Saving Seafood

Lecturers talk global conservation efforts, decline of fisheries

October 31, 2015 — Artist James Prosek uses fish as inspiration for his work.

Prosek, who has also written 13 books, told stories at a Saturday lecture at SUNY-ESF of when he was 9 years old and trespassing rivers to fish. Though his youth involved catching and releasing 30 fish to take a picture, Prosek said he now prefers to catch one and eat it.

About 100 people attended the most recent installment of the SUNY-ESF Dale L. Travis Public Lecture Series, which focused on the future of fisheries. The lecture, entitled “The Future of Fisheries: Choices, Decisions, and the Role of the Arts,” featured five speakers: Karin Limburg, John Waldman, Prosek, David Doubilet and Jennifer Hayes.

During the lecture, Swedish folk music played in the background.

The music tied into Limburg’s discussion about fish hook experiments in Gotland, Sweden. Limburg was the first of five speakers during the lecture, which took place in Marshall Hall on the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry campus.

The talk opened with a traditional  reading and translation by a Haudenosaunee representative. The excerpt concluded with, “Now our minds are one.”

In addition to discussing her fish hook experiments, Limburg spoke in depth about her study of otoliths, which are chronometers in the ear of a fish that show its precise age and chemical makeup.

Read the full story at The Daily Orange

 

Inside North Carolina Science: DNA markers track fish migration

November 1, 2015 — On a cloudy spring day last year, I had the opportunity to go out on the Roanoke River with biologists from the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission. I collected fish with them as part of my job as a geneticist at the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences. We work in conjunction with NCWRC and use genetics to track and manage stocking programs for American shad, a native fish currently in decline.

In an effort to bring American shad back to traditional population numbers, NCWRC goes out on the Roanoke and Neuse rivers every spring to collect adult American shad returning to spawn. These fish are taken to hatcheries to spawn; eggs are allowed to hatch safely without being eaten by the predators that share their river ecosystem. The baby fish, called fry, are then released back into the river. In the fall, NCWRC goes back onto the rivers to see how many juvenile fish they can find.

Read the full story at The Charlotte Observer

Conowingo Dam fish-lift overhaul urged to restore Susquehanna’s shad, eels

August 12, 2015 — Federal wildlife officials are calling for Exelon Corp. to overhaul its fish lifts at Conowingo Dam, arguing it’s the only way to revive the Susquehanna River’s depleted stocks of the iconic American shad, eels and other once-important fish.

In comments submitted to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recommended the lifts be rebuilt and enlarged as a condition of renewing Exelon’s license to generate hydroelectric power at Conowingo.

The service also wants the power company to help more eels get upriver — by truck for now.

Rebuilding the dam’s fish lifts could cost millions of dollars. Exelon is reviewing the wildlife service’s prescription for improving fish passage, said Robert Judge, a spokesman for the Chicago-based parent of Baltimore Gas and Electric.

The service’s proposal comes after years of negotiations between Exelon and officials from Maryland, Pennsylvania and federal agencies over the dam’s relicensing, which has been hung up in part by debates over how to deal with a buildup behind the dam of bay-fouling sediment and nutrient pollution washed down the river.

The company’s license to operate Conowingo expired last year, but the federal commission has extended the permit while the parties attempt to work out their differences over the sediment buildup, fish passage and other issues.

“We’ve reached a crucial period,” said Genevieve LaRouche, supervisor of the wildlife service’s Chesapeake Bay field office. “It’s a 46-year license. It’s kind of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to do something.”

LaRouche said the service hasn’t costed out the upgrades yet. But state and federal officials have previously said current fish passage facilities could be tweaked for less than $1 million, while replacing both fish lifts could run $24 million or more.

Read the full story at The Baltimore Sun