UC Davis Archives - Saving Seafood

Marine wildlife may suffer the consequences of SoCal’s oil spill for years to come

October 8, 2021 — “We’re scared to see what we’re going to find out,” Sarah Glitz, a marine scientist for Oceana, said of the Oct. 2 oil spill off the Southern California coast.

Glitz, like many scientists, has watched in horror as the ecological disaster unfurls along the coastline where about 126,000 gallons of crude oil seeped into the Pacific Ocean and indefinitely closed several Orange County beaches and fisheries.

Veterinarians are in the field tending to the injured animals that wash ashore. But it may be weeks, months, even years before the full extent of the disaster and impact on birds and marine mammals is known, Glitz said.

Already, 15 oiled birds have been recovered, two of which were dead, the Oiled Wildlife Care Network at UC Davis reported.

Read the full story at SFGATE

Why some fish are ‘junk,’ others are protected. California study points to past racism

August 30, 2021 — Andrew Rypel grew up fishing on Wisconsin’s pristine lakes and rivers. With just a worm on his hook, he caught suckers, gar, sunfish and other native fish he never saw in his game fishing magazines.

From a young age, Rypel loved all the fish species and it surprised him that others paid little attention to the native fish in his area. He noticed there were stricter fishing restrictions on game fish, like walleye and trout, than the native species. With no bag limits on many of his favorite native species, people could harvest as many as they pleased.

“I learned that there were all these different types of species,” Rypel said. “Most of the fishing community focused on these select game fish species.”

Anglers even told young Rypel to throw the less desirable native fish up on the bank after they were caught, as they were supposedly a “problem for the ecosystem” and took resources away from highly valued game species.

Rypel always found this perspective backward. Native fish are essential for healthy aquatic environments. And in the midst of the world’s climate crisis, protecting these native species is more critical than ever.

Read the full story at The Sacramento Bee

Plastic Ingestion By Marine Fish Is A Widespread And Growing Problem

February 12, 2021 — The consumption of plastic by marine animals is an increasingly pervasive problem, with litter turning up in the bellies of wildlife as varied as mammals, birds, turtles and fish. However, according to a research review by ecologists at Stanford University’s Hopkins Marine Station and PhD student Alex McInturf at UC Davis, the problem is impacting species unevenly, with some more susceptible to eating a plastic dinner than others. With billions of people around the world relying on seafood for sustenance and financial security, this research, published Feb 9. in the journal Global Change Biology, warns that there is a growing number of species – including over 200 species of commercial importance – eating plastic.

Matthew Savoca was collecting data on plastic ingestion by seabirds for his PhD when he became interested in uncovering ecological traits linked to increased consumption. Now, as a postdoctoral research fellow at the Hopkins Marine Station, he has conducted one of the most comprehensive analyses of plastic ingestion on fish ever performed.

“Fish are a really good species to track the flow of plastic pollution through marine ecosystems,” said Savoca, who is lead author of the paper. “Now, we are showing the numbers in ways they haven’t been shown before. No previous studies have looked across all of this research for broad patterns and drivers.”

Read the full story at Science Blog

Learning from gorillas to save killer whales

November 9, 2018 — In 2018, the southern resident killer whale population in the Pacific Northwest’s Salish Sea was at its lowest ever. The world watched in September as an orca named Scarlet, or J50, wasted away and died, leaving just 74 of her kind left. Some wondered if this was “What extinction looks like.”

Meanwhile, endangered mountain gorillas in Africa hit a milestone in the opposite direction. Their population climbed to more than 1,000—the highest in nearly a century.

Building on work begun by primatologist Dian Fossey of Gorillas in the Mist fame, Gorilla Doctors, a program led by the University of California, Davis, has been providing personalized veterinary care to these animals in the wild since the late 2000s. The gorillas have their own long-term health records, and the international team of veterinarians that observe and treat them know each one as they would their own family members and friends—down to the individual.

Read the full story at Phys.org