March 29, 2013 — Apocalyptic temperature rises in the very near future may be less likely but policy makers still need to do more, say The Economist's correspondents. Watch the video at The Economist
March 29, 2013 — Apocalyptic temperature rises in the very near future may be less likely but policy makers still need to do more, say The Economist's correspondents. Watch the video at The Economist
CONCORD, N.H.,– April 2, 2013 — Restoring New Hampshire's native brook trout habitat is the subject of a free talk Wednesday night at Fish and Game headquarters.
Fisheries biologist John Magee will lead the discussion, which begins at 7 p.m.
Eastern brook trout are one of New Hampshire's most prized native fish. But, they are threatened by development, changing climate and pollution.
Magee has been working for years on the issue. Come hear what the department is doing to restore habitat for the "brookies" and perhaps add your own ideas.
The talk is part of a month-long series of free Outdoor Adventure Talks, all offered at 11 Hazen Dr. in Concord.
Read the full story at the local New Hampshire news station WMUR
REEDVILLE, Va., — April 1, 2013 — A new scientific study released February 1 on the status of menhaden along the Atlantic coast has resulted in more questions than answers on whether the species are overfished—a claim that led to a decision last December by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) to slash the allowable catch by 20%.
The new restriction forced Omega Protein of Reedville, one of the area’s largest employers with a $15 million payroll, to cut two fishing vessels and 50 positions, according to the company’s director of fishing operations, Monty Diehl.
Was the ASMFC decision to impose restrictions too hasty?
During the December meeting, it was the contention of a majority of commission members that menhaden are being overfished while other members questioned the reliability of the data being used. They asked the commission not to rush into imposing restrictions but to wait for a thorough study.
“The commission was under a great deal of pressure from sport fishing and environmentalists,” said Diehl. But the truth is, only a 2008 study showed overfishing, and by just 0.4%, while subsequent studies have been erratic, he said.
The February 1 report by ASMFC’s Technical Committee questioned if current methods of measuring menhaden stock are reliable based on the fact that only one major fishery, Omega Protein, remains on the East Coast.
“The Technical Committee said, ‘We do not trust our model. We need to develop a new model,’” said Diehl. The committee did several sensitivity studies in January, one showing the stock is overfished while a newer study model shows it was not. “Scientists are saying ‘We can’t say that its overfished.’ This should bring into question if the (ASMFC) board members knew then what they know now, would they have made a 10% cut rather than 20%? There is a huge difference between the two models,” Diehl noted.
Read the full story at The Rappahannock Record
GLOUCESTER, Mass. — March 30, 2013 — Tagging studies, underwater videos and recordings of cod vocalizations — could provide a crucial answer to bringing this iconic fish stock back to healthy population levels by protecting them as they reproduce.
Five years ago, a state fisheries employee was on a busman's holiday: fishing in 170 feet of water near a small gravel sandbar 3 miles east of Gloucester, happily hauling up one large cod after another.
He had discovered the epicenter of a mass of spawning cod, possibly 30,000 fish, that returned to this spot every spring.
State fisheries scientists realized this was a unique opportunity to observe spawning cod in the wild so, in 2009, they set up an underwater laboratory at the site.
What they have since found — through tagging studies, underwater videos and recordings of cod vocalizations — could provide a crucial answer to bringing this iconic fish stock back to healthy population levels by protecting them as they reproduce.
"Killing them where they spawn is a great way to drive a species to extinction," said Sofie Van Parijs, the passive acoustics program director with the Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Woods Hole.
Cod stocks haven't been doing well, despite nearly two decades of the most restrictive fishing regulations in the country. Those regulations have traditionally been driven by the theory that fishing limits allow more fish to survive and reproduce, increasing stocks over time.
But that logic has largely failed cod. The population remains at less than 20 percent of where scientists believe it should be after a nearly 20-year effort to revive them. Fishermen face up to 77 percent cuts in their annual quota this May.
Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times
March 28, 2013 — Unless you are an avid scuba diver, when you think of scallops, you probably think of linguine and garlic more than oceans and shells. That's because we only eat the muscle of the scallop: You never see them in context.
And so … one of the most shocking things I discovered researching animal vision was that scallops have eyes! Not only do they have eyes, they have dozens of them along the edges of their shell openings. And the weirdest part? In some species like the bay scallop, the eyes are the prettiest blue color.
Gah! Try and saute up some scallops tonight after seeing that photograph. I dare you.
These eyes are not exactly competing with eagle eyes for visual acuity. But they do have some very strange and interesting features, as Sonke Johnsen explains in his surprisingly readable and fun book, The Optics of Life: A Biologist's Guide to Light in Nature. Each of these eyes has a tapeta, which is a biological mirror that sits on the back of the retina. In most nocturnal species, the tapetum (singular form) bounces light back through retina, allowing the photoreceptors in animals like cats and raccoons a second shot at capturing more light, which is key for seeing in very dim conditions.
Read the full story at The Atlantic
March 27, 2013 — Dr. Rob Latour of of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science at the College of William and Mary will explore issues surrounding Atlantic menhaden, their commercial harvest, and recreational fishing.
WHEN:
Thursday, March 28th 2013
7pm
WHERE:
VIMS – Watermen's Hall, McHugh Auditorium
1375 Greate Road
Gloucester Point, VA 23062
CONTACT:
804-684-7846
programs@vims.edu
The Virginia General Assembly recently voted to reduce the commercial catch of Atlantic menhaden in Virginia waters by 20%, bringing Virginia in line with other states along the Eastern seaboard in a coast-wide management plan adopted by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) in December. Join Dr. Rob Latour of VIMS as he explores the issues surrounding Atlantic menhaden, their commercial harvest, and the recreational fisheries that target menhaden predators such as striped bass.
Latour's presentation is the March installment of the 2013 After Hours Lecture Series at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. Latour is a member and past chair of the menhaden technical committee for the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, the body charged with management of menhaden populations along the U.S. East Coast. He has worked with colleagues at VIMS and elsewhere to determine menhaden abundance in the Bay, to quantify the role that menhaden play in filtering water and sustaining predators, and to better understand the process by which young menhaden are "recruited" into the adult population.
Reservations to this free public lecture series are required due to limited space. Register to attend in person or call 804-684-7846 for further information.
Read the announcement from The Virginia Institute of Marine Science
Sign up to participate online via the webinar
March 25, 2013 — Researchers have completed the first comprehensive survey of the upper waters of the continental shelf off of the Northeast U.S. from Cape Hatteras, North Carolina to the Nova Scotia Shelf, including Georges Bank and the Gulf of Maine.
The focus was on the physics, chemistry, and biology of the water column – or pelagic zone, where most primary production occurs – rather than the ocean bottom. The scientific parties worked from the NOAA Ship Pisces and spent 16 days at sea to conduct the work.
Three federal agencies were involved in the survey: NOAA, NASA, and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), each investigating a different aspect of the ocean. Scientists from the City University of New York (CUNY) Staten Island participated in the cruise as marine mammal and bird observers with BOEM support.
A wide variety of data were collected on plankton, fish, invertebrates, marine mammals, sea birds, and sea turtles encountered in the survey. Researchers also collected information on the ocean water, including nutrients, light levels, distribution of currents and other properties
A secondary survey objective was to learn how to integrate various operations, which involved traditional and novel techniques and instruments. The 209-ft. Pisces, whose homeport is Pascagoula, Miss., is being jointly utilized by the NEFSC and the Southeast Fisheries Science Center (SEFSC), headquartered in Miami. NOAA's modern class of research vessels, which includes the Henry B. Bigelow and the Pisces, has greatly expanded scientists' capabilities to do this type of multidisciplinary work.
Data and samples collected on the survey will be distributed to regional universities and research institutions including the University of Connecticut, University of Maine, University of New Hampshire, and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
The information collected will be used in fisheries stock assessments, ecosystem status reports, satellite development, and offshore energy planning. Once processed, the data also will be deposited in national archives and be publically available. Integrating the data across institutions and agencies remains a challenge, but the comprehensive collection is an important step in understanding the ecosystem as a whole and how the different components interact.
Read the full press release from the NOAA Northeast Fisheries Science Center
March 25, 2013 — Brian Rothschild, a member of the faculty of the University of Massachusetts and an AIFRB fellow since 1995, was recently given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the highly-respected trade journal National Fisherman.
Some of Brian’s recent achievements are described in an article by Linc Bedrosian in the November 2012 issue of National Fisherman.
That article reads, in part, “Brian J. Rothschild is not afraid of a full plate. At 78, an age when most people have at least considered retirement, … he continues to serve in the snowbelt as Montgomery Charter Professor of Marine Science at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, School for Marine Science and Technology. … Rothschild … was hired to establish the UMass school, serving as its first dean from 1995 to 2006. But that’s just scratching the surface of a career that has spanned many aspects of marine science and management, beginning in 1953. … Rothschild’s curriculum vitae speaks for itself—and loudly. Yet, for all those accomplishments, fishermen say he doesn’t put on airs. … Talks with fishermen led Rothschild and UMass Dartmouth professor Keven Stokesbury to develop the system of counting scallops via underwater cameras that photographed their abundance in areas that had been closed to scalloping. … That work led to the industry revival. … With so many successes to his name, Rothschild shows no signs of slowing. He’s working with Rep. Bill Keating (D-Mass.) to develop a task force to review stock assessments, and he wants to update [his book] “Dynamics of Marine Fish Populations.” Simply put, he enjoys his work. ‘The satisfaction is multifaceted,’ Rothschild says. ‘You’re discovering something nobody’s discovered before, and at the same time you’re helping people. You’re walking where nobody’s walked before.’”
Read the full story from the American Institute of Fishery Research Biologists
March 25, 2013 — Join Dr. Rob Latour of VIMS as he explores issues surrounding Atlantic menhaden, their commercial harvest, and recreational fishing.
Thursday, March 28th 2013
7pm
Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) – Watermen's Hall, McHugh Auditorium
1375 Greate Road
Gloucester Point, VA 23062
Join Dr. Rob Latour of VIMS as he explores issues surrounding Atlantic menhaden, their commercial harvest, and recreational fishing. Register.
Full Description
The Virginia General Assembly recently voted to reduce the commercial catch of Atlantic menhaden in Virginia waters by 20%, bringing Virginia in line with other states along the Eastern seaboard in a coast-wide management plan adopted by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) in December. Join Dr. Rob Latour of VIMS as he explores the issues surrounding Atlantic menhaden, their commercial harvest, and the recreational fisheries that target menhaden predators such as striped bass.
Latour's presentation is the March installment of the 2013 After Hours Lecture Series at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. Latour is a member and past chair of the menhaden technical committee for the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, the body charged with management of menhaden populations along the U.S. East Coast. He has worked with colleagues at VIMS and elsewhere to determine menhaden abundance in the Bay, to quantify the role that menhaden play in filtering water and sustaining predators, and to better understand the process by which young menhaden are "recruited" into the adult population.
Reservations to this free public lecture series are required due to limited space. Register to attend in person or call 804-684-7846 for further information. Register to view the online webinar.
More Information
After Hours Lecture Series
Contact
804-684-7846, programs@vims.edu
Read the full notice from VIMS
March 25, 2013 — For decades researchers have recorded sounds from whales and other marine mammals, using a variety of methods including passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) to better understand how these animals use sound to interact with each other and with the environment. Now, for the first time, researchers report using this technology to record spawning cod in the wild.
Researchers from NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) and their colleagues from the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF), Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary (SBNMS), School of Marine Science & Technology at UMass Dartmouth (SMAST), and Cornell University's Bioacoustics Research Program recently reported their findings, online, in the ICES Journal of Marine Science.
Read the full release from the Northeast Fisheries Science Center