Saving Seafood

In California’s Protected Waters, Counting Fish Without Getting Wet

September 8, 2015 — Diver Dan Abbott unloads his scuba gear on a beach in Monterey, Calif. — his tank, flippers and a waterproof clipboard covered in tally marks. He spent the morning counting fish: pile perch, black perch, blue rockfish and kelp rockfish are among the 150 fish he spotted.

Abbott is diving with a team from Reef Check California, a group of volunteers doing underwater surveys by counting everything in the kelp forest in Monterey Bay.

He’s part of an effort to determine whether there are more fish in the waters now than there were eight years ago. That’s when this kelp forest was set aside as a marine protected area, where there’s little or no fishing allowed, part of a huge experiment to restore marine life.

There are more than a hundred protected areas off California, covering 16 percent of state waters, and the only way to know if they’re working is for Abbott and others to keep checking the marine population year after year.

Read the full story at New York Now

Why Freezing Didn’t Keep Sushi Tuna Safe From Salmonella

September 2, 2015 — A recent outbreak of Salmonella in frozen tuna might have sushi lovers wondering if it’s safe to eat that raw fish.

The outbreak in question began in California in March. All told, it sickened 65 people in 11 states. There were 35 cases in California, with another 18 in Arizona and New Mexico. The rest of the cases were scattered across the country, including four in Minnesota.

Most of the victims interviewed by public health investigators said they’d eaten sushi made with raw tuna in the week before they became ill. It was the Minnesota Department of Health that discovered the outbreak strains of Salmonella in some frozen raw tuna imported from Indonesia. The California importer, Osamu Corp., had shipped the frozen tuna to sushi restaurants and grocery stores that make sushi throughout the U.S.

In late August, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that the outbreak was over. But the agency warned that some of the recalled tuna might still be lurking in the freezers of restaurants uninformed about the outbreak, so people could still get sick.

Read the full story at New York Now

Drought Forces Trout to Be Trucked From California Hatchery

August 13, 2015 — FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — Tons of rainbow trout had to be rescued from a Central California fish hatchery and moved by truck to cooler lake water, sparing them from the state’s relentless drought, wildlife officials said Wednesday.

About 80,000 pounds of trout were scooped up from the San Joaquin Hatchery near Fresno and hauled 30 miles uphill to Shaver Lake in the Sierra Nevada foothills. Temperatures in Millerton Lake, which flow through into the hatchery on the San Joaquin River, had reached nearly 70 degrees, threatening the trout’s survival, The Fresno Bee reported (http://bit.ly/1Ns8OG3 ).

“The drought is having a devastating effect,” California Department of Fish and Wildlife spokesman Andrew Hughan said. “We’re really making an effort to save as many fish as we can and get them into cold water before it gets any warmer.”

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The New York Times 

Climate change causes timing shifts in fish reproduction

August 10, 2015 — SAN DIEGO, Calif. — Research by Rebecca Asch, a recent graduate of Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, shows a strong correlation between warmer ocean temperatures and changes in the timing of fish reproduction.

The study, “Climate Change and Decadal Shifts in the Phenology of Larval Fishes in the California Current Ecosystem ,” was published in the July 9 early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. This is the first study to examine the effects of temperature, upwelling, and abundance of zooplankton on fish phenology in the Southern California Current ecosystem.

Climate variability has changed the seasonal cycle of larvae production by fishes in the California Current. Such shifts in seasonal, biological processes are known as phenology. Changes in phenology are studied by scientists as a key way to assess the effects of climate change on a species.

There have been extensive studies on the phenology of terrestrial (land) species, but comparatively few studies on how climate variability affects seasonal behavior of marine species. Existing studies indicate that changes in seasonal cycles are occurring earlier in most terrestrial ecosystems. Climate change may cause the phenology of marine animals to change more rapidly than terrestrial species.

Unseasonably warm ocean temperatures may also affect migration patterns, bringing several marine species usually found in regions closer to the Equator closer to Southern California. In February, a pod of false killer whales were seen from the Scripps Pier; this was the first time these whales have been seen north of central Baja California.

Read the full story at Phys.org

U.S. court upholds California ban on shark fins

July 27, 2015 — SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — A federal appeals court upheld California’s ban on possession or sale of shark fins Monday, rejecting a challenge by Bay Area suppliers and sellers of shark fin soup, a traditional dish in the Chinese American community.

The law prohibited selling and serving shark fin soup when it took effect in July 2013. Opponents, including restaurants, Chinese American community organizations and shark fin suppliers, argued that the law exceeded the state’s authority and interfered with a commercial fishing market that federal regulations were intended to preserve. Federal laws prohibit shark “finning,” the removal of fins from live sharks, but do not forbid possessing or selling shark fins.

But the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said federal laws on shark fishing recognize the importance of conservation and allow states to adopt their own protective measures, even if they reduce the number of sharks that might otherwise be caught and sold.

“The purpose of the shark fin law is to conserve state resources, prevent animal cruelty, and protect wildlife and public health,” said Judge Andrew Hurwitz in the 2-1 ruling, which upheld a federal judge’s decision in the state’s favor.

Read the full story at San Francisco Chronicle

 

MARK BITTMAN: What oysters tell us about ocean acidification

July 21, 2015 — MARK BITTMAN — This is kind of the good news/bad news department, as so many things are: The good news is that terrific oysters are being farmed in several locations in California; the bad news is that ocean acidification — the absorption of carbon dioxide into the sea, a direct result of high levels of carbon in the atmosphere — is a direct threat to that industry.

I saw both when I visited Hog Island Oyster Co. in Marshall, an operation north of San Francisco on Tomales Bay. (Actually, I’ve eaten at and of Hog Island dozens of times, and even shot video there for a PBS series more than 10 years ago.)

Read the full story and watch the video at The New York Times 

 

Congress probing California oil spill that blackened beaches

June 25, 2015 — LOS ANGELES (AP) — A congressional committee Thursday opened a probe into an oil pipeline rupture on the Central California coast that spread to the Pacific Ocean and washed up goo on beaches as far as 100 miles away.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee asked operator Plains All American Pipeline for detailed information on maintenance of the failed line, including how it addressed corrosion, and inspection records for five years.

The panel also wants the company to explain what it did in the hours leading up to the break near Santa Barbara, and how it reported the problem. The spill was estimated at up to 101,000 gallons.

The Texas-based company has faced criticism for how long it took to relay information to the federal government on the break, even though its internal planning documents repeatedly stress the importance of notifying the government of a leak as quickly as possible.

In a letter to Plains CEO Greg Armstrong, the committee said it wanted to understand the circumstances leading up to the break, as well as what steps the company had taken to maintain the integrity of the line.

The cause of the accident is being investigated by the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.

Earlier this month, the agency released preliminary findings that said the break occurred along a badly corroded section that had worn away to a fraction of an inch in thickness. An estimated 21,000 gallons entered the ocean.

In a separate letter Thursday, the committee asked the pipeline administration for an update of what it called long overdue pipeline safety rules.

Read the full story at U.S. News & World Report

 

Spike in Northeast Lobster Price Stings LA Distributor

June 23, 2015 — The days of cheap lobster are over. From Maine to Monterey Park, consumers are shelling out more for the delicacy.

Wholesale prices are up about 20% compared with last year’s, said Chol Pak, president of Los Angeles-based Pacific Fresh Fish Co., which has sold seafood to restaurants in the L.A. area for 33 years.

His company sells Maine American Lobster for $8.95 per pound. Sales are down, he said, because that’s more than most of his buyers want to pay.

William Cheng, manager at NBC Seafood Restaurant in Monterey Park, said that at $16.99 a pound, the restaurant is charging customers $1 more a pound than last year.

“We don’t want to raise the price a lot because then the customers would have to pay more and there is just too much competition,” he said.

One reason for the price increase: An unusually cold winter in the Northeast delayed the summer harvest in Maine. Fishermen must wait until lobsters shed their shells and reach legal harvesting size.

Read the full story at Los Angeles Times

 

CALIFORNIA: Disappearing Porpoise: Down to 97 and Dropping Fast

June 19, 2015 — CALIFORNIA — The world’s most endangered porpoise is disappearing much faster than previously believed, according to a new report from the International Committee for the Recovery of the Vaquita.

Found only in the northern Gulf of California, the remaining 97 vaquitas are threatened by gill-net fishing. Despite an emergency two-year ban enacted by the Mexican government in April, fishermen still use the nets.

Recent data from acoustic monitoring show that the species is declining by an average of 30 percent a year — much higher than the previous estimate of 18.5 percent, which scientists said was the steepest decline of cetaceans on record.

Read the full story at the New York Times