Saving Seafood

Guiding the shift to low-carbon fishing

January 23, 2025 — Members of the U.S. commercial fishing industry unveiled a groundbreaking set of publications under the banner of A Transition to a Low Carbon Fishing Fleet.

Led by members of the fishing industry itself, the research showcases the value of community-centered approaches to solving the climate crisis and makes the case that those most affected by climate impacts should have authorship of the solutions that define the energy transition.

Built on two years of research and engagement with fishermen across Alaska, the West Coast, and New England, the publications outline ambitious yet practical strategies and policies for positioning the fishing fleet to thrive in a low-carbon future. Vital to coastal economies and sustainable food systems, wild seafood harvest already has one of the lowest carbon footprints among protein sources and plays an essential role in national food security. But maritime clean energy solutions lag behind the innovation taking place on land, making it unclear what the future holds for this hard-to-decarbonize sector.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Trump tasks congressman with writing executive order he could issue to halt offshore wind

January 17, 2025 — President-elect Donald Trump tasked a New Jersey congressman and vocal critic of offshore wind with writing an executive order he could issue to halt wind energy projects.

Offshore wind is a major part of transitioning to an electric grid powered entirely by sources that don’t emit carbon dioxide when generating electricity. The power sector is responsible for nearly a third of the nation’s planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions. On the campaign trail, Trump vowed to end the offshore wind industry as soon as he returned to the White House. He wants to boost production of fossil fuels such as oil, natural gas and coal, which cause climate change, in order for the U.S. to have the lowest-cost energy and electricity of any nation in the world, he says.

Republican Rep. Jeff Van Drew said he spoke with Trump by phone about a month ago and urged him to act on his campaign promise.

Read the full article at the Associated Press

NEFMC Solicits Contractor Proposals to Support Work on Climate-Resilient Fisheries Initiatives

January 16, 2025 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

The New England Fishery Management Council is issuing three separate requests for proposals (RFPs) to support projects that address climate-resilient fisheries through Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) funding.

APPLICATION DEADLINE: The application deadline for all proposals is February 21, 2025.

WHAT ARE THE PROJECTS: The three RFPs are independent of each other but all aim to support the Council’s work in advancing fishery management under changing ocean conditions as follows.

  • Developing a Holistic Strategic Plan for Climate-Resilient New England Fisheries Management: The contractor will develop a holistic strategic plan to guide Council activities for climate-resilient fisheries management. The strategic plan will include a detailed implementation roadmap and performance metrics to ensure near-term and long-term Council activities are responsive to climate change and the risks and challenges within and across fishery management plans. Details are outlined in the RFP.
  • Portfolio Approach to Inform New England Fisheries Management: This project involves an evaluation of applying portfolio theory to inform climate-resilient fisheries management in New England. The contractor will focus on identifying harvest portfolios, including species managed on the East Coast, which may result in increased revenue and reduce the risk of foregone yield. Results from the portfolio analysis will be used to inform management approaches that increase flexibility, including possible changes to permit regulations and restrictions. Details are outlined in the RFP.
  • Evaluating the Council’s New Risk Policy and Development of Groundfish ABC Control Rules: The contractor will focus on integrating the Council’s revised Risk Policy with the groundfish acceptable biological catch (ABC) control rule.  The Council has initiated efforts to modify the current groundfish ABC control rule already. Details are outlined in the RFP.

APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS: Interested professionals are encouraged to submit a letter of interest, current resume or CV, examples of similar work completed for other organizations or publications, and budget with expected expenses. Address materials to: Cate O’Keefe, NEFMC, 50 Water Street, Mill 2, Newburyport, MA  01950.

  • Email submissions are highly encouraged. Send to cokeefe@nefmc.org.
  • Questions about any of the requests for proposals should be addressed to Cate O’Keefe at cokeefe@nefmc.org.

In New England, climate change is moving fast. The fishing industry is not

January 15, 2025 — About 20 miles off the coast of Nantucket, Bill Amaru steers his fishing boat, Paladin, toward a school of summer flounder. Amaru cuts the motor, and crew members drop lines in the water.

For a minute, all is quiet.

Then the rods tug, the reels turn, and soon the deck is flopping with flounder.

Amaru hauls in a big one. “That’s a nice fish,” he says, tossing it into a cooler. “Probably about 2 pounds.”

Then he adds: “Even a blind squirrel finds a nut now and then.” The crew chuckles. Amaru smiles and casts his line back into the sea.

Self-deprecating dad jokes aside, Amaru knows these waters. He’s been a commercial fisherman for more than 50 years — no small feat in a tough industry. And his expert eye sees the ocean changing. The most obvious shift: The water is warming and attracting different species of fish.

“Nothing is weird anymore out here,” he said. “Tropical is getting to be fairly common.”

The shifting species could bring new opportunities for fishermen. But the changes are coming so fast, the industry is struggling to keep up. Scientists, regulators and fishermen are all scrambling to adjust to a new reality.

The New England seafood industry generates more than $20 billion in sales each year and employs more than a quarter million people.

It’s also embedded in the history and character of many coastal communities, and the fabric of many families. Amaru’s son and grandson are both full-time commercial fishermen. He worries about their futures.

Read the full article at wbur

Aquaculture cited as strong tool for climate resilience

December 26, 2024 — A new aquaculture report released by NOAA Fisheries on Dec. 17 cites aquaculture as increasingly important in the nation’s commitment to food security, climate resilience and protection of threatened and endangered marine and freshwater species.

The updated National Aquaculture Development Plan credits aquaculture as one of the most environmentally sustainable ways to produce healthy food and also cites aquaculture for its important role in fisheries restoration.

Hatchery-reared fish are released into the wild to help boost populations of wild marine species.

According to NOAA Fisheries, aquaculture has helped more than 70 endangered or threatened species – including Pacific salmon, white abalone, and queen conch – and has also helped restore habitats and mitigate impacts of climate change.

Read the full article at The Cordova Times

Federal hostility could delay offshore wind projects, derailing state climate goals

December 16, 2024 — Numerous East Coast states are counting on offshore wind projects to power tens of millions of homes and to help them transition to cleaner energy.

But putting wind turbines at sea requires the cooperation of a powerful landlord: the federal government. Soon, that government will be led by President-elect Donald Trump, who has frequently disparaged offshore wind and said he will “make sure that ends on Day 1.”

In the eight states that have passed legal mandates to reach certain amounts of offshore wind power, Trump’s second term threatens those timelines.

“This is absolutely going to create problems for how we’re going to meet our emissions goals and the energy needs for the state,” said Massachusetts state Sen. Jamie Eldridge, a Democrat who serves as vice chair on the legislative Joint Committee on Environment and Natural Resources.

Read the full article at Stateline

Small fish size linked to poorer runs of chinook in Alaska’s biggest rivers

December 9, 2024 — The shrinking size of Alaska salmon, a decades-long trend linked in part to warming conditions in the ocean, is hampering the ability of chinook in Alaska’s two biggest rivers to produce new generations needed to maintain healthy populations, a new study shows.

The University of Alaska Fairbanks-led study shows how the body conditions of chinook salmon, also known as king salmon, combined with extreme heat and cold in the ocean and freshwater environments, have converged in the Yukon and Kuskokwim river systems to depress what is termed “productivity” — the successful reproduction that results in adult spawners returning to the same area.

The study examines 26 different populations of chinook in those two river systems in areas from Western Alaska to the Yukon River uplands in Canada. Chinook runs in those rivers have faltered in recent years, and the situation has been so dire on the Canadian part of the Yukon that U.S. and Canadian officials earlier this year suspended all harvests of Canadian-origin chinook for seven years.

The analysis of multiple factors and conditions revealed that fish size was a major factor that determined productivity, defined as adult salmon returning to spawning grounds successfully producing a next generation of adults to come back to the same spawning area.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

Scientists make stunning breakthrough that could solve major problem plaguing our oceans — and the solution lies in whale feces

December 6, 2024 — A small team of environmental and ocean scientists in Australia, known as Whale X, may have discovered a way to remove carbon from the atmosphere efficiently, Hakai Magazine reported. The key to their solution is replicating whale poo.

Whale feces are high in essential nutrients that support the growth of phytoplanktons — a microscopic marine algae that feeds the rest of the ocean food chain.

Phytoplanktons also efficiently capture carbon dioxide, as land plants do, clearing the atmosphere of planet-warming gases. Per Hakai, phytoplanktons absorb “roughly 22 megatonnes (22,000,000 tons) of carbon dioxide (CO2) each year — the amount emitted by about 4.8 million vehicles.”

To put this all into perspective, the most efficient carbon-absorbing tree species — the oak tree — captures only 12 tons of carbon dioxide annually, according to the United States National Marine Fisheries Service.

Read the full story at The Cool Down

$2M Grant to Fishermen’s Alliance Means More Boats Gathering Ocean Data

December 5, 2024 — Strange things have been happening in recent years in the Gulf of Maine, the 36,000 square miles of relatively enclosed ocean stretching from Cape Cod to Nova Scotia. Low-oxygen zones have become annual occurrences, a large brown algae bloom in summer 2023 grew from Maine to northern Massachusetts, and looming over it all is the accelerating warming of surface waters. The Gulf of Maine is warming three times faster than the global average, according to the Maine Climate Council, which is faster than 99 percent of the world’s oceans.

Understanding these phenomena and their effects on fisheries is difficult, said Owen Nichols, Director of Marine Fisheries Research at the Center for Coastal Studies, because of the lack of data available on the ocean water below the surface — at the depths where most fish live.

There is one group of people, however, who regularly put equipment deep in the ocean: fishermen. And many of them are already working with scientists to gather data on the water.

But on Oct. 31, Gov. Healey’s administration announced a nearly $2 million grant to the Chatham-based Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance that will significantly expand fishing vessel-based measurements. The grant is from the quasi-public Mass. Technology Collaborative.

Since 2001, a Northeast Fisheries Science Center project has partnered with local fishermen to try to fix the lack of data about the depths. The project, called eMOLT (Environmental Monitoring on Lobster Traps and Large Trawlers), has so far installed sensors on about 100 fishermen’s gear to gather data on stratification of water temperature, dissolved oxygen levels, and other parameters.

Read the full story at The Provincetown Independent

UAF study links declining salmon to extreme climate, smaller size

December 4, 2024 — A new University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) study published in the scientific journal Global Change Biology, says extreme climate and smaller body size have led to declining Yukon and Kuskokwim Rivers’ King Salmon populations.

Over the last decade, the lower number of certain salmon species making it to rural Alaska villages, along the two tributaries, has led the Alaska Department of Fish and Game to impose catching restrictions.

UAF researcher Erik Schoen said the study began in 2020, and examined 26 different spawning areas across the two river basins.

“Across the board, there were a few big drivers that affected all of these populations. Some of those were out in the ocean. So ocean climate, extreme conditions like really cold winters and really hot summers in the ocean had big negative effects,” Schoen said.

Read the full story at Alaska’s News Source