Saving Seafood

Artistic scientist illustrates effects of climate change

December 30, 2015 — Old Town’s Jill Pelto has been visiting the North Cascade Glaciers of Washington State with her father since she was 16 years old.

“I had seen pictures growing up of my dad’s trip, but it doesn’t prepare you for what it’s like out there,” Pelto said. “I was amazed at how beautiful the glaciers are.”

The rugged mountains and snowy summits were stark and beautiful.

“I was in awe,” she said.

She’s returned to Washington State every year since then, but things have drastically changed since her first experience at 16 years old.

Now she’s trying to explain those changes through her artwork.

Originally from Worcester, Massachusetts, Pelto, now 22, graduated in December from the University of Maine as a double major in studio art and earth science.

“I started working in Washington in 2009 when I was 16,” Pelto said. “I was able to do that because my father, Mauri Pelto, got his Ph.D. at UMaine, and when he was a doctoral student here he started a research project in Washington that he’s still doing now. The purpose [of the project] was to create a continuous glacial monitoring program where every year he would survey the glaciers to figure out how the size was changing.”

Mauri Pelto, a professor of environmental science at Nichols College in Massachusetts and glaciologist, started the North Cascade Glacier Climate Project in 1984 and has studied glaciers and the rapid changes they have undergone for over 25 years.

Read the full story at Bangor Daily News

 

Ocean acidification poses threat to lobsters

December 18, 2015 — PROVIDENCE — Lobsters are already slowly moving out of southern New England as waters warm, but the iconic crustacean faces another future threat as the climate changes.

As oceans absorb more carbon and become increasingly acidic, juvenile lobsters likely will have a harder time growing and forming strong shells to protect them from predators, according to a recent University of Rhode Island study.

“I’m not sure yet what the mechanism is that is affecting their growth,” URI doctoral student Erin McLean, who led the research, said. “But it takes energy for them to regulate the increased acidity, which is energy they cannot then put toward growth.”

And it’s not just lobsters that could be harmed by the oceans’ changing pH levels. Shellfish populations in Rhode Island and Massachusetts in general are among the most vulnerable in the United States to ocean acidification, according to a recent study in the journal Nature Climate Change.

The study identified the two states among 15 at-risk areas in the nation because colder, northern waters, such as Narragansett Bay, Buzzards Bay and Nantucket Sound, are absorbing more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and acidifying faster than warmer waters.

Other more localized factors are also playing a part, including nutrient pollution from fertilizers and sewage systems that can add more carbon to the water and the flow of fresh water from poorly buffered rivers, such as the Blackstone in Rhode Island or the many waterways that drain into the Gulf of Maine, which lack minerals to mitigate the effects of acid. Shallow coastal waters also are more susceptible to changes in the ocean’s chemistry.

About a quarter of all carbon emissions from power plants, cars and other sources are absorbed by the oceans, making them more acidic and reducing carbonate levels. Shellfish use carbonates to make their shells, and when fewer of the compounds are available, organisms must expend more energy to build shells and less on eating and survival, researchers say.

Read the full story at Providence Journal

New England Lobstermen Still Fishing Thanks to Mild Winter

December 28, 2015 (AP) — Many New England lobstermen are still fishing deep into December this year because of unseasonably warm weather and an abundance of the critters, and Maine’s beloved scallops are a little harder to come by as a result.

The extra fishing hasn’t done much to change the price of lobsters, which are selling in the range of $8 to $10 per pound in Maine, typical for this time of year, when Canada is also hauling in large catches. But some lobstermen in Maine, the biggest lobster-producing state, also fish for scallops and haven’t made the transition to the winter scalloping season because lobster fishing is still strong.

As a result, Maine scallops — which usually cost about $20 per pound — have been slightly more expensive, sometimes selling in the $25-per-pound range, and some retailers are low on supply. Alex Todd, a Portland scallop and lobster fisherman, said he expects scallop fishing in the southern part of the state to pick up in mid-January. Supply from scallop-rich Cobscook Bay is helping feed demand for now, he said.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at ABC News

 

International Study Finds Indian Ocean Warming Reducing Fish Catch

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [First Post] By Dinesh C Sharma — December 22, 2015 — Even as the world tries to make sense of decisions taken at the recent climate change conference in Paris, scientists have come up with fresh evidence of how global warming is beginning to nibble the food chain right in India’s neighbourhood – the Indian Ocean.

Oceans play a critical role in both short and long term weather and climatic patterns. Nearly 90 percent of extra heat generated due to emission of greenhouse gases from the landmass is absorbed by oceans, warming them up. Indian Ocean, considered one of the most productive seas, has seen warming greater than other oceans. The warming in Indian Ocean during the past century has been estimated up to 1.2 degree C, which is very large compared to a global surface warming of up to 0.8 degree C during the same period.

Now an international study led by scientists from Pune-based Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) has shown that the warming of Indian Ocean is affecting productivity of its marine eco system. Simply put, the food web necessary for fish production in the seas is getting affected due to the warming. This, in turn, is resulting in dwindling fish catch rates in the Indian Ocean.

The decline in phytoplankton- microscopic plants that are part of the aquatic food web – is significant. Phytoplankton contains chlorophyll and provides food for a range of sea creatures including fish. The rapid warming in the Indian Ocean has played an important role in reducing the phytoplankton up to 20 percent during the past six decades, the study has reported.

This story originally appeared on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It has been reprinted with permission.

WAITT INSTITUTE: Top 15 Ocean Conservation Wins of 2015

The Waitt Institute is a non-profit organization based in Washington, DC. It was founded in 2005 by Ted Waitt (co-founder of Gateway Computers) to foster exploration and discovery. The focus of the Waitt Institute has shifted in recent years, and today its mission is “empowering communities to restore their oceans to full productivity.” To achieve this, the Waitt Institute directs its efforts toward fostering deep collaborations with local governments and communities to create comprehensive ocean zoning and management solutions.

December 23, 2015 — Overfishing, climate change, habitat destruction, and pollution remain major threats to the world’s ocean. But amidst all that there is some seriously good ocean conservation news worth celebrating. So, to continue the tradition started last year with listing 14 Ocean Conservation Wins of 2014, here’s a rundown for 2015 that will hopefully fill you with #OceanOptimism. These wins represent the diligent efforts of organizations and individuals too numerous to list, so let’s just start with a blanket shoutout to all of #TeamOcean for a great year.

#1. Over 2 million km2 of ocean was protected in big new marine reserves. Marine reserves are areas completely closed to fishing, and 2015 saw more ocean protected in a single year than ever before. Chile created Desventuradas Marine Park (297,000 km2), and Easter Island Marine Park 631,000 km2). New Zealand created Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary (620,000 km2), Palau created Palau National Marine Sanctuary (500,000 km2), the UK announced the Pitcairn Island Reserve (833,000 km2), and protected areas are in the works for Patagonia. However, there is a broad consensus that 30% of the ocean should be fully protected in reserves, and these new designations only get us up to 1% – but we’ll take it!

#2. New technology is being developed to combat illegal fishing. Designating all these new reserves means little without enforcement, and we can’t enforce unless we know what’s happening out on the water. One big tech effort launched this year is Global Fishing Watch, a partnership between Skytruth, Google, and Oceana to track fishing vessels and identify illegal fishing. Another similar program is the Pew Charitable Trust’s Virtual Watch Room. These technologies are in prototype phase and need significant improvement before they live up to expectations, but it’s a promising and exciting development.

#3. Illegal fishing boats are being chased down and caught! Sea Shepherd chased a pirate fishing boat on Interpol’s most wanted list for 10,000 miles, until the boat sank (potentially on purpose to drown the evidence of illegal fishing). Another boat was chased for four days, caught, and fined $2 million for illegally fishing in the Phoenix Islands Protected Area. Blackfish and Environmental Justice Foundation have also been stepping up to make sure enforcement happens, but hopefully we can soon rely on law enforcement organizations, not environmental groups, to do this work.

Read the full story from the Waitt Institute at National Geographic

Does fishing have a future in New England?

December 22, 2015 — Cod have been disappearing from the waters between Massachusetts and Maine, and shrimp populations are so depleted that the commercial shrimp season in the Gulf of Maine has been cancelled for the last three years.

At the same time, lobster are flourishing — alongside a host of species that have never before thrived in New England waters.

Why the wild ups and downs? One reason is that nearby waters are warming much faster than the rest of the ocean, making the environment newly unbearable for some longtime residents — and newly appealing for others. But overfishing has played a role as well, disrupting the balance of the watery ecosystem in unexpected ways.

It’s hard to predict where all this is headed, whether for individual species or local fishing communities. But it needn’t be a story of doom and gloom. These undersea changes may well dampen the prospects of the cod industry, but they will also bring new opportunities.

What’s happening in nearby waters?

Rapid and unusual warming.

Temperatures in the Gulf of Maine have been increasing faster than just about every other blue spot on the planet. According to a recent report in Science, Maine’s waters are in the top 0.1 percent when it comes to rapid warming.

While that team focused on the waters to the east and north of Massachusetts, that superwarm area they reported on actually extends significantly south, surrounding the Bay State.

Read the full story at The Boston Globe

URI researchers to study climate change effect on fisheries

December 19, 2015 — PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Researchers at the University of Rhode Island have been awarded a federal grant to study the effects of climate change on Atlantic fisheries.

The state’s congressional delegation says the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is giving the researchers $227,850.

Jeremy Collie, at the URI Graduate School of Oceanography, is leading the team. Scientists are participating from NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center, Narragansett Laboratory, located on URI’s Bay Campus.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at ABC6 News

 

How whaling logs from the 1800s might help us solve climate change

December 16, 2015 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — Maritime historians, climate scientists and ordinary citizens are coming together on a project to study the logbooks of 19th-century whaling ships to better understand modern-day climate change and Arctic weather patterns.

Whaling ships kept meticulous daily logbooks of weather conditions during their often yearslong voyages searching the globe for whales, valued for their light-giving oil, said Michael Dyer, senior maritime historian at the New Bedford Whaling Museum, which is supplying much of the data.

Some logs include information about life on board, such as sailors falling overboard, or being disciplined for stealing or other transgressions, and of course, notations whenever whales are spotted. More important for this project, they include precise longitude and latitude measurements, weather conditions, the presence of icebergs and the edge of the ice shelf.

“If they’re cruising in the Bering Strait and there’s ice, there will be a notation in the logbook that ice fields are present,” Dyer said.

The project, called Old Weather: Whaling, is led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The whaling museum is transcribing and digitizing its own logbooks, as well as original data sources from the Nantucket Historical Association, Martha’s Vineyard Museum, Mystic Seaport in Connecticut, and the New Bedford Free Public Library.“If they’re cruising in the Bering Strait and there’s ice, there will be a notation in the logbook that ice fields are present,” Dyer said.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the New York Post

 

Fish Stocks Are Declining Worldwide, And Climate Change Is On The Hook

December 14, 2015 — For anyone paying attention, it’s no secret there’s a lot of weird stuff going on in the oceans right now. We’ve got a monster El Nino looming in the Pacific. Ocean acidification is prompting hand wringing among oyster lovers. Migrating fish populations have caused tensions between countries over fishing rights. And fishermen say they’re seeing unusual patterns in fish stocks they haven’t seen before.

Researchers now have more grim news to add to the mix. An analysis published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences finds that the ability of fish populations to reproduce and replenish themselves is declining across the globe.

“This, as far as we know, is the first global-scale study that documents the actual productivity of fish stocks is in decline,” says lead author Gregory L. Britten, a doctoral student at the University of California, Irvine.

Britten and some fellow researchers looked at data from a global database of 262 commercial fish stocks in dozens of large marine ecosystems across the globe. They say they’ve identified a pattern of decline in juvenile fish (young fish that have not yet reached reproductive age) that is closely tied to a decline in the amount of phytoplankton, or microalgae, in the water.

Read the full story at NPR

 

Baby fish will be lost at sea in acidified oceans

December 15, 2015 — The ability of baby fish to find a home, or other safe haven, to grow into adulthood will be severely impacted under predicted ocean acidification, University of Adelaide research has found. 

Published today in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the researchers report the interpretation of normal ocean sound cues which help baby fish find an appropriate home is completely confused under the levels of CO2 predicted to be found in oceans by the end of the century.

“Locating appropriate homes is a crucial step in the life cycle of fish,” says Tullio Rossi, PhD candidate with the University’s Environment Institute. “After hatching in the open ocean, baby fish travel to reefs or mangroves as safe havens to feed and grow into adults.

“Baby fish can find those places through ocean noise: snapping shrimps and other creatures produce sounds that the baby fish follow.

“But when ocean acidity increases due to increased CO2, the neurological pathways in their brain are affected and, instead of heading towards those sounds, they turn tail and swim away.”

Read the full story at Science Daily