Science

April 8, 2014 — The following was released by the Commercial Fisheries Research Foundation (CFRF). The Commercial Fisheries Research Foundation (CFRF) is a non profit, private research foundation founded and directed by members of the commercial fishing industry and other support businesses based in Rhode Island. Its primary mission is to support teams of scientists and fishing industry members working together collaboratively on research and data collection projects important to the fishing industry in the southern New England region.

Read the first edition of a newsletter developed and distributed by the Commercial Fisheries Research Foundation (CFRF)

SAVANNAH, Ga. — April 5, 2014 — Off the coast of Georgia, researchers and pilots from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recently tested the ability of a small unmanned aircraft — a drone — to conduct fish population surveys.

"It's a proof of concept mission," said Joe Smith, leader of menhaden sampling for the National Marine Fisheries Service lab in Beaufort, N.C. Smith had been planning an Atlantic coast survey of the fish with traditional aircraft but found the price tag steep at an estimated $500,000 for start up.

"Last summer we started talking about using drones," he said.

The aircraft NOAA uses is the AeroVironment PUMA AE.

"That's the all environment," said NOAA Corps Officer Kevin Doremus. "It's a hand-launched, 13-pound UAS or unmanned aerial system."

It can be recovered on water or land. Battery operated, it's quiet, a plus when looking for wildlife, and it can cover a range of about 50 square miles flying for two hours on a charge.

Equipped with real-time video and still photo capability, the system of three planes, plus cameras and controls, costs about $250,000. NOAA owns two such systems and has used them to look for sea birds, whales, turtles and marine debris.

Read the full story by the Associated Press at the San Francisco Chronicle

April 4, 2014 — NOAA and its partners recently released the first federal strategic plan to guide research and monitoring investments that will improve our understanding of ocean acidification, its potential impacts on marine species and ecosystems, and adaptation and mitigation strategies.

“Maintaining healthy marine ecosystems in the face of ocean acidification is one of the top natural resource challenges of this century,” said Robert Detrick, assistant administrator of the NOAA Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research. “As today’s strategic research plan demonstrates, NOAA and our federal partners are collaborating to meet the challenge of ocean acidification with coordinated and comprehensive research programmes.”

The plan was developed by the Interagency Working Group on Ocean Acidification, which brings together scientists from NOAA, the National Science Foundation, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Department of Agriculture, Department of State, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Geological Survey, and U.S. Navy. Congress called for the Interagency Working Group and charged it with developing a strategic plan to guide research and monitoring of ocean acidification as part of the Federal Ocean Acidification Research and Monitoring Act of 2009 (FOARAM Act). The plan is also a nec­essary early step towards successful implementation of the National Ocean Policy.

Read the full story at FIS

SEAFOOD.COM NEWS [by John Sackton] — April 7, 2014 — The 2014 steller sea lion biological opinion released last week represents a stunning and very welcome turnaround for NOAA.

The reason is not that the new opinion will allow the reopening of some fishing grounds in the Aleutians for Atka mackerel, pacific cod and pollock in 2015, but because the agency demonstrated a real understanding of the scientific evidence, and did not shy away from following what the science said.
 
John Gauvin is the science director for the Alaska Seafood Cooperative, whose members fish in that area.
 
He said “I find this Bi-op to be night and day different from the 2010 and earlier bi-ops on Steller sea lions.   Most striking in my opinion, is that it is very objective about what is known about the different possible theories for the sea lion population decline and it does not make the correlation type of arguments that were so prevalent in the 2010.”
 
The basic objection to the Bi-op in 2010 was that the conclusions that fishing put sea lions in jeapordy were not supported by any of the scientific evidence.   For example, in the 2010 Bi-op, NMFS claimed that since Atka Mackerel fishing occurs East of 178 degrees west longitude, and Steller sea lion population decline rates are higher east of 178 West, therefore the decline must be caused by Atka mackerel fishing.
 
Furthermore, other studies cited in the Bi-op in 2010 that claimed nutritional distress, could not document how fishing contributed to nutritional distress, if at all.  Again, the emergency closure was based on a correlation that Sea Lions were experiencing nutritional distress, and that fishing was occurring, so therefore one must cause the other.  This was why the Bi-op was considered to be more of an ideological than scientific document, making assertions that were believed by some in the agency, but not able to be documented properly.
 
Gauvin also says ”Another notable difference is that the authors of this document appear to understand a lot more about the way fisheries occur and therefore they make logical inferences about how and where fishing will occur under the PPA. The 2010 and earlier Bi-ops tended to say that they could not eliminate the possibility that all the boats would fish in one area for all the TAC even if that made no sense economically or logistically. “
 
“ This Bi-op, is therefore better able to characterize where fish will be caught and at what rate, hence it comes up with a more realistic assessment of how much SSL prey will be caught in each area of a given period of time.
 
“ Additionally, the document actually uses the SSL telemetry data rigorously to characterize what areas are most important to SSL.
 
In past Bi-ops, there was a strong tendency to spin the telemetry data as somehow overestimating the degree to which SSL depend on nearshore feeding areas.”
 
The impact was to suggest that greater closures were needed, even beyond 10 nautical miles from rookeries.
 
“For example, the 2010 Bi-op argued that all of area 543 in the eastern Aleutian Islands needed to be closed because there were some offshore telemetry positions recorded.   In reality, those offshore positions were in abyssal waters, clearly SSL (Steller Sea Lions)  were not feeding on groundfish, probably they were feeding on lanternfish and juvenile salmon at upwellings 100 miles or more offshore.”
 
The new Bi-op also took better account of the outside reviews, which were quite critical of the earlier effort. The summarized the views of the outside scientists in a very balanced way. In this case, NMFS included some objective discussion of how the outside reviewers looked at the science, and where NMFS agrees with them, and where they disagree.
 
Where NMFS disagrees with the outside reviewers the outline why, and in general it is because they are applying a more precautionary approach in making their determinations.
 
This is an appropriate area for judgement, and they have acknowledged the science while making the judgments required under the law.
 
Gauvin says “The most important part of the treatment of the reviews is the summary at the beginning of the Bi-op where they characterize what the different reviewers thought.  The part I found quite good was that this Bi-op states upfront that one of the most serious issues for the reviewers was that the 2010 Bi-op tended to have a pre-determined conclusion and inherent bias towards concluding that SSL trends in the Aleutians were being caused by fishing. This Bi-op says that NMFS took that criticism quite seriously and, again in my opinion,  they avoided doing that.”
 
In summary, says Gauvin, “this Bi-op is a major regime shift in how science is done in the context of the Endangered Species Act and how fishing may compete wit  Steller Sea Lions.”
 
The finding of No Jeopardy that NOAA announced last week is the only conclusion that is actually supported by the science.

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

April 7, 2014 — A research proposal from Maine chosen to compete for NASA funding aims to predict the movements of key species in the Gulf of Maine and provide seasonal forecasts for the lobster industry.

If funded, the proposal from the Gulf of Maine Research Institute and the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences will attempt to develop models for real-time estimates of the distribution of fish and invertebrates in the gulf using Earth-system data, such as satellites, and observations from fishermen and researchers.

The three-year project was chosen to represent the state in NASA’s Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, or EPSCoR, competition last month by the Maine Space Grant Consortium in Augusta, the administrator of the Maine NASA program.

A total of 28 states and Puerto Rico participate in the program, which provides seed funding for projects that improve the states’ nationally competitive capabilities in aerospace and aerospace-related research, according to NASA’s website.

Up to 15 research proposals will be selected for funding, according to a spokeswoman for NASA. About $11,250,000 is available for research projects.

The senior scientist of the Maine project, Andrew Pershing, of the Portland-based Gulf of Maine Research Institute, said providing predictions about the timing and volume of lobster landings, as well as the number of hard-shell and soft-shell lobsters, could help the industry avoid a repeat of the 2012 season.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

April 2, 2014 — Fisheries researchers from North Carolina State University (NCSU) have found that black sea bass (Centropristis striata) can usually survive the physical trauma that results from being hauled up from deep water then released at the surface.

The finding is part of a larger study of the fish’s mortality rate, which will inform stock assessments designed to help ensure that the black sea bass fishery is sustainable.

Black sea bass are bottom-dwelling fish, and are often caught at depths of greater than 60 feet. When the fish are brought to the surface, the rapid change in pressure causes the fish’s swim bladder to expand. This forces other organs out of the way and can result in visible “barotrauma” – such as the fish’s stomach being forced partially out of its mouth.

Conventional wisdom long held that this sort of visible barotrauma meant that a fish would die when thrown back into the water. But that’s not true, according to the NC State study.

The research team was attempting to develop accurate estimates of “discard mortality” rates for black sea bass, meaning that they wanted to know what percentage of the fish would die if they were caught and thrown back. Discard mortality rates are used to make informed stock assessments for fish species because it helps fisheries officials understand how many fish that are caught and released can be expected to survive. Black sea bass are a valuable species for commercial fishing and are also popular with recreational anglers. Millions of black sea bass are caught and released by recreational anglers off the south Atlantic coast of the US each year.

Read the full story from Fish Info & Services

SEAFOOD.COM NEWS by John Sackton — April 2, 2014 — Professor Ikuo Hirono of Tokyo University is one of the scientists who, along with Donald Lightner at the University of Arizona has worked to overcome the effects of the EMS disease in shrimp.

Lightner demonstrated that EMS was in fact a particular strain of a common bacteria, Vibrio parahemolyticus.  To assist shrimp farmers, a test was needed that would distinguish between the harmless Vibrio that is present in the environment, and the Vibrio with the EMS strain.
 
Professor Hirono decoded the EMS genome at Tokyo University, and this has been a key breakthough in developing PCR tests.
 
So far, these PCR tests have generally been done in fisheries laboratories in Thailand, Indonesia, and Vietnam.
 
Methods have been developed to use the test in Thailand and Taiwan, but they all produce a high rate of false positives – around 10%.
 
As a result, a tighter PCR test is needed, which Professor Hirono told Nikkan Suisan Keizai Shimbun that he is about to introduce.
 
For other shrimp diseases, the World Organization for Animal Health has 'gold standard' detection methods, which are proven tests that can be used to identify a disease.   Professor Hirono hopes that his PCR test will become this gold standard.
 
His test is based on identifying several types of DNA, thereby reducing the false positives.
 
Once this test is widely available, farmers should be able to immediately determine if EMS exists in the Vibrio in a given pond or not, before they stock the pond.
 
Currently Japanese analysts think that the May / June harvest in EMS affected areas in Thailand and Vietnam will be low, because many farmers have reduced their density and remain cautious about committing their expensive juvenile shrimp without better assurance they will not get disease.  These analysts expect the surge in production to materialize with the second crop, when hopefully these PCR tests will be more widely available.
 
In Thailand, reports NSK, some think the chinese sand worms (lug worms) that are widely distributed and used for feed for shrimp broodstock, may have been a tranmission factor.  These worms are distributed world wide, and fed live to breeding shrimp, as it helps them produce very healthy eggs.
 
Thai authorities have taken steps to control the dissemination of these worms as shrimp feed.

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

April 1, 2014 — The NOAA Northeast Fisheries Science Center, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and the University of Massachusetts School for Marine Science and Technology are working together to train future generations of scientists in a program designed to address an anticipated shortfall of researchers in quantitative fisheries and ecosystem science.

The new partnership will focus on teaching and advising in a graduate fisheries program and developing new technologies to improve assessment and management capabilities.

Due to an aging scientific workforce within NOAA and fewer students going into the necessary fields of study for fish stock assessment, there could be as many as 180 vacancies within NMFS over the next decade, according to a 2008 report issued by the Departments of Commerce and Education.

As part of the effort, three new fellowships for WHOI scientists and a new faculty position at SMAST were created.

Read the full story at the South Coast Business Bulletin 

 

PROVINCETOWN, Mass. — March 30, 2014 — Within a year, researcher Jooke Robbins hopes to identify the oldest humpback off New England.

A new DNA technique, developed using data about the humpback whales off New England and Australia in a study Robbins contributed to, will allow scientists to pinpoint the age of the animals — and many others marine mammals.

The new skin-sampling technique and its scientific basis are in a study that has been accepted for publication in the journal Molecular Ecology Resources. The research was conducted by the Australian Antarctic Division, in collaboration with Robbins, who leads the humpback whale research at the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies, and the Australian Genome Research Facility.

Knowing the ages of humpback whales can help scientists determine if their population is rebounding, particularly in areas where decades of intensive commercial whaling has lowered their numbers.

Knowing the ages can also help determine if certain age groups are more or less vulnerable to human activities, and when and if females stop reproducing, said David Wiley, research coordinator at Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary in Scituate.

Also, scientists will be able to construct family trees for animals known to be related, and determine maximum age and average life span in specific whale populations.

Read the full story from the Cape Cod Times

WASHINGTON — March 28, 2014 — For more than a century, federal scientists have worked on Pivers Island near the historic town of Beaufort, N.C., and the beaches of Emerald Isle studying the ocean, and the fish, turtles and dolphins of its sea grass estuaries and rocky reefs.

Surrounded by three university labs, it’s one of a handful of oceanography hubs in the nation and the only government research center between New Jersey and Miami studying Atlantic fish populations.

So it came as a surprise recently that the federal government has proposed doing away with the ocean science laboratory, which opened in 1899.

Tucked in President Barack Obama’s 218-page proposed budget for 2015 was a one-sentence mention of a plan to close one lab to save money. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration subsequently identified it as North Carolina’s historic research station.

“NOAA’s Beaufort lab has conducted valuable fisheries and coastal science for more than 100 years,” said NOAA spokeswoman Ciaran Clayton. “However, this aging facility requires infrastructure repairs and improvements exceeding agency budget resources now and for the foreseeable future.”

The coastal and ocean agency plans to shift instead to grants to non-agency scientists. Closing the lab would mean the loss of 108 jobs locally. NOAA intends to relocate the federal scientists. What will happen to the lab’s 31 government contractors is less clear.

Members of the North Carolina congressional delegation say they’ll fight to keep the lab open, but its prospects are unclear. It’s one of few cuts proposed in the Commerce Department’s $8.8 billion budget.

Read the full story at McClatchy DC