Saving Seafood

ALASKA: Alaska Salmon Research Task Force issues progress report, seeks public input

October 26, 2023 — Beset by changing climate, population swings and declining salmon returns in some regions, Alaska salmon are under unprecedented pressures.

The Alaska Salmon Research Task Force is now seeking public comment on an early version of their draft report to help build its work plan.

In an announcement through the National Marine Fisheries Service, task force members said they need advice on “existing knowledge, research gaps, and applied research that is needed to better understand the increased variability and declining salmon returns in some regions of Alaska.”

The task force is especially interested in hearing comments about Indigenous and traditional knowledge that can be applied to the Pacific salmon life cycle framework now under development by the task force.

Comments can be submitted online with this form. People can also comment in person during the November 14-15, 2023 Alaska Salmon Research Task Force meeting in Anchorage. The session will be held at the William A. Egan Civic & Convention Center, Summit Hall (Lower Level), 555 W 5th Ave, Anchorage, AK 99501.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Scientists say right whale decline may have slowed

October 24, 2023 —  The endangered North Atlantic right whale population may have grown slightly with new calves born in 2021-2023. But human activities in the ocean could still be killing as many whales as are born, scientists say in their latest assessment.

In a report released for its annual meeting this week, the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium updated its estimate for the 2022 whale population at 356 animals, based on 18 calves born in 2021, according to a summary from the New England Aquarium.

“While certainly more encouraging than a continued decline, the ‘flattening’ of the population estimate indicates that human activities are killing as many whales as are being born into the population, creating an untenable burden on the species,” said Heather Pettis, a research scientist in the Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life at the New England Aquarium and executive administrator of the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium.

The aquarium and science partners at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration work together on coordinating surveys of the right whale population – one of the most endangered species on Earth – and NOAA published a detailed technical memo on the latest assessment Oct. 23.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

A warming Gulf Stream is edging ever closer to shore

October 23, 2023 — Over the last 20 years, the Gulf Stream has warmed faster than the global oceans and shifted closer to the shore, increasing the likelihood that the tropical ocean current could suddenly impact U.S. coastal fisheries, according to a new study published this month.

Physical oceanographers Robert Todd and Alice Ren from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution found the Gulf Stream has warmed 2 degrees Fahrenheit and moved 6 miles closer to the eastern continental shelf since 2001, according to findings published in Nature Climate Change.

The Gulf of Maine is most influenced by the Labrador Current, which brings colder water from the north. The oscillating Gulf Stream generally passes 100 miles south of the Gulf of Maine’s southern border, but warm-water breakaways from it can still increase Gulf of Maine temperatures for months at a time.

Scientists say it is too early to know for sure, but increasingly warm core rings that break away closer to shore could have a significant impact on environmental conditions, and marine wildlife, within the Gulf of Maine, according to Todd, the study’s lead author.

“These rings have a very sharp temperature contrast,” Todd said. “They come in and very suddenly you have very warm water in the spot where you had cold water before. It’s temporary, for the life of the ring, but it’s a long enough period of time that the fish, the shellfish, they care.”

This study focused on the general Gulf Stream that hugs the U.S. coast from Florida up to Cape Cod, before it flows east toward Europe, but Todd notes that other researchers have found the number of warm core rings formed by the Gulf Stream has roughly doubled since 2000.

Read the full article at Portland Press Herald

In search of 10 billion missing snow crabs, scientists eye marine heat waves

October 23, 2023 — About 10 billion snow crabs disappeared from Bering Sea waters between 2018 and 2021, forcing fisheries to shutter in Alaska last winter and threatening the state’s economy. Now, scientists think they know what happened to them.

A study published Thursday in the journal Science suggests that the crabs likely suffered a mass starvation event touched off by seasons of extreme ocean heat.

The population crash — from its highest-recorded level in 2018 — shows how marine heat waves, which are made more likely by climate change, can scramble ecosystems and threaten human livelihoods that rely on ocean life.

Read the full article at NBC News

Decline of rare right whale appears to be slowing, but scientists say big threats remain

October 23, 2023 — The decline of one of the rarest whales in the world appears to be slowing, but scientists warn the giant mammals still face existential threats from warming oceans, ship collisions and entanglement in fishing gear.

The population of North Atlantic right whales, which live off the U.S. East Coast, fell by about 25% from 2010 to 2020 and was down to only about 364 whales as of 2021. Now the whales are at around 356 in total, according to a group of scientists, industry members and government officials who study them.

This suggests the population is potentially levelling off, as equal numbers of whales could be entering the population as are being killed, the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium said Monday. However, getting an accurate count of the aquatic creatures involves certain ranges of error, which put estimates for 2021 and 2022 at roughly around the same number.

Read the full article at the Associated Press

US Department of Defense awards grant to project aiming to predict how climate change could lead to conflicts over fishing rights

October 22, 2023 — The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has awarded an Oregon State University (OSU) researcher USD 1.4 million (EUR 1.3 million) over three years to predict how fish stocks could shift due to climate change, specifically focusing on movements that have the potential to cause geopolitical tension.

The research aims to support world leaders in reducing the risk of future conflicts and, if tensions do rise, enhancing global preparedness for such instances.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Blue crabs are showing up more often in the warming Gulf of Maine

October 17, 2023 — Laura Crane winds her way around a maze of shallow pools at the Webhannet Marsh near Wells. She stops at one pool with a small blue flag poking through the tall grass at the water’s edge, grabs the rope lying nearby, and pulls.

“OK, first trap we already have two blue crabs, said Crane, as she hauls up a small, wire mesh trap from the muck.

And with metal kitchen tongs in hand, Crane attempts to pry away one of the crabs that’s clutching one side. It’s small, with a greenish gray shell and bright blue claws. She measures its size and determines that it’s a male.

Crabs that have been caught before have a small notch clipped from their swimmer paddle. And after a lengthy battle with the kitchen tongs, Crane confirms that this crab has not been tagged.

Read the full article at Maine Public

Study: Over 70% of marine mammals in American waters are vulnerable to climate change threats

October 10, 2023 — Whales, dolphins and seals living in U.S. waters face major threats from warming ocean temperatures, rising sea levels and decreasing sea ice volumes associated with climate change, according to a first-of-its-kind assessment.

Researchers with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration examined more than 100 stocks of American marine mammal species and found more than 70% of those stocks are vulnerable to threats, such as loss of habitat and food, due to the consequences of warming waters. The impacts also include loss of dissolved oxygen and changes to ocean chemistry.

The scientists found large whales such as humpbacks and North Atlantic right whales were among the most vulnerable to climate change, and that other toothed whales and dolphins were also at high risk.

The study, published late September in the journal PLOS ONE, is evidence that the way the U.S. manages whales and dolphins needs to adapt in the era of climate change, advocates for marine mammals said.

The news is bleak, but the assessment also is the first to look solely at marine mammal stocks managed by the U.S. and the results can help inform federal ocean managers about how to safeguard the vulnerable animals, said Matthew Lettrich, a biologist and lead author of the study.

“As the climate’s changing, we’re seeing some of the effects already, and some of our marine mammal populations are more vulnerable to those changes than others,” Lettrich said. “Based on this study, we see a good proportion are highly and very highly vulnerable.”

Read the full article at wbur

Gulf of Maine Logged its 8th Hottest Summer on Record

October 10, 2023 — The average surface temperature of the Gulf of Maine this summer was 61.01 degrees, 1.91 degrees above the 30-year seasonal average, making it the eighth hottest summer since satellite data has been collected, according to a new report from the Gulf of Maine Research Institute.

But conditions in the gulf this summer were unusually cool when compared to recent years, the institute concluded. The three previous summers had been noteworthy for their extended marine heatwaves, part of a long-term trend of unseasonably warm summer and fall temperatures since 2012.

“While the summer of 2023 was ‘only’ the eighth-warmest summer on record in the Gulf of Maine, the broader North Atlantic region was off-the-charts hot,” said Dave Reidmiller, director of the institute’s Climate Center. “It’s clear that the long-term warming trend continues unabated.”

Researchers believe this trend is the result of a distinct regime shift: a combination of the widening of the Gulf Stream, changes in the Labrador Current and the weakening of a large system of currents that carries warm water from the tropics north and keeps the sea’s heat and energy well mixed.

The trend means coastal communities must continue to prepare for a warmer world, Reidmiller said.

Read the full article at Seafoodnews.com

Whales and dolphins in US waters losing food, habitat to climate change, study says

October 10, 2023 — Whales, dolphins and seals living in U.S. waters face major threats from warming ocean temperatures, rising sea levels and decreasing sea ice volumes associated with climate change, according to a first-of-its-kind assessment.

Researchers with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration examined more than 100 stocks of American marine mammal species and found more than 70% of those stocks are vulnerable to threats, such as loss of habitat and food, due to the consequences of warming waters. The impacts also include loss of dissolved oxygen and changes to ocean chemistry.

The scientists found large whales such as humpbacks and North Atlantic right whales were among the most vulnerable to climate change, and that other toothed whales and dolphins were also at high risk.

The study, published last month in the journal PLOS ONE, is evidence that the way the U.S. manages whales and dolphins needs to adapt in the era of climate change, advocates for marine mammals said.

The news is bleak, but the assessment also is the first to look solely at marine mammal stocks managed by the U.S. and the results can help inform federal ocean managers about how to safeguard the vulnerable animals, said Matthew Lettrich, a biologist and lead author of the study.

Read the full article at ABC News