August 8, 2023 — The head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said he is confident the agency is back on track in conducting fisheries stock surveys following criticism from some U.S. lawmakers.
Warmer waters are affecting fish and coral in Long Island Sound, experts say
August 7, 2023 — Warming waters are affecting a variety of marine life in Long Island Sound.
The sound is actually home to coral – the Northern Star Coral – and the species is helping New England scientists learn how warmer water linked to climate change might affect coral found in the tropics, too.
Shawn Grace, a marine ecologist and biology professor at southern Connecticut State University, is studying the long-term effects of Northern Star Coral that never went dormant last winter. He said temperatures were too high in Long Island Sound, so the coral stayed active.
“We brought some in just to check what they were feeding on. And yeah, they were actively feeding throughout the entire winter,” Grace told Connecticut Public’s “Where We Live.” “For me, this is the first winter that we’ve ever experienced this.”
Grace said there are thousands of colonies of corals to study – both in Long Island Sound and Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island.
Funding to Support Research on How Climate Change Is Affecting Fisheries in the Chesapeake Bay
August 3, 2023 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:
NOAA is recommending $1.5 million to support six new projects that will explore the connections among climate change, habitat, and fisheries. Some of the funded projects will quantify how climate change is affecting the habitats different Chesapeake Bay species need. Other projects will develop ways to evaluate how successful nearshore habitat restoration supports fish species and communities in the face of climate change.
New 2023 Projects
We’re recommending funding for six new research projects:
- The Virginia Institute of Marine Science will forecast the effects of climate change on Chesapeake Bay fisheries using physiologically informed habitat models.
- The Virginia Institute of Marine Science will estimate fish density and production enhancement that happen due to restored salt marsh edge habitats.
- The Smithsonian Institution will research the migration ecology of river herring in a changing climate.
- The University of Maryland–Eastern Shore will explore the trophic role, energy densities, and fatty acids composition of forage fish—and their prey.
- The University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science will research how climate change affects striped bass recruitment in the Choptank and Patuxent rivers.
- The University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science will use time series analysis of rare events to quantify the effects of climate change on fish and shellfish.
Over the past 30 years, the average water temperature in the Chesapeake Bay has increased by 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit). Water temperature changes are expected to affect fish abundance, distributions, spawning areas, and migratory patterns.
Changes in precipitation patterns, including more frequent intense storms, will affect salinity levels. That will affect fish species distribution and diversity. NOAA buoys and satellites provide important data to help researchers track trends, but the effects of these trends are not yet well understood. That’s why we need more research on these topics.
Projects receiving these NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office Fisheries Research Program grants were selected through a competitive process. The results of this research will help inform science-based management decisions that are part of protecting and restoring important habitat.
This research will also support our efforts to advance ecosystem-based fishery management. We used recommendations from fishery and resource managers to develop the request for proposals for these grants. We work to deliver the most up-to-date and relevant science to resource managers and decision makers.
At this point in the selection process, the application approval and obligation of funds is not final. Applications are being “recommended” for funding. This is not an authorization to start the project and is not a guarantee of funding.
The world’s oceans are off-the-charts warm — and the worst could be yet to come
July 31, 2023 — Scientists are running out of extreme adjectives to describe the state of the world’s oceans.
Global sea surface temperatures are spiking off the charts. The North Atlantic Ocean, in particular, has for months been engulfed in what scientists have said is an “unprecedented” marine heat wave. The Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean basin have also been unusually warm. The waters off the coast of Florida topped 100 degrees F multiple times this week — temperatures comparable to a hot tub.
What’s more, some scientists say the worst may be yet to come.
“We’re not even at the height of the summer,” said Svenja Ryan, a physical oceanographer at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts. “Typically, the ocean continues to warm until September, so I think certainly we can expect this heat wave to last into the fall.”
This month, parts of the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico were more than 5 degrees F warmer than normal. In recent days, a patch of the North Atlantic off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada — a region normally kept relatively cool by the Labrador Current — was an astounding 9 degrees F warmer than usual, according to Frédéric Cyr, a research scientist at Fisheries and Oceans Canada, a department of the Canadian government that oversees marine science and policy and manages the country’s fisheries.
Cape Cod is one of the world’s largest white shark hotspots, study finds
July 30, 2023 — A first-of-its-kind study found that Cape Cod is one of the world’s largest hotspots for great white sharks.
The new research from the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy, UMass Dartmouth and the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries determined about 800 white sharks paid a visit to Cape waters between 2015 to 2018. It’s the first time scientists have estimated “white shark abundance” in the North Atlantic Ocean, according to the study.
The numbers from Cape Cod are “comparable to but larger than” previous estimates of white shark populations around South Africa, central California, south Australia and Guadalupe Island in Mexico.
The researchers collected nearly 3,000 videos of shark sightings from 137 trips to Cape beaches.
The shark population peaks on Cape Cod around late summer and into early fall when ocean temperatures are the warmest, findings show.
NOAA Takes Ownership of the James J. Howard Laboratory in New Jersey
July 23, 2023 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:
NOAA Fisheries held a transfer of ownership ceremony on Tuesday, July 11, 2023 in front of the James J. Howard Marine Sciences Laboratory building within the Gateway National Recreation Area in Highlands, New Jersey. Guests included NOAA officials, as well as U.S. Rep Frank Pallone, Zach McCue of U.S. Sen. Cory Booker’s staff, Highlands, New Jersey Mayor Carolyn Broullon and Middletown, New Jersey Mayor Anthony Perry.
“It’s a victory for NOAA and the State of New Jersey, but really it’s a victory for the American public,” emphasized NOAA Deputy Under Secretary Ben Friedman. “I’m happy to be here to make this a permanent part of the NOAA family.”
In 1993, this building replaced the original laboratory—a building that became a marine science laboratory in 1961 though it was originally constructed as a military hospital in the late 1800s. The State of New Jersey owned the new building, and NOAA leased space there. The official transfer of ownership was years in the making. Current and retired laboratory staff, NOAA employees from other locations, and local partners gathered for the celebration.
Northeast Fisheries Science Center Director Jon Hare said, “This is a purpose-built seawater laboratory that has the capability to do world-class research. Now that NOAA owns it, we can put it to its full use.”
Fisheries Ecology Branch Chief Beth Phelan emphasized the laboratory’s value to NOAA.
“NOAA is America’s environmental intelligence agency, and our lab here in New Jersey adapts and directs its research to important topics to help produce the best available science,” Phelan said.
She has been a scientist and leader at the laboratory for nearly four decades.
NOAA Issuing Biological Opinion on the Revolution Wind Offshore Energy Project
July 23, 2023 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:
Today, NOAA Fisheries is issuing the final Biological Opinion under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM, lead federal agency). The Biological Opinion considers the effects of the construction, operation, and eventual decommissioning of the proposed Revolution Wind offshore energy project off the coast of Rhode Island and Massachusetts.
NOAA Fisheries has evaluated BOEM’s analysis of the effects of this project on endangered and threatened species, as well as the best scientific and commercial data available, and has concluded that while the proposed action is likely to adversely affect ESA-listed whales, sea turtles, and Atlantic sturgeon, it is not likely to jeopardize the continued existence of any ESA-listed species. The action is not likely to adversely affect any designated critical habitat.
The proposed project includes a number of measures designed to minimize, monitor, and report effects to ESA-listed species, and additional measures are included through the Biological Opinion’s Incidental Take Statement. We do not anticipate any injury or mortality of any ESA-listed whale as a result of the proposed project. We also do not expect any injury to North Atlantic right whales due to exposure to increased sound levels resulting from this project. All effects to North Atlantic right whales will be limited to temporary behavioral disturbance. Additionally, no effects to the features of North Atlantic right whale critical habitat are anticipated.
BOEM is the lead federal agency for approving the construction, operation, and decommissioning of the proposed Revolution Wind offshore energy project. NOAA Fisheries’ Office of Protected Resources is also proposing to issue regulations and an associated Letter of Authorization pursuant to the Marine Mammal Protection Act, which was evaluated through the Biological Opinion. Other authorizations or permits will be required from a number of other federal agencies.
We will continue working closely with BOEM and other federal agencies to ensure effects from the Revolution Wind offshore energy project to NOAA Fisheries’ trust resources are minimized.
The Biological Opinion will be available online upon publication in our libraryin approximately 10 days.
Global Fishing Watch gets USD 60 million to apply AI towards ending IUU
July 23, 2023 — Global Fishing Watch has received a USD 60 million (EUR 53 million) commitment through “The Audacious Project” which it says will help it use AI to map more than one million ocean-going vessels and all fixed infrastructure at sea over the next five years.
The Audacious Project is housed within TED, a nonprofit best known for “TED Talks” devoted to “ideas worth spreading.” Each year the project selects a cohort of projects that represent solutions to critical challenges facing the world.
New review shows bottom trawling is sustainable (when well-managed)
July 20, 2023 — The following is an excerpt from an article published by Sustainable Fisheries UW:
Seafood produced by bottom trawling can have a lower environmental impact than chicken or pork, according to a new review paper published yesterday. Writing in the ICES Journal of Marine Science, Hilborn et al. 2023 argues that banning bottom trawling would increase negative environmental impacts by increasing terrestrial protein production.
Hilborn et al. 2023, reviewed dozens of papers about bottom trawling impact, including stock sustainability, bycatch, ecosystem impact, and carbon footprint. Though bottom trawling is generally the most impactful kind of fishing, well-managed bottom trawl fisheries produce food with a much lower environmental impact than any terrestrial animal protein.
A review paper summarizes the current knowledge on a particular topic by combing through and presenting conclusions from recent publications. In this case, Hilborn et al. 2023 reviewed the existing literature on the environmental impacts of bottom trawling and summarized four major impacts: Sustainability of target species, impact on benthic ecosystems, bycatch and discard, carbon emissions.
The key to reducing impacts and sustaining fisheries is management. Bottom trawling can be a low-impact form of food production in places with effective management. Bottom trawling can be highly destructive in areas with little capacity for environmental management (like many developing nations in Asia).
In this post, we summarize the findings from the four major impacts, discuss what effective bottom trawling management looks like, and compare the environmental impact of bottom trawling to other forms of food production.
Lost fishing gear represents up to 75 percent of plastic found on coral reefs
July 20, 2022 — Lost and discarded fishing “ghost gear” accounted for as much as 75 percent of plastic pollution found on the world’s coral reefs, according to a study, “Plastic pollution on the world’s coral reefs,” published 12 July in Nature.
Every one of the 85 coral reefs included in the global study was found polluted with plastic, including deeper reefs between 30 and 150 meters deep. Comoros was found to have the most-polluted reefs, with nearly 84,500 plastic items found per square kilometer, while the Marshall Islands had the least-polluted reefs at 580 pieces of plastic per square kilometer.
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