheme to steal research about maritime technology being developed for military use, according to cybersecurity experts and current and former U.S. officials.

The University of Hawaii, the University of Washington and Massachusetts Institute of Technology are among at least 27 universities in the U.S., Canada and Southeast Asia that Beijing has targeted, according to iDefense, a cybersecurity intelligence unit of Accenture Security.

The research, to be published this week, is the latest indication that Chinese cyberattacks to steal U.S. military and economic secrets are on the rise. The findings, reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, name a substantial list of university targets for the first time, reflecting the breadth and nature of the ongoing cyber campaign that iDefense said dates to at least April 2017.

Chinese officials didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, but have denied that they engage in cyberattacks.

Read the full story at the Wall Street Journal

Trump’s pick to head White House science office gets good reviews

August 2, 2018 — The long wait for a White House science adviser is over. President Donald Trump announced today that he intends to nominate meteorologist Kelvin Droegemeier, a university administrator and former vice-chair of the governing board of the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), to be director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). The OSTP director traditionally, but not always, also holds the title of the president’s science adviser.

The move caps a search process of record-setting length—nearly 560 days, double the longest time taken by any other modern president to name an OSTP director. Many in the research community had lamented the delay. But the wait may have been worth it: Droegemeier, a respected veteran of the Washington, D.C., policymaking scene, is getting positive reviews from science and university groups.

“He’s a very good pick. … He has experience speaking science to power,” says environmental policy expert John Holdren, who served as science adviser under former President Barack Obama and is now at Harvard University. “I expect he’ll be energetic in defending the R&D budget and climate change research in particular.”

Maria Zuber, a planetary geophysicist and vice president for research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, agrees that Droegemeier will stand up for climate science. “He always has. I see no reason why he wouldn’t now.” But she says his style is not confrontational. “He’s a good old boy. He wears cowboy boots. … He’s a personable guy.” She adds that “he’s got solid conservative credentials,” noting that his web page is emblazoned with “God Bless America!!!”

“He is an excellent choice,” says Tobin Smith, vice president for policy at the Association of American Universities in Washington, D.C. “He has a strong understanding of issues of concern to research universities.”

“Kelvin is a solid scientist, excellent with people, and with deep experience with large bureaucracies,” says Cliff Mass, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Washington in Seattle. “A moderate voice that won’t politicize the science.”

Droegemeier, who has served on the faculty of The University of Oklahoma (OU) in Norman for 33 years and been the school’s vice president for research since 2009, has long been rumored to be in the running for the OSTP job, which entails advising the president on technical issues and overseeing coordination of federal science policy. He is no stranger to Washington, D.C.; then-President George W. Bush named him to the National Science Board, which oversees NSF, in 2004, and Obama reappointed him in 2011. He served as the board’s vice-chair from 2014 to 2017.

Read the full story at Science Magazine

 

Hawaii Volcano’s Impact on Marine Life to be Studied by Ocean Robots

June 28, 2018 — SEAFOOD NEWS — Liquid Robotics, the creator of the first wave and solar powered unmanned ocean robot, is using their technology to collect data from where lava from Hawaii’s Kilauea Volcano is entering the ocean.

The company announced earlier this week that they are deploying two of their ocean robots, called Wave Gliders, to “study the effects of the lava entering the ocean, the plume it creates and the interactions of the lava and seawater directly from the surface of the ocean.”

Kilauea began erupting in early May, forcing evacuations of the Leilani Estates and Lanipuna subdivisions. By the end of the month the lava flow reached the Pacific Ocean, creating a thick and hazardous cloud where the lava hit the water. Residents of Hawaii’s Big Island were warned about the toxic volcanic gas emissions, but now Liquid Robotics will be able to give a better idea of how the volcanic eruptions and lava flow are affecting marine life, including coral reefs and fish populations.

“The effect of this massive lava flow entering the ocean is dramatic and amazing, but at the same time somewhat mysterious,” Roger Hine, CTO and co-founder of Liquid Robotics said in a statement. “Detailed measurements of the ocean plume and the ecosystems it impacts are now possible and safe to obtain with unmanned systems like our Wave Gliders. This is an opportunity of a lifetime to deploy our ocean robots to help advance science.”

The Wave Gliders will get approximately 300+m from the lava flow plume and collect “rare subsurface, surface and atmospheric data.” The ocean robots will be able to collect data on water temperatures, oxygen levels, pH levels, salinity, turbidity, conductivity and underwater acoustics. Researchers from the University of Hawai’i at Hilo, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the U.S. Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory will be looking at the data.

“The plume of hot, sediment-laden water generated by lava flowing into the ocean spreads out, impacting surrounding ecosystems and permitted boaters operating in the area,” the University of Hawai’i at Hilo’s Dr. Steve Colbert explained. “We don’t know how far and deep that plume extends, or how it changes the oceanographic conditions or changes in the flow of lava. The Wave Gliders provide us the opportunity to answer these important questions.”

This story originally appeared on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.