Saving Seafood

Oil impairs ability of coral reef fish to find homes and evade predators

July 18, 2017 — Just as one too many cocktails can lead a person to make bad choices, a few drops of oil can cause coral reef fish to make poor decisions, according to a paper published today in Nature Ecology & Evolution. A team of fisheries biologists led by Jacob Johansen and Andrew Esbaugh of The University of Texas Marine Science Institute have discovered that oil impacts the higher-order thinking of coral reef fish in a way that could prove dangerous for them—and for the coral reefs where they make their home.

Examining six different species of , Johansen and the team found that exposure to oil consistently affected behavior in ways that put the  at risk.

During several weeks when coral  fish go through their juvenile stages of development, they are especially vulnerable. Even in healthy populations of reef fish, typically less than 10 percent of embryos and larvae reach adulthood. Those who survive must learn to identify friend from foe and adopt protective behaviors, such as traveling in groups, minimizing movement in open waters and swimming away quickly from danger.

In experiments, the scientists found that juvenile fish exposed to oil struggled on all these counts.

“In several different experiments, the fish exposed to oil exhibited very risky behavior, even in the presence of a predator,” said Esbaugh, an assistant professor of .

The scientists also found that oil exposure negatively affected the fishes’ growth, survival and settlement behaviors (their ability to find a suitable habitat).

Oil concentrations are found in oceans worldwide, but until now little has been known about the impact of oil exposure on coral reef fish. Earlier research that explored how oil affects the physiology of fishes has demonstrated developmental heart deformities and associated cardiac functions, but this is the first study to demonstrate that oil exposure affects behavior in a way that increases predation and reduces settlement success.

Read the full story at Phys.org

NOAA to Deploy Saildrones for Climate Study

July 18, 2017 — During the next four months, NOAA scientists will deploy Saildrone unmanned ocean vehicles to hard-to-reach locales such as the Arctic and the tropical Pacific with the goal of better understanding of how ocean changes affect weather, climate, fisheries and marine mammals.

The Saildrone is wind and solar-powered research vehicle resembling a sailboat, capable of performing tasks at sea such as met ocean data collection, environmental monitoring and fish stock analysis, autonomously or under remote control. For NOAA, the vehicles will soon travel thousands of miles across the ocean, reaching some areas never before surveyed with such specialized technology.

In mid-July, scientists will send off the first unmanned, wind and solar-powered vehicles from Dutch Harbor, Alaska, with two sailing north through the Bering Strait into the Arctic Ocean and another transiting the Bering Sea. Traversing Alaska’s inhospitable waters, the remote-controlled vehicles will track melting ice, measure carbon dioxide in the ocean and count fish, seals and whales.

For the first time, the vehicles will journey through the Bering Strait into the Arctic with a newly adapted system to measure CO2 concentrations.

We want to understand how changes in the Arctic may affect large-scale climate and weather systems as well as ecosystems that support valuable fish stocks,” said Jessica Cross, an oceanographer at NOAA Research’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, who is using the unmanned system to study how the Arctic Ocean is absorbing carbon dioxide.

Read the full story at Marine Technology News

NOAA Announces $13.8 Million in Coastal Resilience Grants

July 17, 2017 — The following was released by NOAA:

NOAA announces approximately $13.8 million in recommended funding for 19 projects under our Coastal Resilience Grants Program. Competition was fierce – we received 167 proposals requesting more than $135 million in funding and committing $91 million of matching and in-kind support. We had 116 proposals under the Strengthening Coastal Communities category, of which we are recommending 8 for funding, and 51 under the Habitat Restoration category, of which we are recommending 11 for funding. 

These 19 projects will affect more than 500 coastal communities, bringing the total to well over 700 communities for the first three years of funding (2015-17).

Habitat Restoration projects will remove dams, enhance levees, restore channels, and promote natural barriers. They will also provide vital habitat for fish and protect communities from floods, both of which are essential to the nation’s economy.

Strengthening Coastal Communities projects will give decision-makers information to craft practical solutions to protect coastal infrastructure such as roads, bridges, and ports. 

Both categories of projects are expected to reduce the loss of lives and the costs of damages from weather, water, and climate events, which cause an average of approximately 650 deaths and $15 billion in damage per year in the United States.

See the full list of the 2017 projects.

Global ocean health relatively stable over past five years

July 5, 2017 — While global ocean health has remained relatively stable over the past five years, individual countries have seen changes, according to a study published July 5, 2017 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Benjamin Halpern from University of California Santa Barbara, USA and colleagues.

The Ocean Health Index has been used to assess ocean health on the local and regional scale, measuring factors such as biodiversity, coastal protection, and clean waters to help inform regional policies. In this study, Halpern and colleagues analyzed five years’ worth of Ocean Health Index data for 220 countries, seeking potential drivers and implications for the changes that they observed.

As expected, global ocean health has been fairly stable over the past five years, since the health of the world’s oceans cannot change rapidly over a relatively short time period. However, there were notable changes in individual countries. For example, the authors found declines in overall ocean health in many Arctic and sub-Arctic countries, possibly because the rapid loss of sea ice has resulted in reduced coastal protection. The researchers suggest that improvements in wild-caught fishery management, the creation of marine protected areas, and decreases in harvesting of fish and other natural products may have stabilized ocean health scores in other regions.

While the Ocean Health Index was capable of predicting short term changes in global ocean health, the authors suggest that investment in additional resources for measuring changes on a global scale would greatly help with management and protection of ocean health now and in the future.

Read the full story at Science Daily

Marine biologist from the Meadowlands is restoring Florida’s coral

June 30, 2017 — Marine biologist David Vaughan and his team are reproducing coral in the lab and transplanting it along the coasts of Florida in a race against time as reefs are dying at an alarming rate. What would normally take 50 years to grow, his team can do in two or three years.

A former Rutherford resident, “Dr. Coral” earned his master’s at Farleigh Dickinson University in Rutherford and Ph.D at Rutgers in New Brunswick.

Vaughan studied Meadowlands’ ecology and grew algae to sustain shellfish at the Jersey Shore before embarking on an ambitious Florida coral reef restoration.

“At the time, we were just understanding the value of Meadowlands wetlands, but not the submerged Meadowlands,” Vaughan said.

Recruited to work for Mote Marine Laboratory in Florida, Vaughan taught clam aquaculture. His attention to coral grew as the disappearance of reefs progressed with climate change. Understanding coral’s complexity is key to addressing its plight.

Coral is a plant, animal, microbe and mineral, Vaughan notes.

“Coral is an animal that has a plant inside its tissue and microbial quality on outside, producing calcium carbonate,” Vaughan said. “It’s highly intolerant to temperature changes, needs to be in 72 to 78 degrees.”

As temperatures rise, the plant living inside coral starts to produce oxygen faster. The algae produces oxygen faster, coral gets lethargic because it can’t get rid of excess oxygen fast enough.

Read the full story at NorthJersey.com

As warming sea devastates coral, Florida Keys economy will suffer

June 25, 2017 — Twenty feet under water, Nature Conservancy biologist Jennifer Stein swims over to several large corals and pulls several laminated cards from her dive belt.

“Disease,” reads one, as she gestures to a coral that exhibits white splotches. “Recent mortality,” reads another card. Along the miles of coral reef off the Florida Keys, Stein and her fellow divers have found countless examples of this essential form of ocean life facing sickness and death.

The pattern of decay is shaping up as one of the sharpest impacts of climate change in the continental United States – and a direct threat to economic activity in the Keys, a haven for diving, fishing and coastal tourism.

The debate over climate change is often framed as one that pits jobs against the need to protect the planet for future generations. In deciding to exit the Paris climate agreement and roll back domestic environmental regulations, the Trump administration said it was working to protect jobs.

But what is happening here – as the warming of the sea devastates the coral reef – is a stark example of how rising temperatures can threaten existing economies.

Read the full story from the Washington Post at the Portland Press Herald

U.S. Conference of Mayors Pass Resolution to Fight Ocean Acidification

June 26, 2017 — Today the United States Conference of Mayors approved a resolution on ocean acidification, citing the need for more research and coordination in addressing an ever-increasing threat to coastal communities. The resolution was introduced by Mayor Jon Mitchell of New Bedford, Massachusetts.

“I’m pleased to support the resolution approved today by the Conference’s Energy Committee and the Ocean Conservancy’s many efforts to highlight the threat posed by ocean acidification,” said New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Mayors Energy Committee. “As Mayor of New Bedford, Massachusetts, the top fishing port in the nation for the past 17 years, I understand well the threat to our fisheries and to those who rely on those fisheries to earn a living.  And I’m proud to join the many other mayors across the nation who are leading on this issue.”

The resolution states that “cities are at the forefront of preparing for, mitigating against, and responding to the consequences of changes in ocean chemistry like ocean acidification.” It encourages efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, the root cause of ocean acidification, and calls on Congress to fund research assessing the vulnerability of coastal communities to its impacts.

Ocean acidification hurts the fish, shellfish, and corals that anchor the fishing and tourism industries in states as varied as Massachusetts and Florida, threatening the economy of coastal communities and businesses.  The ocean absorbs about 25 percent of carbon dioxide pollution – as a result the chemistry of the ocean is changing rapidly.

About 40 percent of the U.S. population now lives in coastal counties, and that number is growing fast. The mayor’s resolution states that leaders need better information on the threat of ocean acidification to plan for and minimize the potential harm to vulnerable communities, local businesses, and economies.

Read the full story at Ocean Conservancy

NORTH CAROLINA: Fishermen organize a boat parade to highlight problem of fewer fish

June 20, 2017 — Saltwater fishermen pulled their boats around the Legislative Building in downtown Raleigh on Tuesday to draw attention to a stalled conservation bill.

House Bill 867 is aimed at ensuring protection for what recreational anglers say are declining numbers of fish on the North Carolina coast. It would set standards for conservation and fisheries management based on scientific data, while ensuring that a “reasonable” amount of fish can be caught each year and requiring state environmental regulators to assess whether overfishing has occurred.

The bipartisan bill hasn’t been heard in any committee since it was filed in April.

The anglers issued a statement saying that a recreational fisherman from Greenville organized the parade of about two dozen boats after his friends wanted to do something to move the bill forward.

“It is time for sportsmen to speak up and demand a vote on HB 867,” Joe Albea, the fisherman, said in the statement. “It’s time for the legislators to see that the people are tired of them spending our fish and saving none of it for the future.”

A coalition of conservationists, marine manufacturers and retailers have formed N.C. Sound Economy to push for science-based policy decisions on fisheries management, according to member Bert Owens of Beaufort.

Owens stressed that the campaign is not meant to pit recreational fishermen against commercial fishermen, although there has been a pitched battle between the two interests for years.

Read the full story at The News & Observer

For fish, the good and bad of warming ocean waters

June 19, 2017 — According to a recent study published in “Progress in Oceanography,” some fish species will thrive in warmer waters — and others, not so much.

Using a detailed climate model and historical observation data, researchers at NOAA and The Nature Conservancy modeled the shifting thermal habitats of over 50 species along the Atlantic coast, from North Carolina to the Gulf of Maine.

“So it’s basically a picture of the water temperature and the depths that individual species are most commonly associated with,” says lead author Kristin Kleisner, now a senior scientist at the Environmental Defense Fund’s Fisheries Solutions Center.

Ocean temperatures in the region are expected to increase 6.6 to 9 degrees Fahrenheit (3.7 to 5.0 degrees Celsius) by the end of the century, according to NOAA. For many species, like summer flounder, striped bass and Atlantic croaker, researchers found warming oceans could lead to increased habitat availability.

“Those are all species that are currently caught off the more southern portions of our coastline and they’re associated with warmer waters,” Kleisner says. “And these guys might do pretty well as climate changes and new areas of suitable thermal habitat open up for them.”

Kleisner is careful to point out that the study only considered water temperature and depth in its picture of thermal habitats. Other factors like ocean acidification could change the game for lobsters, for example, which otherwise stand to gain from warming waters. “That could be a pretty big wild card,” she says.

Meanwhile, for species like Atlantic cod, Acadian redfish and others found in northern coastal areas, the study’s picture “was not so rosy,” Kleisner says. That’s not to say these species won’t find suitable water temperatures in deeper waters, or further north, she adds — but their habitats may shift out of reach for some fishermen.

Read the full story at PRI.org

Climate change puts Cape fisheries in hot water

June 19, 2017 — As the president claims that climate change is a “Chinese hoax” and members of Congress deny that it even exists, those of us who live at the ocean’s edge can testify firsthand to its effects. They include bigger storms, accelerated sea-level rise and warmer waters. On the Cape, those are game changers to a way of life. They affect the community’s character, soul, and livelihood, especially in the commercial fishery.

The biggest long-term threat to fishing in the northwest Atlantic is not excessive regulations, national marine monuments, or over-fishing – it’s hot water. Cold water species like the iconic cod, and even lobsters and northern shrimp, have to put up with living conditions so uncomfortable that they may be leaving home and heading north.

A recent issue of the journal “Science” shows that over the last 10 years, temperatures in the Gulf of Maine have increased three times faster than almost all of the Earth’s oceans. The Gulf’s southern boundary edges along Cape Cod Bay. Beginning there, Gulf surface temperatures increased four degrees between 2005 and 2013 and scientists tell us they could go even higher. That spells disaster for the Gulf’s ecosystem.

The world’s oceans absorb most of the heat humans produce, but when we deposit too much heat into the atmosphere and adjacent waters below, sea life pays the price. With nature out of balance, fisheries shift, oceans acidify, and life-sustaining oxygen levels decrease.

Especially alarming is what we are seeing at the lower levels of the food chain. As water temperatures spike, copepods are disappearing. These tiny plankton-like crustaceans anchor the Gulf’s food chain and when they leave, the chain starts to unravel from the bottom up and fish productivity suffers.

Excessive carbon dioxide emissions, one of the major causes of rapid climate change, are sapping the strength of the giant ocean conveyor belt known as the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation — otherwise known as the AMOC. It’s a vital component of the Earth’s climate system, with a northward flow of warm tropical salty water in the upper layers of the Gulf Stream, and a southward flow of colder water in the deeper layers.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times