Saving Seafood

White House Releases New Strategies to Advance Sustainable Ocean Management

June 5, 2024 — The following was released by the White House:

This National Ocean Month, the White House announced three new federal strategies that advance President Biden’s commitment to conserving and protecting our ocean, and harnessing its power to strengthen our economy and address the climate and nature crises. A thriving ocean holds immense benefits for all life, and President Biden has made clear that preserving this natural resource is key to protecting our livelihoods. Since Day One, the Biden-Harris Administration has advanced America’s leadership in ocean health and resilience, environmental justice, and policies that strengthen research opportunities. Today’s announcements reflect the President’s push to address critical challenges that threaten the ocean’s future, including overfishing, warming from climate change, increased acidity due to carbon emissions, and loss of biodiversity.

“Earth’s ocean make life possible. It hosts vibrant ecosystems, feeds billions of people, sustains livelihoods, and connects us all,” said Arati Prabhakar, President Biden’s chief advisor on science and technology and Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). “These reports point the way to work with this precious natural resource to address inequities and injustice, and to meet the challenges of the climate crisis and biodiversity loss.”

“President Biden has been leading the most ambitious climate and conservation agenda in history while accelerating locally-led conservation efforts, creating good paying jobs, and enhancing coastal community resilience to the effects of climate change,” said Brenda Mallory, Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ). “The reports announced today help us better understand how to achieve our shared conservation and ecosystem restoration goals, and integrate climate action and environmental justice into a sustainable ocean economy.”

Each of today’s strategies outlines a whole-of-government approach that will lead to effective ocean-based solutions by:

Achieving a sustainable ocean economy

The U.S. National Strategy for a Sustainable Ocean Economy will guide U.S. ocean policies to conserve healthy ecosystems, support resilient communities, and advance sustainable economic development. This strategy focuses on how to build a sustainable ocean economy that will increase the quality of life for all communities and allow ecosystems and economies to thrive while prioritizing the effective creation, management, and dissemination of knowledge and information, including Indigenous Knowledge, basic and applied research, and ocean data.

Protecting and restoring ocean life

The National Ocean Biodiversity Strategy will expand and use biodiversity information to help protect and conserve marine ecosystems and maximize the ocean’s benefits to people. This strategy aims to understand and restore ocean life, which provides food, clean air and water, climate regulation, and cultural identity to people across the country.

Using environmental DNA (eDNA) technology to study ocean life

The National Aquatic eDNA Strategy will advance fast, low-cost, and effective eDNA technologies to understand life in the ocean and how it’s changing. Analyzing the DNA in a body of water to identify the species present is much more efficient than conducting traditional censuses of different species. The strategy outlines opportunities to improve and deploy eDNA processes to inform the development of more effective ocean policies.

These three new strategies complement actions taken previously by the Biden-Harris Administration to achieve a healthy ocean that supports people and the economy: The Ocean Climate Action Plan (OCAP), the first-ever comprehensive national strategy to harness the power of the ocean and coasts to address and respond to the climate crisis, and the Ocean Justice Strategy,  which identifies barriers and opportunities to fully integrate environmental justice principles into the federal government’s ocean activities. Since its release, federal agencies have advanced ocean actions across the government to accelerate nature-based solutions and enhance community resilience to changes in the ocean environment, including ones driven by climate change.

Read the release here

Environmental groups file new challenge to yet-unbuilt Alaska LNG export project

June 3, 2024 — Two environmental groups filed a new legal challenge to the Biden administration’s approval of a yet-to-be-built project that would send the Alaska North Slope’s vast reserves of natural gas to markets.

In a petition filed with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Sierra Club argued that federal agencies failed to properly consider harms that the massive natural gas project would cause to Endangered Species Act-listed animals living in the affected marine areas: polar bears, Cook Inlet beluga whales and Eastern North Pacific right whales.

The petition was filed against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service, along with the agencies’ parent departments, the Department of the Interior and Department of Commerce.

The Biden administration last year renewed an approval of exports from the project, which has been pursued in various forms since the 1970s but never built. The current plan is being promoted by the state-owned Alaska Gasline Development Corp. It proposes a 42-inch-diameter pipeline running about 800 miles from Prudhoe Bay on the North Slope to tidewater at Cook Inlet, where a new facility would convert the product to liquefied natural gas and load it onto tanker vessels for export to Asian markets.

Read the full article at the Alaska Beacon

FLORIDA: Florida weather: Are we in ‘hot water’? As temperatures rise, experts’ concerns wide-ranging

May 28, 2024 — Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean temperatures are running a few degrees above normal for this time of year, and warm-water impacts this summer and fall could range from enhanced tropical storm and hurricane formation to more blue-green algae blooms.

Water temperatures in Southwest Florida are hovering in the high 80s, according to the Nation Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA.

“Extreme warm waters can be problematic for numerous marine organisms, and the ecosystems they form,” said Ian Enochs, head of the sea coral program at NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic & Meteorological Laboratory. “This is particularly true if the warm conditions last for a long time, when animals are unable to escape from the temperature stress day in and day out. This is very evident on coral reefs, where corals often live right at the limit of their temperature tolerances. If waters are too hot for too long, corals can turn white or ‘bleach’ as their relationship with helpful symbiotic algae is disrupted.”

The News-Press documented this type of damage in the Florida Keys in 2022, following scientists and anglers to see impacts warmer waters have had on the coral and even the flow of the Gulf Stream.

Read the full article at the News-Press

Dangerous brew: Ocean heat and La Nina combo likely mean more Atlantic hurricanes this summer

May 26, 2024 —  Get ready for what nearly all the experts think will be one of the busiest Atlantic hurricane seasons on record, thanks to unprecedented ocean heat and a brewing La Nina.

There’s an 85% chance that the Atlantic hurricane season that starts in June will be above average in storm activity, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Thursday in its annual outlook. The weather agency predicted between 17 and 25 named storms will brew up this summer and fall, with 8 to 13 achieving hurricane status (at least 75 mph sustained winds) and four to seven of them becoming major hurricanes, with at least 111 mph winds.

An average Atlantic hurricane season produces 14 named storms, seven of them hurricanes and three major hurricanes.

“This season is looking to be an extraordinary one in a number of ways,” NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad said. He said this forecast is the busiest in the 25 years that NOAA has been issuing in May. The agency updates its forecasts each August.

About 20 other groups — universities, other governments, private weather companies — also have made seasonal forecasts. All but two expect a busier, nastier summer and fall for hurricanes. The average of those other forecasts is about 11 hurricanes, or about 50% more than in a normal year.

Read the full article at the Associated Press

Fish around the world are shrinking

May 26, 2024 — Fish are becoming smaller and we humans are most likely to blame. Climate change and overconsumption have drastically altered fish populations and could lead to food struggles in the future. Other species are also seeing changes due to climate change, which could lead to a shift in the aquatic ecosystem as it is currently known. Nonetheless, many marine ecosystems are actively adapting to the changing ocean and climate conditions, showing more resilience than expected.

A whole lot of small fry

Migrating Freshwater Fish Populations Have Declined 81% Since 1970, Report Finds

May 22, 2024 — Ahead of World Fish Migration Day on May 25, a new Living Planet Index report has revealed major declines in migratory freshwater fish since 1970. According to the findings, migrating freshwater fish populations have declined 81% from 1970 to 2020.

The Living Planet Index Migratory Freshwater Fishes report focused on data for migrating freshwater fish, or fish that move from one habitat to another for breeding and non-breeding in a seasonal or cyclical pattern. The report was a collaboration among the World Fish Migration Foundation, Zoological Society of London (ZSL), International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), The Nature Conservancy (TNC), Wetlands International and World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

On average, the index of 1,864 monitored populations of 284 migratory freshwater fish species from around the world revealed an 81% decline since 1970, leading to an average 3.3% decline per year. In Latin America and the Caribbean, the report noted an average decline of 91%, and Europe’s migratory freshwater fish have declined by about 75%.

Read the full article at EcoWatch

ALASKA: Building climate resilience together with Alaska’s fishing communities

May 21, 2024 — Communities of the Gulf of Alaska have a long history of adaptation. They have survived and thrived through wars, economic depressions, and natural disasters. They have also adapted to changes in the fishing industry, such as the decline of populations and the rise of aquaculture. Fishing communities are resilient. They have the knowledge, skills, and experience to adapt to challenges, including those brought by changing climates. With the right support, they can continue to thrive.  But to do that they need scientific information that supports resiliency planning by region.

Most of us are well aware of the blob, a massive marine heatwave that occurred in the Gulf of Alaska starting in 2014, caused widespread mortality of marine organisms, including commercially important species such as Pacific cod, halibut, and salmon. As a result, 18 fisheries in the Gulf were declared official disasters, leading to significant economic losses for fishing communities and seafood processors. Scientists predict that the effects of climate change will continue to intensify in coming years, with more frequent and severe heatwaves, as well as increased ocean acidification and harmful algal blooms. These changes are likely to have an ongoing and profound impact on the Gulf of Alaska fisheries, and on the communities and economies that depend on them.

The Alaska Marine Conservation Council has worked for three decades to create bridges between scientific resources and fishing communities. We have a long-term commitment to advance these critical discussions and recognize the importance of increasing efforts as unprecedented changes unfold around us. This kind of collaboration can help maintain resilience in Alaskan fishing communities, particularly as the marine environment changes.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Scientists Puzzling Over Colder Deep Water Temperatures in Gulf of Maine

May 19, 2024 — About a dozen years ago, the Gulf of Maine experienced an ocean heatwave unlike any other.

Today, scientists are puzzling over new data that suggest the Gulf may be experiencing another kind of climate shock.

Data collected from buoys placed in the Gulf of Maine show that over the last six months, deep water temperatures are noticeably lower than the long-term average.

“It’s not just cold in the deep waters right now, it’s really cold. And it’s fresher, it’s really fresher than it’s been,” said Nick Record, a senior scientist with Bigelow Laboratory. “These are very unusual conditions, so I think there’s a lot that we can learn by watching how the year unfolds.”

Read the full article at Seafoodnews.com

U.S. Proposes 8 Wind Energy Areas in Gulf of Maine

May 10, 2024 — Offshore wind is key to Massachusetts meeting its decarbonization goals, particularly the state’s Clean Energy and Climate plan, which commits to reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2050. The Mass. Clean Energy Center, a state agency established to boost the clean energy sector, anticipates that nearly 60 percent of all electricity in the state will be generated by wind by that year.

Cape Cod fishermen are watching the developments closely, according to Aubrey Ellertson Church, policy manager at the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance. In an email to the Independent, she said that local fishermen’s primary concern is whether the location of the wind farms would push them out of their traditional fishing areas and into other already-fished areas, increasing competition among boats.

Read the full article at The Provincetown Independent

Discarded fishing gear repurposed into cables

May 9, 2024 — It’s a staggering fact that approximately 1 million tons of abandoned, lost, and discarded fishing gear (ALDFG) find their way into the world’s oceans every year. This ALDFG significantly threatens marine life, primarily contributing to ocean plastic pollution. ABB Installation Products, a company helping with the environmental crisis, has taken the lead in developing groundbreaking cable protection solutions made from 50% recycled polyamide, primarily sourced from salvaged fishing nets. ABB is a technology leader in electrification and automation, enabling a more sustainable and resource-efficient future.

Representing a sustainable departure from traditional plastic-based systems, ABB’s PMA EcoGuard PA6 RPPA conduit not only safeguards vital power and data cables but also necessitates less energy and water during production, thereby reducing upstream Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions by 30% and reducing net freshwater consumption by 50%. Scope 3 emissions result from activities from assets that are not explicitly owned or controlled by the reporting organization. However, that specific organization indirectly affects its value chain.

Yahoo News shared that high-performance wire and cable protection is essential to powering electrical systems safely and reliably. PMA EcoGuard is part of ABB’s EcoSolutions line, which helps its customers make more sustainable decisions. Each product in this line shows circularity value, and the environmental impact is fully transparent. They carry an external third-party verified Lifecycle Assessment.

Read the full article at National Fisherman