Saving Seafood

A giant warm-water mass—similar to ‘the blob’—could wreak havoc on West Coast marine life

September 9, 2019 — You might remember the blob.

Not the 1958 sci-fi movie, but the giant mass of warm water that formed in the Pacific Ocean in 2013 and continued to spread until 2015. It wreaked havoc on the West Coast marine ecosystem and dampened salmon runs.

Scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have identified another expanse of warm water and say this marine heatwave could rival the blob. The impact on sea life could be devastating.

Ocean surface temperature maps show the warm mass stretching from Alaska to California. It currently “ranks as the second-largest marine heatwave in terms of area in the northern Pacific Ocean in the last 40 years, after ‘the Blob,'” according to NOAA.

Read the full story at SF Gate

Climate Change Will First Benefit, Then Hurt Loggerhead Sea Turtles

September 9, 2019 — For some animals, climate change is expected to become a major threat to their survival. For others, a warmer world may actually be beneficial. For the loggerhead sea turtle, it’s a little bit of both.

The loggerhead sea turtle’s vast range stretches across the globe and is composed of nine ‘distinct population segments’ according to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Despite the loggerhead’s expansive range, five of the population segments are considered endangered, while the remaining four are considered threatened.

Given the poor state of loggerhead sea turtle populations worldwide, researchers want to understand how predicted changes in climate will further harm, or benefit, the species.

Read the full story at Forbes

Current Marine Heat Wave Reminds Scientists Of ‘The Blob’

September 9, 2019 — A marine heat wave off the West Coast is causing ocean temperatures to rise from Alaska to California. Scientists say it looks a lot like the warm water mass they nicknamed the blob five years ago.

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

All right. Ocean temperatures, from Alaska down here to California, have been rising. This is a marine heat wave, and scientists say it looks a lot like a mass of warm water that appeared five years ago and was nicknamed “the blob.” Cassandra Profita with Oregon Public Broadcasting has more.

CASSANDRA PROFITA, BYLINE: The current marine heat wave isn’t quite as big or as warm as the blob, at least, not yet. But the last heat wave caused major upheaval in the ocean. A toxic algae bloom made it unsafe for people to eat shellfish up and down the coast so many crab and clam fisheries were closed. Salmon and sea lions had less food to eat, and warm-water species started showing up farther north. Chris Harvey is a biologist with the National Marine Fisheries Service.

CHRIS HARVEY: Given the severity of the last marine heat wave, the blob, we definitely felt it was our responsibility at this point to say this is something that we are concerned about, and we’re going to continue watching it with regular monitoring along the West Coast.

Read the full story at NPR

ALABAMA: Climate and change: A different world, above and below Mobile Bay

September 4, 2019 — The salinity levels of water dictate what lives in and around it, and what doesn’t.

If there’s a lot of rain or a sudden surge of fresh water into a bay, salinity levels drop. If there’s a drought a surge of seawater from a major storm, salinity levels tend to rise. Climate change is already altering those balances.

And the changes wrought by those disruptions can be profound.

Earlier this year, heavy rains in the Midwest swelled the Mississippi River. To prevent flooding in New Orleans, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers opened the Bonnet Carre Spillway, west of the city, twice this year. That sent a torrent of fresh water into the waters off Louisiana and Mississippi, west of Biloxi – and created a disaster along the oyster reefs in the area.

Read the full story at the Montgomery Advertiser

Colder waters off West Coast mark end of “the blob”

August 28, 2019 — Record high Pacific Ocean temperatures recorded off the West Cost in recent years have receded to near normal, according to a report on the California Current.

That cool shift marks the end of “the blob,” the mass of warm water that dominated the West Coast, and of the El Nino event that followed. It’s unclear, however, what that means for fish and marine mammals, scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration stated in the 2019 ecosystem status report for the California Current Ecosystem.

“The big thing is that a lot of the physical conditions of the ocean here off of our coast are beginning to return to normal,” said Elliott Hazen,” a research ecologist with NOAA’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center. “But it is not clear yet whether the ecosystem is as well.”

Read the full story at The San Diego Union-Tribune

Climate change: NJ is warming faster than most of the country

August 26, 2019 — The New Jersey lobster boom has passed.

Tom Fote, legislative chairman for The Jersey Coast Anglers Association, recalls a time in the 1990s when warming waters off the Jersey Shore prompted the tasty crustaceans to reproduce more, attracting more boats to fish for them.

But then the water got too hot. The lobsters stopped reproducing as they had been.

“We were the canaries in the mines,” Fote said of anglers in New Jersey.

New Jersey has emerged as a top state in the nation experiencing climate change, according to a new analysis of climate data by The Washington Post. 

New Jersey heated by nearly 2 degrees Celsius, or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, since about the turn of the last century, the Post found. That’s double the average for the continental United States. Alaska, then Rhode Island crossed the 2-degree mark, the Post reported. New Jersey is close.

Read the full story at the Asbury Park Press

Suppressed federal report shows how Trump water plan would endanger California salmon

August 22, 2019 — Federal officials suppressed a lengthy environmental document that details how one of California’s unique salmon runs would be imperiled by Trump administration plans to deliver more water to Central Valley farms.

The July 1 assessment, obtained by the Los Angeles Times, outlines how proposed changes in government water operations would harm several species protected by the Endangered Species Act, including perilously low populations of winter-run salmon, as well as steelhead trout and killer whales, which feed on salmon.

But the 1,123-page document was never released.

Read the full story at The Sacramento Bee

California king salmon rebounds after drought

August 22, 2019 — California fishermen are reporting one of the best salmon fishing seasons in years, thanks to heavy rain and snow that ended the state’s historic drought.

It’s a sharp reversal for chinook salmon, also known as king salmon. The iconic fish helps sustain many Pacific Coast fishing communities.

A marine scientist with California’s fish and wildlife agency says commercial catches have so far surpassed official preseason forecasts by roughly 50%.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at Business Insider

Longline fishing hampering shark migration

August 21, 2019 — Longline fisheries around the world are significantly affecting migrating shark populations, according to an international study featuring a University of Queensland researcher.

The study found that approximately a quarter of the studied sharks’ migratory paths fell under the footprint of longline fisheries, directly killing sharks and affecting their food supply.

Dr Bonnie Holmes, from UQ’s School of Biological Sciences, wanted to find out why shark numbers have been declining significantly over the past 20 years.

“We’re losing these incredible creatures, and we know so little about shark movements and what drives them,” she said.

“I joined an international research effort, using new technologies — like satellite tracking and big data analysis — to help answer some critical questions.”

Read the full story at Science Daily

Study finds fishermen who venture to new grounds benefit

August 21, 2019 — In 2009, excessive bycatch of endangered sea turtles in the Gulf of Mexico prompted a five-month closure of the Gulf’s longline fishery. Boat captains unexpectedly found themselves locked out of prime fishing grounds, and were forced to look elsewhere to make a living.

As it turned out, some captains fared better than others in this endeavor. And their experience has implications for fishermen today who are adapting to changing environmental and regulatory conditions.

Read the full story at Seafood Source