Saving Seafood

REMINDER: April 23 Webinar on Fishery Allocation Under Climate Change

April 19, 2019 — The following was released by the Lenfest Ocean Program:

How should harvest of valuable fish stocks be allocated as populations shift due to climate change? What lessons can be learned from the management practices in other regions and nations to inform allocation strategies for shifting stocks along the U.S. Northeast and Mid-Atlantic coasts? On Tuesday, April 23, at 2:00 PM Eastern time/11:00 AM Pacific time the Lenfest Ocean Program will host a webinar featuring Dr. Andrew Pershing, Dr. Lisa Kerr, Mr. Jonathan Labaree, and Dr. Kanae Tokunaga, all of the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, to discuss their project characterizing different fishery allocation systems from around the world and their potential for application in the U.S. Download the fact sheet to learn more about this project.

Click here to register

Webinar Instructions:

  • Date: Tuesday, April 23, 2019
  • Time: 2:00 PM Eastern time/11:00 AM Pacific time

For remote access:

  • Please fill out the registration form before the event is scheduled to begin.
  • Event number: 791 597 316
  • Event password: StockShifts2019

For teleconference audio after you join the webinar, either:

  1. Select “Call Using Computer”
  2. Select “Call me” and provide your phone number
  3. Call the number below and enter the access code:
    1. In the U.S. and Canada, dial 1-855-214-7745.
    2. For additional global call in numbers click here.
  4. Enter conference code 396 957 5461
  5. After dialing the conference code:
    1. Be sure to enter the Attendee ID that will appear on your screen.
    2. You will not be prompted to do so

Pace of Bering Sea Changes Startles Scientists

April 15, 2019 — The Yupik Eskimo village of Kotlik on Alaska’s northwest coast relies on a cold, hard blanket of sea ice to protect homes from vicious winter Bering Sea storms.

Frigid north winds blow down from the Arctic Ocean, freeze saltwater and push sea ice south. The ice normally prevents waves from forming and locks onto beaches, walling off villages. But not this year.

In February, southwest winds brought warm air and turned thin sea ice into “snow cone ice” that melted or blew off. When a storm pounded Norton Sound, water on Feb. 12 surged up the Yukon River and into Kotlik, flooding low-lying homes. Lifelong resident Philomena Keyes, 37, awoke to knee-deep water outside her house.

“This is the first I experienced in my life, a flood that happened in the winter, in February,” Keyes said in a phone interview.

Read the full story at NBC Los Angeles

Oregon lawmakers propose bill providing millions in funding for climate change research

April 15, 2019 — Oregon state lawmakers are proposing a bill which would provide nearly USD 2 million (EUR 1.7 million) to study and respond to the effects of rising ocean temperatures, low oxygen levels, and ocean acidification, according to a report in the Statesman Journal last week.

Thirty percent of man-made carbon dioxide is absorbed by the ocean, which causes the water to become more acidic, the report said. The change in ocean pH levels has made it difficult for animals like crabs, oysters, and shrimp to make their shells, which could be a blow to the state’s shellfish industry.

Senate Bill 260 would provide USD 1.9 million (EUR 1.68 million) from the state’s general fund to respond to the problems caused by climate change.

If the bill passes, the state’s Department of Fish and Wildlife would receive USD 470,000 (EUR 415,799) to map and assess estuaries – most existing research on acidification and hypoxia (low oxygen levels) has been done offshore.

Oregon State University would receive USD 370,000 (EUR 327,347) to conduct projects concerning shellfish breeding and ocean sampling and monitoring.

The Oregon Ocean Science Trust would receive the lion’s share of the funding, USD 1.06 million (EUR 937,727), which would be used for seven different projects, including modeling of aquatic vegetation, acidification and hypoxia monitoring, and a communications plan.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Managing recreational fisheries alongside commercial fisheries

April 15, 2019 — The following is an excerpt from an article published by Sustainable Fisheries UW:

Arlinghaus et al. 2019, an article in last week’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, outlined a 5-step plan for integrating recreational fishing into commercial fishery management. In the paper, scientists called for reforms on both the commercial and recreational side to produce better overall sustainability.

Recognizing recreational fishers

I write a lot about fisheries as food. Essentially, the entire point of commercial fisheries is to provide food; but with the massive scale of industrial harvest, it’s easy to forget that fish provide other benefits (like leisure and recreation) that have important economic and social outcomes. Recreational fishing provides jobs and income for tens of thousands of people and enjoyment for millions. Around 10% of people in developed nations fish for pleasure, amounting to over 200 million people worldwide.

Recreational vs commercial fishing

Recreational fishers outnumber commercial fishers 5 to 1, yet commercial fishing brings in 8x the amount of fish. Naturally, this disparity creates resentment between the two sides and conflict is not unusual, e.g. Atlantic striped bass. Arlinghaus et al. 2019 proposes a 5-point framework for integrating recreational fishing into commercial management that will hopefully lead to conflict resolution and improved sustainability.

“Even countries with strong governance for fisheries fail to integrate angling into their fisheries and conservation management system effectively. We are convinced that fisheries management and conservation measures would be more effective if the interests of anglers were given equal consideration to those of commercial fishers and other stakeholders,” stated the lead author of the study, Robert Arlinghaus, explaining his expectations of the reform process.

Read the full story at Sustainable Fisheries UW

Why climate change could mean more disease for marine aquaculture

April 15, 2019 — Extreme weather events and changing ocean conditions are creating unpredictable outcomes for aquaculture. One area where research is offering some insight into what to expect, though, is the increasing incidences of disease.

Anyone who was in France in the summer of 2018 can attest to the searing temperatures that swept the country. From north to south, the nation experienced the second hottest summer since records began. Whilst children played in lakes and the sea to cool off, the shellfish producers of Étang de Thau could only watch as their oysters and mussels perished at the hands of malaïgue – a period of sustained high temperatures and little wind.

The ocean has always been a highly dynamic environment, with its ever-changing conditions presenting challenges to aquaculturalists. However, thanks to human-induced climate change and continuing carbon emissions, events like malaïgue may become more regular occurrences, bringing with them new disease-related challenges.

As every aquaculturalist knows, temperature plays a major role in the growth and health of aquatic species. Certainly, higher temperatures are typically related to higher energetic requirements and demand for food. In an interesting twist, finfish can find their hunger suppressed when held at the upper end of their thermal tolerance for too long – even though their metabolic demands continue to rise. Malnourished fish make for unhealthy fish, which makes for a more stressed and susceptible animal.

Temperature doesn’t just impact farmed animals. As work from Dr Tommy Leung, a parasitologist at the University of New England in Australia has shown, temperature also appears to have a relationship with the severity and duration of disease outbreaks. “If you are in a more temperate region, you might have an outbreak where half of your stock die whereas in the tropics you have over 90 percent dying,” Leung explained. To compound the problem, outbreaks in those warmer tropical and near-tropical regions also happen over a much shorter period. “This means you could have less time to respond to any potential outbreak.”

Read the full story at The Fish Site

Lawmakers propose new funding to study Oregon’s warming ocean, threats to fishing industry

April 10, 2019 — The Pacific Ocean off Oregon has been ground zero for the impacts of climate change, beginning with a 2007 crisis in the state’s oyster industry.

Since then, acidification and hypoxia events off Oregon’s coast have been increasing, scientists say.

Now, state lawmakers are weighing a bill aimed at understanding and countering those impacts, which have the potential to decimate the state’s crab, shrimp, and shellfish industries.

Senate Bill 260 would allocate $1.9 million from the state general fund toward various projects to monitor and respond to a warming Pacific.

Read the full story at the Salem Statesman Journal

State of Alaska petitions federal government to delist Arctic ringed seals under the Endangered Species Act

April 9, 2019 — In the latest chapter of an ongoing debate over the status of Arctic ringed seals, the state of Alaska has petitioned the federal government to take the seals off the list of threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.

Ringed seals were added to the list back in 2012 because their sea ice habitat is expected to decline significantly in the coming years as the Arctic warms. A species can be designated “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act if it’s likely to become endangered in the foreseeable future through much of its range.

But in its petition, the state says that new research and re-analysis of prior data shows that ringed seals are doing well despite documented sea ice loss, and are likely to adapt to changing habitat conditions.

“They’re the most abundant marine mammal in the Arctic, there’s millions of them, and they’re a very resilient marine mammal as far as we can tell,” said Chris Krenz, the wildlife science coordinator for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

Krenz said that the “threatened” designation could create hindrances for oil and gas development, as well as for subsistence hunters.

Three North Slope entities are listed as partners in the state’s petition: the North Slope Borough, Arctic Slope Regional Corporation, and the Iñupiat Community of the Arctic Slope.

Subsistence hunting is generally exempt from restrictions under the Endangered Species Act, although the government can put regulations in place if they find that a hunt materially and negatively affects a species protected by the act. There are currently no such regulations for ringed seals, and federal government officials say there are no plans to put any in place.

Read the full story at KTOO

NEW JERSEY: Whales in the bay? It’s rare, but happening thanks to a surge in these fish off Cape May

April 9, 2019 — Jeff Stewart clearly remembers one of the last times humpback whales descended on the Delaware Bay.

It was 1990 and there was an abundance of bunker in the waters, a type of forage fish that whales eat that are also called menhaden, said Stewart, captain of the Cape May Whale Watcher.

Those same conditions are bringing the cetaceans to the bays from Town Bank to Cape May Point yet again, he said.

Marine biologists say a combination of warming waters and an increasing bunker population in the south is bringing more of the fish to New Jersey’s coast — and in turn luring whales to bay habitats they normally don’t swim in.

“There’s a ton of (bunker) right now. I’d definitely say it’s above average, to see it this early and in these quantities,” Stewart said.

Typically, the whales are found 20 miles offshore in the ocean, Stewart said, but last week, one of his captains spotted a humpback whale in the bay about 1½ miles off Cape May’s coast. Another was found in the bay Sunday morning about 100 yards out.

The tour agency, founded in 1993, started taking people out to sea again for the season last month. Stewart said more bottlenose dolphins are also in the waters as a result of increased bunker.

Read the full story at the Press of Atlantic City

North Carolina fishermen getting $11.6 million in Hurricane Florence relief funding

April 8, 2019 — North Carolina commercial fishermen will soon get a second round of checks as part of $11.6 million being distributed by the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Marine Fisheries under the Hurricane Florence Commercial Fishing Assistance Program.

For this round, 1,002 checks totaling $7,231,500 are going to fishermen to help compensate for October and November harvest reductions due to Hurricane Florence.

“When the storm hit, coastal communities suffered tremendous damage to homes, businesses, schools and their entire economy,” Governor Cooper said. “Helping the commercial fishing industry recover is critical for the people and places who rely on it for their livelihood, and these funds are an important boost.”

The program is designed to help make up for losses to the state’s nearly billion-dollar commercial fishing industry due to the storm and is part of a package of Hurricane Florence relief efforts Governor Cooper signed into law on December 3, 2018.

The first round of checks to fisherman went out in February and included 678 checks totaling more than $3.2 million to help compensate fishermen for reductions in the September harvest.

Distribution of the money is based on reported commercial fishing landings in September, October, and November 2018 as compared to the same months in 2015, 2016, 2017. The state collects records of all marine fish and shellfish sold at North Carolina docks.

Read the full story at WNCT

First ever high-seas conservation treaty would protect life in international waters

April 4, 2019 — No flag can claim the high seas, but many nations exploit them. As a result, life in the two-thirds of the oceans beyond any country’s territorial waters faces many threats that are largely unregulated, including overfishing and the emerging deep-sea mining industry.

Now, nations are negotiating the first-ever high-seas conservation treaty, which the United Nations expects to finalize next year. As delegates met this week at U.N. headquarters in New York City to hash out the details, marine scientists moved to influence the outcome. One research group unveiled the results of a global mapping effort that envisions expansive new marine reserves to protect key high-seas ecosystems. Other teams are working on maps of their own using powerful modeling tools to weigh a reserve’s potential for achieving key conservation goals, such as protecting important feeding grounds or helping sea life adapt to warming seas, against its economic costs.

“The policy opportunity this represents is much rarer than once in a lifetime,” says marine ecologist Douglas McCauley of the University of California, Santa Barbara. Nations are asking “how we should protect two-thirds of the world’s oceans, [and] it’s the first time in human history that this has ever been asked.”

Read the full story at Science Magazine