Saving Seafood

Researchers Study the Effects of Harmful Algal Blooms

December 1, 2021 — The sample bottle came back from the river, over the gunwale, and into the boat. The water sample was a dark reddish-brown, like strong, steeped tea that you are unable to see through. Literally tens of thousands of algal cells made up every drop of the water sample. Back at the laboratory, scientists at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) will analyze the sample to determine the type and density of algal species in the water. The samples, taken from the York River in the Southern Chesapeake Bay allow scientists to study harmful algal blooms, also called HABs. According to NOAA’s National Centers for Coastal and Ocean Science, almost every state in the nation now experiences some kind of HAB event. The number of hypoxic water bodies in the United States has increased 30 fold since the 1960s, with more than 300 coastal systems now impacted.

As you might guess from the name, the tiny microscopic organisms making up HABs are algae, which are a very diverse group of organisms. Phytoplankton are a type of algae usually responsible for creating blooms. Most often, these phytoplankton are made up of an equally diverse group of organisms known as dinoflagellates, which can be found in both fresh and marine waters.

Blooms Occur Worldwide

HABs are a growing concern worldwide, occurring in the Gulf of Mexico and surprising places such as the Alaskan Arctic. Globally warming water temperatures, a result of our changing climate, is one reason blooms are occurring more frequently and over a global scale.

Read the full story at NOAA Fisheries

Researchers map best conditions for forage fishes in the Chesapeake

October 28, 2021 — Big fish eat smaller fish, but only if there are smaller fish to eat. A new study led by researchers at William & Mary’s Virginia Institute of Marine Science maps the conditions most suitable for key species of forage fishes in the Chesapeake Bay, offering guidance for any future efforts to protect or restore the habitat required to yield sufficient prey for predatory fishes such as striped bass.

Lead author on the study, which appears in the October issue of Frontiers in Marine Science, is Dr. Mary Fabrizio, a professor and chair of Fisheries Science at VIMS. Co-authors are fellow VIMS researcher Dr. Troy Tuckey, along with Drs. Aaron Bever and Michael MacWilliams of Anchor QEA, LLC. Bever is a VIMS alum.

“Small fishes such as bay anchovy are important components of the diets of predatory fishes in Chesapeake Bay,” says Fabrizio, “but factors that affect local abundances of these  fish have been largely unexplored.”

To throw light on these factors, the research team set out to quantify and map suitable habitats for four common species of forage fishes in Bay waters, and to assess the relationship between habitat extent and fish abundance. In addition to bay anchovy, the forage species studied were juvenile spot, juvenile spotted hake, and juvenile weakfish.

The team based their study on data generated by counting the number of forage fishes caught in a trawl net during fishery surveys conducted by VIMS and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources between 2000 and 2016. These surveys sample at more than 100 sites throughout the Bay each month. They coupled these catch data with output from computer models simulating the environmental conditions at each sampling site. These conditions include water depth and temperature, salinity, stratification, dissolved-oxygen levels, and current speeds. The researchers also noted whether the bay floor beneath each net tow was sandy or muddy, and the distance to the nearest shoreline.

Read the full story at Phys.org

Fishery managers set deadline on rockfish rebuild

October 27, 2021 — At its 2021 Annual Meeting last week, the Atlantic Striped Bass Board of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) took a positive step toward rebuilding our beloved rockfish stock from its currently depleted condition.

The move came in response to news from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (MD DNR) that its 2021 Juvenile Striped Bass Index was 3.2, well below the annual average of 11.4 for the third consecutive year. In fact, it
has been below average for ten of the past 16 years. Virginia’s index of 6.30 was closer to, but still below, its long-term average of 7.77.

Concern about rockfish has been building for at least five years, and ASMFC’s Striped Bass Board initiated development of a new amendment (number 7, but the first since 2003) to the fishery management plan last winter. The Board’s May meeting sketched out six priorities for the Commission’s Plan Development Team to build into the amendment. The team submitted its draft for Board approval at last week’s meeting.

Read the full story at Chesapeake Bay Magazine

 

Maryland oyster industry hoping for rebound as new season begins

October 26, 2021 — This time last year, Jason Wilford was preparing to bring his farm-grown oysters to a Thanksgiving pop-up sale in Easton.

Events like that one were something of a lifeline for Wilford, a newcomer to the industry. With the coronavirus pandemic raging as the weather grew colder in the fall of 2020, many seafood restaurants were closed or offered only carryout. There was practically nowhere for his first batch of hand-raised oysters to go.

Experts say covid-19 depressed demand for oysters, in part because shucking them wasn’t popular among diners looking for quick to-go meals. That sank prices for harvesters on the Chesapeake Bay.

This year, aquaculture farmers such as Wilford and those in the rest of the oyster industry — watermen, seafood restaurants and distributors — are hoping for a rebound in demand.

Read the full story at the Washington Post

Virginia’s striped bass forecast looks stable as juvenile numbers hold steady

October 20, 2021 — Juvenile striped bass numbers are holding steady in Virginia’s Chesapeake Bay tributaries, the latest annual survey by the Virginia Institute of Marine Science found.

But a parallel survey in Maryland waters showed below-average numbers.

The surveys look at striped bass that hatched in the spring and that will be large enough to catch, legally, in three to four years.

Preliminary results of the Virginia survey showed an average of 6.3 fish for each haul of a seine net in the James, York and Rappahannock rivers. These young striped bass usually measure between 1.5 and 4 inches. That’s the 9th consecutive year of average or above average results, VIMS said.

Read the full story and listen to the audio at the Daily Press

 

Maryland Striped Bass Survey Below Average for 3rd Year

October 19, 2021 — Maryland’s juvenile striped bass survey finds rockfish reproduction is below average for the third year in a row, continuing a worrisome trend. Virginia’s survey, meanwhile, shows a nine-year streak of average or above-average reproduction.

Both states conduct surveys of young-of-year striped bass to track reproductive success of the Bay’s treasured fish. The Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) reports an index of 3.2 in the 2021 survey, which remains well below the long-term average of 11.4.

DNR is optimistic, saying in a press release, “The coastal striped bass population has decreased in size, but is still capable of strong reproduction with the right environmental conditions. Variable spawning success is a well-known characteristic of the species.”

They do acknowledge that the below-average numbers “are a concern”. In 2019 the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) determined the striped bass species was being overfished, and set new limits for East Coast states to follow. Still, some environmental groups and even anglers feel that states like Maryland should be doing more.

Read the full story at Chesapeake Bay Magazine

 

Biologists use trucks to help shad reach spawning ground

September 23, 2021 — The long-running effort to get American shad back to their historic spawning grounds this year enlisted a tool that had been abandoned two decades ago: trucks.

With operation of the multi-million dollar fish lifts halted at Conowingo Dam, biologists resorted to capturing shad below the dam and trucking them upstream before releasing the fish back into the Susquehanna River to continue their spawning migration.

By the time the trucks stopped running on June 5, they hauled more than 6,300 shad upstream. That’s a fraction of the number that swam upriver during historic shad runs, but it’s the most that got past the first three dams on the river in more than a decade.

And it wouldn’t have happened without the trucks. Fish lifts at the 94-foot-high dam have not operated for two years because of concerns that invasive species such as northern snakeheads and blue catfish were moving upstream through the fish lifts, too.

“From a shad perspective, we feel like in the short term it is best to get as many to the spawning grounds as we can,” said Sheila Eyler, who coordinates fish restoration efforts on the Susquehanna for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

American shad definitely needed the helping hand.

Read the full story at the Bay Journal

 

$14.7 Million NOAA Marine Debris Grant Includes Mid-Atlantic Projects

September 13, 2021 — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is tackling the growing issue of marine debris, funding cleanup and research projects nationwide. A $7.3 million grant is matched to a total of $14.7 million—which will make 25 different projects possible, including some in the Bay region.

Of the funding, about $1.4 million will support five marine debris research projects, including one in Maryland and one in Delaware. The grantees will “investigate and identify the critical input pathways for marine debris introduction into the coastal zone,” NOAA says.

Read the full story at Chesapeake Bay Magazine

 

New regulations credited for decrease in striped bass harvest

August 20, 2021 — Striped bass catches were down along the Atlantic coast last year, an early sign that tough regulations imposed across 15 states are helping the species recover from years of overfishing.

A new report from the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission estimates that in 2020 nearly 5.1 million striped bass were “removed,” a figure that includes commercial and recreational catches as well as those that likely died after being caught and released.

The harvest count has fluctuated widely through the years, from a low of 1.1 million in 1990 to a high of 10.9 million in 2006.

In 2019, the Atlantic States commission, which manages estuary and near-shore fisheries from Maine to Florida, mandated that each state cut its commercial quotas by 18% compared with 2017 levels, and it limited recreational fisherman to taking home one fish per day.

Read the full story at The Bay Journal

Maryland is awarding $3.4 million in relief funds to seafood industry

August 10, 2021 — Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources on Monday, Aug. 9 opened a grant application process for the commercial seafood and aquaculture industry, with plans to distribute a total of $3.4 million in direct payments to businesses and operations in the sector this fall.

The application portal is available via Maryland Onestop: onestop.md.gov. The deadline to apply is Aug. 27.

DNR will award the money to commercial, for hire, aquaculture and seafood processing businesses and operations that can show in the application that they have suffered a loss of greater than 35% in generated revenue because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The grant money comes through the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021, passed by the U.S. Congress in late 2020 for economic assistance to Americans during the pandemic.

In a statement, Gov. Larry Hogan said he was “proud” to invest in the seafood industry, which is particularly vibrant on the Eastern Shore where many of the watermen work and seafood plants and operations are located.

Read the full story at My Eastern Shore