Saving Seafood

Scientists: Southeast Alaska vulnerable to ocean acidification

February 22, 2019 — Southeast Alaska is poised to be among the first regions in the world affected by ocean acidification.

The Alaska Ocean Acidification Network hosted a public presentation Wednesday about the phenomenon that is making ocean water more acidic, and Alaska scientists explained why Southeast is likely to be impacted more quickly than other parts of the world.

Ocean acidification occurs when water absorbs carbon dioxide, which causes the water to become more acidic, and Southeast Alaska waters are uniquely positioned to be particularly susceptible to it, said Jessica Cross, an oceanographer for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Alaska Fisheries Science Center.

“There’s a couple of reasons for that,” Cross said. “One of them is glacial discharge. The second reason Southeast Alaska is more vulnerable to ocean acidification than other areas around the state is because of the communities themselves. When we talk about OA risk, we’re very interested in communities that rely on threatened species or threatened marine resources for economic value, cultural perspectives or subsistence food sources.”

Also, Cross said there are a few factors that make the water in the area naturally more acidic.

“I like to say Alaska waters are old and cold,” Cross said after the presentation.

Read the full story at the Juneau Empire

Ocean Acidification Could Affect Pacific Cod Development

February 20, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Scientists released results of a study showing that larval Pacific cod response to elevated carbon dioxide (CO2) levels varies depending on its stage of development. In laboratory experiments, NOAA Fisheries scientists and partners specifically examined larval cod behavior, growth, and lipid composition (the fats needed for storing energy and building muscles). As excess CO2 from the atmosphere dissolves in the ocean, pH is lowered and the ocean increases in acidity, in a process called ocean acidification. Studies like this are important because most marine fish mortality occurs at the larval stage of development and the high-latitude oceans where Pacific cod and other important commercial fisheries occur are expected to be among the most vulnerable to ocean acidification.

“Changing environmental conditions can impact species in multiple ways and not all life stages may respond in the same way,” said Tom Hurst, NOAA Fisheries scientist and lead author of a new paper in Marine Environmental Research. “We wanted to explore this because it has implications for the sustainability of Pacific cod and other important fish stocks in Alaska.”

Hurst and a team of scientists from the Alaska Fisheries Science Center; and the College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences and the Cooperative Institute for Marine Resources Studies at Oregon State University conducted two laboratory studies to evaluate larval fish sensitivity to elevated CO2.

Read the full story here

Research forms complex picture of mercury pollution in a period of global change

February 15, 2019 — Climate change and the loss of wetlands may contribute to increased levels of mercury concentrations in coastal fish, according to a Dartmouth College study.

The finding implies that forces directly associated with global change — including increased precipitation and land use modifications — will raise levels of the toxic metal that enter the marine food chain.

Estuaries, including coastal wetlands, provide much of the seafood that is harvested for human consumption and also serve as important feeding grounds for larger marine fish.

The study, published in late December in the journal Environmental Pollution, adds to the mounting body of research that indicates a complex relationship between the environment and mercury pollution.

“Estuaries provide habitat for the fish that feed our families,” said Celia Chen, director of the Dartmouth Toxic Metals Superfund Research Program. “It’s important to understand how mercury acts within our environment, particularly under increasing climate and land use pressures.”

The Dartmouth study concludes that higher levels of mercury, and its toxic form methylmercury, are associated with higher organic carbon in coastal waters. The study also finds that this results in higher levels of mercury occurring in fish that frequent these waters.

Read the full story at Science Daily

The Gulf of Maine is warming faster than 99 percent of the world’s oceans, and it’s dramatically disrupting fishing patterns

February 1, 2019 — The continental United States is 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than it was a century ago. Seas at the coasts are nine inches higher. The damage is mounting from these fundamental changes, and Americans are living it. These are their stories.

Since 1963, Greg Mataronas’s family has been making a living catching lobster off of Little Compton, R.I. But as water temperatures have risen rapidly along the coast, there are fewer lobster to be found, prompting a shift to other species, like whelk.

The state’s lobster haul peaked at over 8 million pounds in 1999. It hasn’t exceeded 3 million since 2005. And in 2017, it barely reached 2 million. As a result, a way of life is rapidly changing and, for some, ending.

To hold on, Rhode Island fishermen have agreed to a 50 percent cut in how many lobster traps they can set. Like the lobsters, they are adapting to a changing sea, buying out the licenses of competitors or diversifying what they catch.

Mataronas now fishes for whelk and sea bass and other fish, as well as lobster. To provide for his family, he couldn’t just fish like his father had.

Read the full story at The Washington Post

Study: Northwest Salmon Not Immune To Ocean Acidification

December 27, 2018 — A new study suggests that salmon will not be immune to the effects of ocean acidification. Scientists found that changes to ocean chemistry disrupt a fish’s ability to smell danger in the water.

Researcher Chase Williams of the University of Washington exposed young coho salmon to the elevated ocean CO2 levels expected over the next few decades. He then dropped in an odor that normally makes the fish react as if a predator is near. The fish ignored it.

“They’re still smelling odorant, but the way their brain is processing that signal is altered … Before, they would avoid this predator odor and now they’re more indifferent to it,” Williams said.

The results are concerning because salmon rely on smell to avoid danger, find food and to find their way back to spawning grounds in West Coast rivers.

Co-author Andrew Dittman is a scientist with the federal Northwest Fishery Science Center. He said the results could apply to other salmon species.

“The mechanisms involved … are very similar. So the expectation would be that we would see relatively similar phenomena in the other species as well,” he said.

Read the full story at KUOW

The most important environmental and sustainability stories of 2018

December 21, 2018 — Sustainability has become a buzzword in the seafood industry in recent years, a prerequisite for doing business in the 21st century.

But with the advent of real effects of climate change being felt in fisheries and aquaculture operations around the world, paying attention to environmental news is no longer shunted off to corporate sustainability officers.

In 2018, even more evidence was presented that increasing water temperatures, ocean acidification, and deoxygenation caused by climate change will result in devastation and disruption in the world’s marine economy. A November report by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, compiled by 13 U.S. government agencies, painted a grim picture of the future of both U.S. and global fisheries as the effects of climate change continue to advance.

Beyond economic damages, upheaval in the global marine economy is likely to lead to political upheaval, a study published in the journal Science in August revealed. Climate change is driving fish species to migrate to new areas, with fish and other marine animals shifting toward the poles at an average rate of 70 kilometers per decade. That rate is projected to continue or even accelerate as the planet warms. In the process, they’re crossing political boundaries – potentially setting up future conflicts as some countries lose access to fish and others gain it, according to the report.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Salmon to lose sense of smell as CO2 levels rise

December 19, 2018 — As atmospheric CO2 levels continue to rise, increasing amounts of carbon dioxide will be absorbed into the ocean. New research suggests rising CO2 levels in the ocean could disrupt the olfactory abilities of coho salmon.

Salmon rely on their sense of smell to track prey, find mates and navigate their way back upstream to spawn. According to the new study, published this week in the journal Global Change Biology, a compromised sense of smell would pose a serious threat to the health of salmon populations.

Lab experiments showed rising acidity levels caused by elevated CO2 levels inhibits salmon’s already vulnerable sensory-neural system.

“Our studies and research from other groups have shown that exposure to pollutants can also interfere with sense of smell for salmon,” Evan Gallagher, a professor of toxicology at the University of Washington, said in a news release. “Now, salmon are potentially facing a one-two punch from exposure to pollutants and the added burden of rising CO2. These have implications for the long-term survival of our salmon.”

Read the full story at UPI

JOHN BULLARD: Trump policies threaten New England fishermen

December 5, 2018 — The Trump Administration just approved dangerous seismic blasting to look for oil and gas in the Atlantic Ocean, a move that will threaten marine wildlife and fisheries. This announcement came on the heels of the National Climate Assessment, which the Trump Administration tried to downplay by releasing it the day after Thanksgiving. That’s right, Trump just sidestepped science — twice — to deliver a one-two punch to fishermen.

The scientific report on climate change offers a devastating look at the impact of climate change on the American economy — including fisheries in New England — if we fail to act fast. According to the report, the American economy will decline by up to 10 percent by the end of this century. Failure to reduce carbon emissions will continue to negatively impact the health of fish stocks, threatening the economic stability of our fishing industry and coastal communities.

None of this is news to New England fishermen, who already know the changes happening in their place of business: the ocean. They know warming waters have driven lobster out of southern New England towards Canada. They know that despite difficult quota cuts, cod is much harder to rebuild, and many flounder species don’t reproduce the way they used to.

Fishermen know that warming oceans have pummeled the Maine lobster industry, where revenues fell by $99 million in 2017. Some scientists warn that ocean acidification could make the scallop industry, a $500 million-dollar mainstay of New England’s fishing economy, the next to go. There’s no Plan B if this happens. And new oil and gas development could accelerate the decline of these and other species. Without action, the working waterfronts of New England could cease to work.

What was President Trump’s response when asked about the climate report from his own administration? “I don’t believe it.” Apparently his self-professed intellect is superior to more than 300 scientists from inside and outside the government who wrote the report. Because of his inability to accept the advice of his own scientists on what may be the issue of gravest importance to future generations, the president is putting our region’s fishing industry at risk.

Read the full opinion piece at the New Bedford Standard-Times

West Coast fishermen are suing oil companies for climate change damages

December 5, 2018 — Fishermen are still waiting for permission to catch Dungeness crabs off California’s northernmost coast this season — and they want oil companies to pay for the delay.

State officials have postponed the start of the commercial Dungeness crab season because of high levels of a neurotoxin called domoic acid. Similar closures have wreaked economic havoc on the industry in recent years.

he neurotoxin’s presence in the prized crabs has been linked to warming ocean waters, one of the many effects of human-caused climate change. That’s why the West Coast’s largest organization of commercial fishermen is suing more than a dozen oil companies, arguing they have knowingly peddled a product that threatens ocean life and the people whose economic fortunes depend on it.

The oil companies “engaged in a coordinated, multi-front effort to conceal and deny their own knowledge of those threats, discredit the growing body of publicly available scientific evidence, and persistently create doubt,” the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Assns. said in its lawsuit, filed last month.

“Families and businesses that depend on the health and productivity of the Dungeness crab fishery to earn their livings suffer the consequences,” the federation said.

Read the full story at the Los Angeles Times

Trump Administration Report Recommends Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions To Protect Oceans From Climate Change

November 27, 2018 — The Fourth National Climate Assessment is a landmark report that was published last week on the day after Thanksgiving. It summarizes the impacts of climate change in the United States as well as potential mitigation and adaptation measures. The report states that the combined effect of burning fossil fuels, developing natural landscapes, and deforestation have increased the concentration of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in Earth’s atmosphere* and emphasizes that drastically reducing GHGs is necessary to prevent the most catastrophic consequences of climate change.

According to the report, climate change is modifying the ocean environment in three primary ways:  warming, oxygen loss, and acidification. These “stressors” have large implications for ocean ecosystems and marine fisheries. Globally, ocean surface temperatures have increased by nearly 1.3°F over the past century and “… more than 90% of the extra heat linked to carbon emissions is contained in the ocean.” As the ocean warms, seawater not only expands and causes sea levels to rise, but it also loses its ability to hold gases – including oxygen. Additionally, as carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted by human activities dissolves in seawater, it undergoes a series of chemical reactions that are gradually causing the ocean to become more acidic.

While warming, oxygen loss, and acidification will likely reduce the diversity of life in the sea, they will also impact fisheries, seafood farming, and recreational activities. These stressors will also interact and can have complex impacts. For example, as climate change progresses, hurricanes will become more frequent and intense. These hurricanes may redistribute nutrients that cause massive algal blooms that are sustained by warmer temperatures. When the blooms die off, microbes respire as they assist in the algae’s decomposition, simultaneously producing CO2 and consuming oxygen that cause ocean acidification and oxygen loss. The severe red tide along the Florida coast this year was likely a product of this series of events.

Read the full story at Forbes