Saving Seafood

NOAA Fisheries unveils climate science strategy

September 4, 2015 — As ocean conditions continue to change, putting ocean ecosystems and the communities that rely upon them at risk, NOAA took a first step in providing regional fisheries managers and stakeholders with information they need to reduce the effects of climate change and build resilience.

“NOAA just announced that for the globe the month of July — and actually, the entire year so far — was the warmest ever recorded, driven largely by record warm ocean temperatures,” said Eileen Sobeck, assistant NOAA administrator for fisheries.

“Those warmer waters – along with rising seas, coastal droughts and ocean acidification – are already putting people, businesses, and communities at risk. With this strategy, we’re taking a proactive approach in providing information on current and future conditions to try and reduce impacts and increase our resilience,” pointed out Sobeck.

The NOAA Fisheries Climate Science Strategy identifies seven key steps to increase production, delivery, and use of climate-related information to support the management of fish stocks, fisheries, and protected species. The steps focus on how a changing climate affects living marine resources, ecosystems, and the communities that depend on them, and how to respond to those changes.

Read the full story at IFFO

Iconic fish species move north as ocean warms

September 6, 2015 — Warming ocean temperatures off the North Atlantic are causing fish to move up the coast to cooler waters — raising concerns among scientists and regulators about the ocean’s ecosystem, and potentially changing the experience Delaware anglers have enjoyed for generations.

In 2013, a Virginia Beach striped bass tournament drew hundreds of boats, but only one striper was caught.

Wachapreague, Virginia, a tiny town south of Chincoteague that called itself the “flounder capital of the world,” lost its identity and economic engine when summer flounder relocated to waters off the coasts of New Jersey and New York.

And the iconic blue crab, a staple of restaurants and dinner tables throughout the Delmarva Peninsula, are expanding their range, scuttling up the coast to Maine.

Striped bass, which gave birth to a charter fishing industry in Delaware, are swimming into deeper water during their fall migration through the mid-Atlantic — well beyond the 3-mile limit off the coast where it is legal to catch and keep them.

Black sea bass — once so common in area waters, they were the go-to-fish when other species weren’t biting — have moved north to New England.

Read the full story at Delaware Online

 

DELAWARE ONLINE: Why are the fish moving north?

September 5, 2015 — Forget gloom-and-doom outlines. Forget too, simple denial. Something is happening and we should 1) take it seriously. and 2) do something about it. Even if the something we do is to start adjusting for enormous changes.

Sea levels are rising. We know that. It will slowly affect those who live near the ocean’s edge. It will affect commerce and travel as well. Consider that a New England scientist who found that blue crab living in the Gulf of Maine. He also found the blue crab are eating the green crabs. How will that affect the environment? What else is going on? And what will be the repercussions in the short- and long-term? We simply do not know.

In addition to the temperatures and the sea rise, we know we have overfished many areas and we have damaged habitat. All of these things could create conditions that we as of yet do not understand.

Rich Wong, a scientist with the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, said, “It’s really small, incremental rises in temperature that have huge impacts.”

Read the full editorial at Delaware Online

 

Experts Say Wasteful Fishing Regulations Not Keeping Pace With Climate Change

September 6, 2015 — Hundreds of thousands of pounds of valuable fish caught off Connecticut’s coast are thrown overboard every year, and 80 percent of them are dead by the time they hit the water, experts say.

Commercial fishermen, environmentalists and state officials say a prime reason for such a stunning waste of a natural resource is an out-of-date federal regulatory system that hasn’t kept up with the realities of a changing climate and shifting fish populations.

“It’s just a wholly unjustifiable practice,” said Peter Auster, a senior research scientist at Mystic Aquarium. “This waste … is pervasive in the way we’re managing fishing.”

“The whole construct of the [regulatory] system needs to be questioned,” said Curt Johnson, executive director of the Connecticut Fund for the Environment and Save the Sound.

The problem is that federal fishing regulations are designed to protect fish species based on where they used to be most plentiful. Some of those fish populations have now shifted their range north as a result of global warming, but federal fishing quotas haven’t changed. As a result, Connecticut fishermen are saddled with low, out-of-date quotas, forcing them to throw back huge amounts of certain species, even though those fish have become plentiful off New England.

Read the full story at the Hartford Courant

 

Warming Oceans Putting Marine Life ‘In a Blender’

September 3, 2015 — Up in Maine, lobsters are thriving. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission reported last month that stocks there reached a record high.

Down the coast, however, the story is different. In southern New England, lobster stocks have plummeted to the lowest levels ever recorded, putting many lobstermen out of business.

Lobster populations rise and fall for many reasons. But in its new report, the commission singled out one factor that is probably driving the recent changes: The ocean is warming.

At the northern edge of the lobsters’ range, higher temperatures may be speeding up their metabolism, leading to the population boom. But at the southern edge of the range, the waters may be getting too warm, putting the animals under extreme stress.

According to a 2013 study, marine species are pushing their range boundaries poleward, away from the Equator, at an average speed of 4.5 miles a year. That’s 10 times as fast as the speed at which species on land are moving.

Read the full story at the New York Times

NMFS Must Consider Climate in Turtles Plan

September 2, 2015 — WASHINGTON –The National Marine Fisheries Service erred by not considering the impact of climate change when it drafted a biological opinion on loggerhead turtles in the northwest Atlantic, a federal judge ruled.

But in his August 31 ruling, U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman said over all the agency’s biological opinion on the impact of seven east coast fisheries on turtle populations is not arbitrary, as greens had charged.

Friedman granted in part and denied in part a motion for summary judgment filed by Oceana Inc., challenging the agency’s determination that seven fisheries it studied are not jeopardizing the existence of loggerhead sea turtles, and sent the opinion back to the fisheries service for certain clarifications.

In an “incidental take” report on seven east coast fisheries, the agency calculated the numbers of sea turtles that might be caught in specific types of fishing devices, and of those how many might die.

By the agency’s calculations, approximately 483 loggerhead turtles will be caught annually, 239 of which might die.

Oceana had challenged the agency’s report, saying it uses five year study intervals in its calculations, which is too long, and doesn’t take into effect the shorter-term effects of global warming.

Friedman agreed with Oceana that the “incidental take” report doesn’t explain how the agency will monitor whether the take limits have been exceeded, and that the agency’s reasons for why it only monitors the turtles every five years aren’t clear.

While the court isn’t in a position to say that the agency’s five year monitoring cycle is “per se arbitrary and capricious,” as Oceana had claimed, Friedman found that, “there is apparent ‘tension’ between the regulatory mandate and the infrequency with which NMFS measures take estimates against the take limit … and this dissonance places an onus on the agency to adequately explain the reasonableness of the approach.”

Read the full story at Courthouse News Service

 

New Hampshire fishermen see no shortage of lobsters

August 28, 2015 — If lobsters are running scared from warmer southern New England waters, local lobstermen aren’t experiencing a similar shortage.

According to Red Perkins, manager at Seabrook’s Yankee Fisherman’s Cooperative, lobsters are in good supply this year, although not as abundant as a few years ago.

“We’re not noticing a shortage here,” Perkins said yesterday. “Last year we had a realistic lobster harvest and this year is the same as last year. A couple of years ago it was a very good year. It’s not strange for quantities to vary over the years.”

Salisbury Ring’s Island resident and amateur lobsterman, Jerry Klima said he had heard the rumors and read the reports that claim warmer waters in places like Long Island Sound are causing lobsters to head north, seeking colder climes. Recently, he spoke with a veteran fisherman who said he’s hauling up fewer lobsters in his traps by as much as a third.

“But (we) just went out and caught a lot of lobsters,” Klima said. “Supply varies from year to year.”

Read the full story at the Daily News of Newburyport

 

 

New Comprehensive Bering Sea Climate Change Study to Focus on Fish and Fishing and Provide Insights for Management in a Changing Marine Environment

August 26, 2015 — The following was released by NOAA:

The southeastern Bering Sea is an enormously productive ecosystem. It produces over 40% of the nation’s total annual fish catch. The pollock fishery operates here — one of the nation’s most important commercial fisheries in both annual yield and value. It is also home to an exuberant diversity of wildlife, from seabirds to seals to whales. However, as the climate changes, the species here, and the people who rely on them, will have to adapt.

To understand these changes, government and academic scientists are working together to assess their possible biological and ecological consequences. This work will provide insights that fishery managers can use to help ensure the sustainability and resiliency of this rich and dynamic ecosystem.

An Unprecedented Effort with National and Global Implications

NOAA Fisheries Alaska Fisheries Science Center, NOAA Research’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory and the University of Washington, through the Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean, are taking a multi-disciplinary approach, combining physical oceanography and fisheries science, to provide abundance estimates for key fish stocks and potential management options for the future.

Scientists will produce various projections of what the Bering Sea ecosystem will look like under different climate and fishing scenarios. For instance, rising sea temperatures will likely cause some species to thrive and others to decline. Reliable predictions of these changes will allow fishermen and coastal communities to plan ahead and will help resource managers ensure that fisheries and the seafood supply remain stable over the long term.

Although this study focuses on the Bering Sea, it will generate new methods of interdisciplinary research that NOAA Fisheries hopes to replicate in other parts of the nation. Under the NOAA Fisheries Climate Strategy, staff are developing regional action plans to anticipate and respond to climate change. Information generated through this study will contribute to development of an Alaska regional action plan.

“We’re really excited about this project because it’s part of a broader effort to produce a global picture of fish productivity and best fishery management practices in a changing marine environment,” said Anne Hollowed, co-project lead and supervisory research fishery biologist at NOAA Fisheries’ Alaska Fisheries Science Center.

NOAA Fisheries also plans to share the results of this project with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. This international body is preparing a 2021 report on the impacts of climate change on marine ecosystems and coastal communities.

Building Blocks in Place Making Effort Possible

Several models already exist for the region that look at climate, ocean and air circulation patterns, the ecosystem, fish stock health and the socio-economics of fishing communities and businesses.

“We plan to expand the scope of existing models by incorporating varied data and, in some cases, combining models to generate future climate scenarios,” said Andre Punt, project lead for the University of Washington.

Focus Species

Over this three-year project, scientists will use biological data for several commercially and ecologically important fish species, for which linkages exist between fish productivity and climate variability. Key species include walleye pollock, Pacific cod, arrowtooth flounder, northern rock sole and snow crab.

Scientists will try to account for what fish species eat and what eats them. In other words, they will add a range of data to the models that considers the entire food chain, from plankton through top predators like whales and humans. They will also incorporate oceanographic data such as water temperature, salinity, currents, and biogeochemistry into the models.

“It’s both exciting and daunting to see how environmental data are used in a multi-disciplinary framework. It raises new challenges for ocean and climate modeling, and opens new doors,” said Wei Cheng, a physical oceanographer from the University of Washington and NOAA affiliate with the Pacific Marine Environmental Lab participating in the project.

“We know that widespread change is coming to Alaskan marine ecosystems with the potential to affect everything from sea ice to fisheries,” said Kirstin Holsman, co-project lead and research scientist, NOAA Fisheries’ Alaska Fisheries Science Center. “Through this coordinated, multi-pronged research effort, we can better understand what that change will look like, what uncertainty there is, and how we can adjust our management to continue the region’s legacy of sustainable fisheries under climate change.”

Read the full release from NOAA

 

NOAA’s new Climate Science Strategy outlines efforts to build resilience

August 25, 2015 — As ocean conditions continue to change, putting ocean ecosystems and the communities that rely upon them at risk, today, NOAA took a first step in providing regional fisheries managers and stakeholders with information they need to reduce the effects of climate change and build resilience.

“NOAA just announced that for the globe the month of July—and actually, the entire year so far—was the warmest ever recorded, driven largely by record warm ocean temperatures,” said Eileen Sobeck, assistant NOAA administrator for fisheries. “Those warmer waters – along with rising seas, coastal droughts and  – are already putting people, businesses, and communities at risk. With this strategy, we’re taking a proactive approach in providing information on current and future conditions to try and reduce impacts and increase our resilience.”

The NOAA Fisheries Climate Science Strategy identifies seven key steps to increase production, delivery, and use of climate-related information to support the management of fish stocks, fisheries, and protected species. The steps focus on how a  affects living marine resources, ecosystems, and the communities that depend on them, and how to respond to those changes.

Read the full story at Phys.org

The Good and Bad of Climate Change in Maine- Fishing Impacts

August 25, 2015 — “If ocean temperatures go up 5 degrees, I might actually swim in it,” proclaimed Tom Doak, executive director of the Small Woodland Owners Association of Maine.

I’d need at least 20 degrees, I responded. But Tom was making an important point about climate change: It’s not all bad.

Yes, there will be no skiing in Maine, but waterskiers will enjoy a long season. Farmers will have longer growing seasons, although some current crops won’t do well. As we plan for these climate changes, it’s important to include the benefits along with the bad impacts.

The June conference on Maine’s Economy & Climate Change, organized by Alan Caron and Envision Maine, was both fascinating and troubling. Last week, I told you a bit about the conference, and today I will focus on the three dozen people who spoke briefly, from 10 minutes to 1 minute.

“Eat Hake, not Haddock.” That must be our new slogan, said Andy Pershing of the Gulf of Maine Research Institute. Fish species are changing in the Gulf of Maine, he said, and hake eat cod. We’d like to eat cod too. But first, we must eat hake. And the real question is this: Will tourists eat hake? Just for the hake of it?

Read the full story at CentralMaine.com