Saving Seafood

Sea Grant Funds New Technology to Monitor for Harmful Algal Blooms

October 18, 2018 — A new system using next-generation robotic sensors to monitor coastal waters for disease-causing microalgae has been funded by the NOAA Sea Grant Program as part of a national strategic investment in aquaculture.

The PhytO-ARM (Phytoplankton Observing for Automated Real-time Management), under development by a team led by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) biologist Mike Brosnahan, will vastly improve our ability to detect harmful algal blooms (HABs) and the toxins they produce and provide aquaculturists, resource managers, and others detailed, real-time information about the bloom using a web-based, user-friendly dashboard.

“Clams and oysters grown in our coastal waters depend on phytoplankton as an important food source, yet some phytoplankton produce toxins, which accumulate in shellfish and pose a threat to humans and other animals that consume them,” says Brosnahan. “The information the system provides is very powerful and holds great potential for protecting human health and maximizing aquaculture operations.”

The project’s intent is to streamline the system so that it can be adapted for a range of uses, including by farmers to protect and maximize their shellfish yields; resource managers anticipating and responding to outbreaks to protect human health, and scientists working to better understand HAB dynamics in our changing environment.

In its most sophisticated form, the PhytO-ARM system couples two powerful sensors: the Imaging FlowCytobot (IFCB), which continuously records microscope images of phytoplankton and identifies them in real time; and a new high capacity Environmental Sample Processor (ESP), a “molecular lab in a can” that can positively identify species and toxins. “This system will provide rapid biotoxin measurements, alerting managers to the presence of biotoxins that cause severe, even fatal reactions in humans,” says Brosnahan.

A smaller scale version of the system couples the IFCB with a profiling conductivity-temperature-depth (CTD) probe to provide rich pictures of the distribution of phytoplankton around shellfish beds, which can inform and trigger management actions.

“Many harmful algal bloom species migrate vertically through the water column,” says Brosnahan. “By combining these sensors we can focus sampling on where cells are most abundant. Knowledge of the vertical distribution of cells may also enable farmers to tweak nursery operations to limit the exposure of juvenile animals to harmful algae.”

Another powerful aspect of the system is in monitoring not only the organisms that are known to have caused problems for many decades, but also for detecting species that are nascent problems for the aquaculture industry. New England has a well-established biotoxin problem with Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning caused by the phytoplankton Alexandrium. But the region is experiencing emergent problems with biotoxins from Pseudo-nitzschia and Dinophysis, both of which have caused shellfish bed closures in recent years. With real-time data from PhytO-ARM sensors, resource managers can detect and monitor potentially toxic phytoplankton cells that are normally not part of their monitoring program.

Brosnahan has first-hand experience with this. In 2015, working with a proto-type PhytO-ARM system in Nauset Marsh on Cape Cod, Brosnahan and his team spotted some unusual cells. “We had finished with our work with the Alexandrium bloom and our IFCB was showing relatively high numbers of Dinophysis acuminata – a dinoflagellate that causes diarrhetic shellfish poisoning or DSP,” he says. “We were able to continue monitoring the development of the Dinophysis bloom throughout the summer and alerted the Massachusetts Department of Marine Fisheries and collaborators at FDA to a potential hazard, which ultimately resulted in the first closure of a shellfish bed due to DSP in the northeast U.S.”

Read the full story at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute

MASSACHUSETTS: New commission created to study ocean acidificaton

October 18, 2018 — David Ryan and Al Suprenant have a lot invested in their business.

The co-owners of Cape Cod Oyster Co. in Marstons Mills have eight full-time employees working 54 acres of ocean bottom on three sites; a 4,000-square-foot processing plant, two truck drivers, two bookkeepers, a fleet of refrigerated box trucks and five 28-foot vessels.

It takes careful planning, and a steady supply and demand for their product to keep it all rolling. They dread the reversals of fortune nature can dole out, such as occurred during a sudden onslaught of ocean acidification in the Pacific Northwest a decade ago that caused a 70 percent to 80 percent die-off of oyster larvae in Washington state hatcheries. One-quarter of the carbon in the atmosphere is absorbed by the ocean, forming an acid that inhibits shell building, particularly in larvae. Since the beginning of the industrial era 525 billion tons of carbon dioxide has been absorbed by the ocean, 22 million tons per day, according to a Smithsonian report.

“The West Coast was taken completely by surprise,” Ryan said Tuesday.

Washington was the largest aquaculture industry in the country with over 3,000 jobs but half the state’s production and hundreds of employees had to be relocated to Hawaii to avoid the acidic water that was delivered to the coastline by a slow-moving current.

Avoiding that kind of surprise in Massachusetts — where the aquaculture industry produced $28 million of oysters and other shellfish in 2017 — and in Barnstable County — with 270 licensed growers who produced over $12 million worth of shellfish — is why Ryan and Suprenant supported state Sen. Julian Cyr, D-Truro, and state Rep. Dylan Fernandes, D-Woods Hole, in their pursuit of legislation to create an Ocean Acidification Commission in the Bay State.

The commission is intended to foster research as well as legislative and other solutions to a problem often described as the evil twin of the global warming caused by climate change. On Tuesday, Cyr and Fernandes chose Cape Cod Oyster Co. headquarters to announce the official launch of the acidification commission, which was authorized under the latest state environmental bond bill this summer.

“This is a real challenge for our burgeoning aquaculture industry,” Cyr said, promising to leverage the power of state agencies, the wealth of research being done by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, and the fishing industry to offset the effects of ocean acidification.

It’s not just aquaculture in state waters, but larger federal fisheries that are potentially in peril, including sea scallops and lobsters. Massachusetts harvested 29.2 million pounds of sea scallops in 2016 worth over $350 million. State lobstermen caught 17.7 million pounds of lobster worth $82 million.

The problem has not been well publicized because the effects occur out of sight, said Laurence Madin, WHOI vice president of research.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

Researchers Find Bright Sides to Some Invasive Species

October 16, 2o18 — Off the shores of Newfoundland, Canada, an ecosystem is unraveling at the hands (or pincers) of an invasive crab.

Some 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) to the south, the same invasive crab — the European green crab — is helping New England marshes rebuild.

Both cases are featured in a new study that shows how the impacts of these alien invaders are not always straightforward.

Around the world, invasive species are a major threat to many coastal ecosystems and the benefits they provide, from food to clean water. Attitudes among scientists are evolving, however, as more research demonstrates that they occasionally carry a hidden upside.

“It’s complicated,” said Christina Simkanin, a biologist at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, “which isn’t a super-satisfying answer if you want a direct, should we keep it or should we not? But it’s the reality.”

Simkanin co-authored a new study showing that on the whole, coastal ecosystems store more carbon when they are overrun by invasive species.

Take the contradictory case of the European green crab. These invaders were first spotted in Newfoundland in 2007. Since then, they have devastated eelgrass habitats, digging up native vegetation as they burrow for shelter or dig for prey. Eelgrass is down 50 percent in places the crabs have moved into. Some sites have suffered total collapse.

That’s been devastating for fish that spend their juvenile days among the seagrass. Where the invasive crabs have moved in, the total weight of fish is down tenfold.

The loss of eelgrass also means these underwater meadows soak up less planet-warming carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

In Cape Cod, Massachusetts, the same crab is having the opposite impact.

Off the coast of New England, fishermen have caught too many striped bass and blue crabs. These species used to keep native crab populations in check. Without predators to hold them back, native crabs are devouring the marshes.

Read the full story at VOA News

Massachusetts Maritime Academy Receives $69,600 in Grant Money

October 11, 2018 — As part of a $450,000 state grant program that promotes the blue economy, the Massachusetts Maritime Academy is receiving $69,600 to pursue a project on hydrokinetic energy.

The Academy will develop a marine hydrokinetic oceanographic data portal that will be hosted live and available online to anyone, building on the Academy’s expertise as an academic test center for marine hydrokinetic energy (e.g. tidal flow) generators and instrumentation. The new data portal will have uses for commercial users in renewable energy, aquaculture, recreational mariners, educators, and the general public. MMA has several marine research and aquaculture programs generating live oceanographic data, in addition to separate video cameras which cover Cape Cod Canal marine traffic and provide high-definition video from 20 feet under water.

The project will modify these independent systems into one visual portal and will give the internet a real time view of science, technology, engineering and mathematics at work. The project will also work cooperatively with a 60kW hydrokinetic (tidal) turbine that can be used for environmental testing, workforce development training and power production, infrastructure funded through a $150,000 investment by the Commonwealth. The turbine, housed on a mobile barge, will act as a test site which will tie into the data portal, allowing viewers of the portal to view the output of the barge throughout the varying tidal cycles and in real-time.

Read the full story at CapeCod.com

After A Shark Attack, Addressing Cape Cod’s Growing Seal Population

October 10, 2018 — In the wake of the Cape’s first shark fatality, there have been increasing concerns about the seal population and its impact on tourism and the economy of fisheries, which leaves many people wondering — does Cape Cod have a seal problem?

Out at the Chatham Harbor fish pier, tourists gather on an observation deck to watch gray seals wait for scraps from nearby fishing boats. The spot is well-known amongst pinniped lovers like Debbie Hinds-Gale, a visitor from Syracuse, NY who returns to this place every year her family visits the Cape. She pointed out at a seal not far from the shore.

“There’s another one with its fins up, I think it’s fun when they lay on their backs like that and put their fins up in the air, it’s like they’re doing tricks for you,” she said, adding that she could watch them for hours. “To me it almost looks like a smaller manatee, but their faces, I think look like they’re between a dog and a horse face.”

But for others, the seals have become more than just adorable creatures to see on vacation. The Cape’s population of gray seals has grown dramatically in the past 20 years. For fisherman Mike Rathgeber who runs fishing tours out of Provincetown, the seals have become a nuisance.

Read the full story at WGBH

 

Feds asked to take action to prevent herring overfishing

October 4, 2018 — Fisheries managers in New England are asking the federal government to take action to try to reduce the possibility of overfishing in the herring fishery.

Herring is an important small fish on the East Coast, and recent assessments of the stock show that it is in decline.

The New England Fishery Management Council recently approved a host of new restrictions for the fishery, voting to supplement severe rollbacks of herring quotas with a new inshore buffer zone aimed specifically at preventing mid-water trawlers — such as Gloucester-based Cape Seafoods’ 141-foot boats, Challenger and Endeavour — from fishing within 12 miles of shore in most areas of the Northeast.

In some areas around Cape Cod, the buffer zone expands to 20 to 25 miles.

The council also has requested the National Marine Fisheries Service set catch limits for next year’s fishery. If approved, 2019 catch levels will be capped at 21,226 metric tons — less than half of the 50,000 metric tons allowed in 2018.

The council says swift action by the federal agency is needed to “reduce the probability of overfishing.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Findings from summer ’18 right whale study

October 4, 2018 — The Northeast Fisheries Science Center’s right whale aerial survey team was busy documenting whales off Cape Cod and in the Gulf of Maine during the spring. Once the season started to change and sightings got sparse in U.S. waters, the team packed up and headed to Canada, where they helped with whale survey efforts for a second year from June 1 through Aug. 12.

“Once we started seeing just a few right whales in Cape Cod and Massachusetts Bay in the late spring and few in the Gulf of Maine, we knew many had likely moved further north into Canadian waters and into the Gulf of St. Lawrence,” said Tim Cole from the NEFSC’s aerial survey team.

“Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans invited us to come help them conduct surveys over the summer. We focused in the area where most of the right whales were aggregated, while they surveyed throughout the Gulf and Maritimes regions to chart the distribution of right whales and the abundance of other marine mammal species.”

The NOAA Fisheries team and the NOAA Twin Otter were based for the summer in Moncton, New Brunswick. They worked in the western part of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, making six-hour flights several times a week and as often as possible, weather permitting, at an altitude of 1,000 feet.

They looked primarily for right whales but also recorded sightings of other large whales. Over the nearly three months of survey effort, the NOAA team was joined by staff from the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies, Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Center, and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

Sightings included fin, humpback, blue, and North Atlantic right whales. In June, for example, the team recorded 79 fin whales, 4 blue whales, 21 humpback whales, and 301 right whales. Many of the right whale sightings are repeated sightings of the same whales.

Read the full story at Wicked Local Eastham

‘They’re eating our children’: Hundreds of furious Cape Cod beachgoers demand officials kill off seals to help cut down shark attacks after 26-year-old man is killed

October 1, 2018 — Residents of Cape Cod are demanding city officials do more to protect beachgoers following two shark attacks this year, one of which was fatal.

Hundreds of concerned locals packed into the Wellfleet Elementary School gym on Thursday for a public forum with officials and experts to discuss possible ways to keep people safe from sharks.

One by one residents tossed out a number of suggestions on how to deter sharks, including demanding officials to look into reducing the growing seal population on Cape Cod beaches. Many believe increased numbers of seals are attracting sharks hunting for food.

‘The seal population on the Cape is way of our control. They’re eating all of our fish and now they’re eating all of our children,’ said resident Gail Sluis of Brewster.

‘No sharks or seals are worth a young man’s life — they’re just not,’ she added.

According to a 2017 report by Cape Cod Times, there are 30,000 to 50,000 seals living in the waters of Southern Massachusetts, primarily on and around Cape Cod.

City officials acknowledged the seal population has grown tremendously but told locals at the forum that there are federal laws preventing the removal of seals.

Read the full story at the Daily Mail

Cape Codders call for killing sharks, seals following fatal attack

September 28, 2018 — WELLFLEET, Mass. — Several of the hundreds of people who turned out here last night for a public forum on sharks in the wake of the first fatal attack in Massachusetts in more than 80 years urged officials to kill them or the seals that tend to attract them.

Laurie Voke of Eastham said this month’s death of Arthur Medici, a 26-year-old boogie-boarder from Revere, said shark attacks on seals swimming near people on outer Cape Cod have become “too numerous to count” in recent years, but officials have failed to lift the fishing ban on white sharks or to take steps to control the number of seals.

“Instead, certain government officials have given pet names to white sharks and prioritized the lives and safety of sharks and seals over that of those who swim in the cape water,” Voke, the mother of four lifeguards, told a panel of officials and experts on the animals.

Read the full story at the Boston Herald

 

MASSACHUSETTS: New herring rules prompt angst at dock

September 27, 2018 — The protections for the Northeast herring fishery enacted this week by the New England Fishery Management Council are not welcome news for Cape Seafoods and could force the Gloucester-based seafood company to change the way it fishes.

The council, meeting this week in Plymouth, voted to supplement severe rollbacks of herring quotas with a new inshore buffer zone aimed specifically at preventing mid-water trawlers — such as Cape Seafoods’ 141-foot boats, Challenger and Endeavour — from fishing within 12 miles of shore in most areas of the Northeast.

In some areas around Cape Cod, the buffer zone expands to 20 to 25 miles.

The council also voted for cuts in catch levels for the next three years. In 2019, catch levels will be capped at 21,226 metric tons — less than half of the 50,000 metric tons allowed in 2018. Those catch-level reductions and the creation of the buffer zone still must be approved by NOAA Fisheries.

“It’s not good,” Gerry O’Neill, president of Cape Seafoods, said Wednesday. “The majority of fish we catch every year are caught inside that 12-mile buffer. The long and short of it is this is going to have a serious impact on our business and I’m not really sure what we will do to survive it.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times