Saving Seafood

WASHINGTON: NOAA’s Mukilteo waterfront fish lab won’t be rebuilt

February 25, 2021 — That waterfront is losing more than an important eyesore.

Plans were scrapped when bids came in too high for a new Mukilteo Research Station to replace the weathered two-story hovel where scientists studied climate change effects, ocean acidification and impacts on fish health.

“We sought contractor bids to rebuild the facility on-site. Unfortunately, the bids greatly exceeded the funds available for the project,” Michael Milstein, a spokesperson for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said Wednesday. He would not give any bid figures.

The future of the 1.1-acre federal property on Front Street is uncertain. It could possibly end up in private hands and become condos or a parking lot.

Read the full story at The Daily Herald

Nearby Vessels Interrupt Feeding of Southern Resident Killer Whales, Especially Females

January 13, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Boat traffic within 400 yards of endangered Southern Resident killer whales interrupts their foraging, often leading female whales to cease feeding altogether. That is a key finding from a new analysis of data from suction-cup tags that track the whales’ movement underwater.

Previous research observed surface behavior of the killer whales in response to vessels, while the tags allow researchers to discern their behavior during extended dives underwater. This data shows that nearby vessel traffic inhibits their underwater foraging as much or more than what scientists previously documented at the surface. These new results were published in Frontiers in Marine Science.

“We found a bigger effect in females, and that effect was more often that they gave up foraging if vessels encroached on them,” said research scientist Marla Holt at NOAA Fisheries’ Northwest Fisheries Science Center. The analysis examined whale behavior over 3 years. It included years before and after the 2011 enactment of federal regulations limiting how close vessels can approach killer whales in Washington’s inland waters.

The outsize effect of vessel traffic on female whales “could have cascading effects on the ability to meet energetic requirements to support reproductive efforts,” the scientists reported. “This is particularly concerning in an endangered population that is in decline.”

Read the full release here

Study documents ‘climate shock’ to Dungeness crab fishery

January 8, 2021 — The North Pacific marine heat wave of 2014 to 2016 and subsequent algae bloom severely tested California fishing communities dependent on Dungeness crab – and demonstrated how they could adapt to sudden climate changes, according to a new study by West Coast scientists.

The bloom produced high levels of the biotoxin domoic acid, forcing a delay in the 2015-2016 crab season when “roughly two-thirds of all vessels stopped fishing temporarily while others switched to different fisheries or moved to more favorable locations,” according to a summary from Oregon State University, where researchers worked with colleagues at the University of Washington and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center.

The study used network analysis to examine impacts from the season delays across fisheries, and understand how seven affected fishing communities responded, according to James Watson, one of the study’s co-authors and an assistant professor at OSU’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Use of ocean resources changed as Dungeness crab fishing industry adapted to climate shock event

January 6, 2021 — An unprecedented marine heat wave that led to a massive harmful algal bloom and a lengthy closure of the West Coast Dungeness crab fishery significantly altered the use of ocean resources across seven California crab-fishing communities.

The delayed opening of the 2015-16 crab-fishing season followed the 2014-16 North Pacific marine heat wave and subsequent algal bloom. The bloom produced high levels of the biotoxin domoic acid, which can accumulate in  and render them hazardous for human consumption.

That event, which is considered a “climate shock” because of its severity and impact, tested the resilience of California’s fishing communities, researchers from Oregon State University, the University of Washington and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center found.

The study is the first to examine impacts from such delays across fisheries, providing insight into the response by the affected fishing communities, said James Watson, one of the study’s co-authors and an assistant professor in OSU’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences.

Read the full story at PHYS.org

Pathway to Paperless Data Collection

October 28, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

The information collected by observers and at-sea monitors is essential to successful science-based fisheries management. Gathering and recording accurate data while aboard a vessel is challenging work. It’s the first step in a much longer process of validating and integrating the data for use by scientists and managers.

Historically, observers have collected data on paper forms for manual processing, but many programs are moving the entire data collection process to a paperless system. This improves cost and timing efficiencies while reducing potential errors in the data itself. Our Northwest Fisheries Science Center has put a new paperless system to the test, and the lessons learned can inform other projects across the country.

The program has traditionally used paper-based data collection and documentation of fishery catch weights (e.g., groundfish, shrimp, midwater species) for trawl and fixed-gear, rod and reel, longline, and other gear types.

In the paper-based process, the information is calculated, entered into an offline database while at sea, and then synced to an online database once on land. Then, observer program staff review the data, consider edits or corrections, and if necessary, require resubmissions before the data becomes available to end-users.

To address their goals to streamline the traditional workflow, the observer program has been developing a system that includes data entry into a handheld device. This eliminates error-prone processes like transcription and calculation, and enables electronic data archiving.

“Improvements to our data collection process resulted in faster data turnaround and catch quota updates for vessels that participated in our program,” says Jason Eibner, a former observer who has worked for 12 years at the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, Oregon, part of our Northwest Fisheries Science Center.

“We realized that a paperless electronic data collection system would help us work even more efficiently by removing the most tedious and time-consuming steps. At the same time, we’re increasing data accuracy and providing our observers with some deserved down time in the field,” added Eibner.

Read the full release here

Video Research Investigates Effects of Shellfish Farming on West Coast Nearshore Habitat

October 2, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

The underwater video scene is full of life. A school of sinewy fish darts across the screen while a crab rummages along the seafloor. A flatfish, camouflaged like the sandy bottom, doesn’t seem to mind when the crab crawls over its back to approach an oyster.

Scientists from NOAA Fisheries’ Northwest Fisheries Science Center are collecting this video and more like it. They want to assess how marine life uses, and may even benefit from, habitat in and around farms growing oysters and other shellfish. They are teaming up with Microsoft to use computers and artificial intelligence to scan hours of video within seconds for different species of interest.

This particular video reveals the underwater landscape of Hama Hama shellfish farm in Hood Canal, Washington, one of many partners assisting with the study. Other local shellfish growers and the Pacific Shellfish Institute are also taking part.

“We collected the video as one way to assess how fish and invertebrates use shellfish aquaculture habitats compared to areas of the nearshore that don’t have aquaculture,” said Beth Sanderson, a Northwest Fisheries Science Center research scientist. Researchers collected the video over the past several years to assess the way species use, and feed in, different habitat types.

Shellfish farming is one of the most valuable parts of the Northwest aquaculture industry. It generated close to $100 million annually for the regional economy and provides close to 1,500 jobs prior to the pandemic. Shellfish farms occupy more than 25,000 acres in the Northwest. Researchers and managers want to understand how farming practices affect marine life in the shallow and highly productive nearshore waters where oysters and other shellfish grow.

“We’ve seen basically all of the fish you’d expect in the nearshore—herring and other forage fish, varieties of perch and sculpin, juvenile salmon, along with diving ducks, harbor seals and more,” Sanderson said. “There’s an amazing variety of life in the shallows of the Pacific Northwest, and we are seeing for the first time how many of these species use habitats within and near shellfish farms.”

Read the full release here

Researchers Probe Orca Poop for Microplastics: Part 1

May 19, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

You might worry about your toddler chewing on a plastic toy with toxic chemicals. Some orca researchers are beginning to worry about whales ingesting a gut full of microplastics, and what that might mean for their health.

Microplastics are everywhere. Millions of tons of plastic enter our oceans annually, and much of it breaks into tiny pieces. Microplastics are plastic particles five millimeters (about two-tenths of an inch) or smaller. They represent 92 percent of plastic pieces polluting the oceans’ surface waters. Researchers have found microplastics in all major seas and oceans. They’ve also found them in the intestinal tracts of organisms at all levels of the ocean food chain, from zooplankton to fish to marine mammals.

Some scientists are concerned that microplastics and their toxic effects are bioaccumulating in killer whales, the oceans’ top predators. Endangered Southern Resident killer whales spend much of their summers in Puget Sound and the Salish Sea. Chemical contamination from pollution, particularly in young whales, is one of three primary threats to their population. Could microplastics be part of the problem?

A team of scientists with NOAA Fisheries’ Northwest Fisheries Science Center (Center) and the University of Washington have started an investigation. They are looking at what microplastics the Southern Residents are ingesting, at what scale, and whether the whales are being exposed to toxic chemicals associated with microplastics.

Read the full release here

West Coast Waters Shift Toward Productive Conditions, But Lingering Heat May “Tilt” Marine Ecosystem

March 6, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Burgeoning populations of anchovy and a healthy crop of California sea lion pups reflected improved productivity off parts of the West Coast in 2019. However, lingering offshore heat worked against recovery of salmon stocks and reduced fishing success, a new analysis reports.

The California Current Ecosystem Status Report explains that ocean conditions off the West Coast remain unusually variable. This has been the case since the arrival of a major marine heatwave in 2014 known as “The Blob.” NOAA Fisheries’ two West Coast laboratories, the Northwest Fisheries Science Center and Southwest Fisheries Science Center, issue the report each year to the Pacific Fishery Management Council.

“There is not a real clear picture here,” said Chris Harvey, co-editor of the report developed by the two laboratories’ Integrated Ecosystem Assessment approach. The approach integrates physical, biological, economic, and importantly social conditions of the California Current marine ecosystem into the decision-making process. “On the one hand, we have a lot of anchovy out there. On the other hand, we also have a lot of warm water. That is not usually a sign of improved productivity.”

Read the full release here

West Coast Dungeness Crab Stable or Increasing Even With Intensive Harvest, Research Shows

March 5, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

The West Coast Dungeness crab fishery doesn’t just support the most valuable annual harvest of seafood on the West Coast. It’s a fishery that just keeps on giving.

Fishermen from California to Washington caught almost all the available legal-size male Dungeness crab each year in the last few decades. However, the crab population has either remained stable or continued to increase, according to the first thorough population estimate of the West Coast Dungeness stocks.

“The catches and abundance in Central California especially are increasing, which is pretty remarkable to see year after year,” said Kate Richerson, a research scientist at NOAA Fisheries’ Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle. Richerson is the lead author of the new study published in the journal Fisheries Research. “There’s reason to be optimistic that this fishery will continue to be one of the most productive and on the West Coast.”

Other recent research has suggested that the West Coast’s signature shellfish could suffer in the future from ocean acidification and other effects related to climate change. That remains a concern, Richerson said, but the study did not detect obvious signs of population-level impacts yet.

Read the full release here

Feared return of ‘The Blob’ fizzles as storms churn, chill Pacific Ocean

February 20, 2020 — It looked big. It looked bad. But the marine heat wave that threatened much of the West Coast in the fall of 2019 has mostly dissipated, at least at the surface.

The Northeast Pacific Marine Heatwave of 2019, or NEP19, lasted 225 days and at its peak covered about 3.2 million square miles. It was the second longest-lasting and second-largest such event ever recorded in the northern Pacific Ocean over the past 39 years, according to a blog post by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

The disturbance decreased below the agency’s classification threshold for a heat wave as of Jan. 5, said Chris Harvey, a fisheries biologist at the agency’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center, on Tuesday.

But while NEP19 is mostly gone, it’s not forgotten: Scientists caution that it is not clear the heat wave is entirely dissipated, or that it will not return. The deep ocean is still retaining significant amounts of heat. Monitoring of sea surface temperature readings from multiple platforms, including satellites, ships and buoys will continue.

Read the full story at The Seattle Times