Saving Seafood

RHODE ISLAND: Ocean State On the Hook: Warming Coastal Waters Will Impact Fisheries, Tourism

October 5, 2023 — Since Rhode Island calls itself the Ocean State, hypes its beaches, named calamari the official state appetizer, paid to place unappetizing stuffie installations made of Styrofoam in airports around the country, and relies heavily on coastal tourism for its economic survival, it stands to reason its elected officials, business owners, residents, and visitors are concerned about the health of the planet’s marine waters, especially those that lap the local coastline and play host to squid and quahogs.

They should be. The Northwest Atlantic Ocean — southern New England’s coast sits in the middle of it — is among the planet’s fastest-warming marine waters.

“Climate-driven changes in the oceans are projected to yield an average increase of 1° to 6°C in sea surface temperatures by 2100, which is likely to have profound effects on marine ecosystems and the communities, businesses, and fisheries that rely on them,” according to a study published in August.

The life- and economy-sustaining marine ecosystem is vulnerable to human influences. There is a limit to the abuse the oceans can take and still function as the planet’s lungs and circulatory system.

The incessant burning of fossil fuels, the dragging of industrial fishing gear along the seafloor, overfishing, and the dumping — directly and indirectly — of so much of our waste into the ocean is changing its composition. Biodiversity in the world’s marine waters is rapidly declining. Corals are bleaching. The oceans are warming, acidifying, and plastifying. The saltwater system is dying, or at least running a high fever. It is sick.

“New England’s ocean is facing a crisis on multiple fronts,” said Priscilla Brooks, vice president of ocean conservation at the Conservation Law Foundation (CLF). “Climate change, overfishing, pollution, and habitat destruction are combining to dangerously affect marine life which, if left unchecked, does not bode well for the future of our ocean.”

Simply put, we need to start treating the marine environment better. In fact, we need to provide some universal health care. Many people living in this region, in fact, are troubled by the oceans’ current condition.

A recent CLF poll found that New Englanders are increasingly worried about ocean health. They cited polluted runoff, plastic, climate change, overfishing, and habitat and species loss as significant concerns. Respondents strongly preferred establishing protected areas to mitigate these threats.

We could also stop killing the oceans’ top predators.

Read the full article at ecoRI

As heat waves warm the Pacific Ocean, effects on marine life remain murky

September 29, 2023 — Scientists are pretty good at recognizing marine heat waves: A global network of thousands of oceanic buoys and orbiting satellites allow them to see, in real time, ocean surface temperatures, changing currents and storm systems as they develop, move or stall from the Antarctic to the North Pole.

What’s harder to see is what’s happening to the marine ecosystems below — to the fish, invertebrates, plants and mammals.

“There’s sort of a disconnect between temperature and how something like temperature impacts species distribution patterns or how fisheries are operating or how protected species might be responding,” said Jarrod Santora, a fisheries biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “There’s a big jump between what we identify as a temperature anomaly and process in the ocean.”

Some animals may move down the water column to darker, colder waters. Others may move north — or south — depending upon where the cooler waters are. Many may flourish; others will perish.

And some may not be affected at all, said Santora.

“We’re just looking at temperature anomalies that focus on the skin of the ocean; we don’t know what’s happening inside,” he said.

Read the full article at the Los Angeles Times

Ocean Quahog Growing Quicker Thanks to Climate Change, According to New Study

September 29, 2023 — The Science Center for Marine Fisheries (SCEMFIS) said a pair of recent studies indicate that climate change has changed the life cycle of ocean quahogs, one of the longest-living species under the sea.

The pair of studies, funded by SCEMFIS, found that the species is growing “much faster and maturing much earlier” with global temperatures rising over the past 200 years, which SCEMFIS said is “one of the clearest examples yet on how climate change is affecting marine life.”

Due to their longevity, SCEMFIS said ocean quahogs are a great indicator of the impact of climate change over centuries. The studies examine the age and length data of a large, diverse sample of the species and finds a clear pattern of biological change over time in response to a changing climate.

Read the full article at Seafoodnews.com

Ocean quahog growth rates ‘radically altered’ by climate change, studies find

September 28, 2023 — Ocean quahogs are growing much faster and maturing earlier, in “one of the clearest examples of how climate change is affecting marine life,” according to the Science Center for Marine Fisheries.

Two new studies funded by the center found “a clear pattern of biological change over time in response to climate conditions” during the past two centuries, according to a summary. Ocean quahogs can live 200 years – one of the longest-lived marine species.

“In 1800, the average ocean quahog reached full maturity between 18 and 26 years, and reached a commercially harvestable size (according to the standards of the modern fishery, developed in the 20th century) in anywhere from 63 to 119 years,” according to the center. “By 2000, ocean quahogs were reaching maturity as early as 8 years, and had reached harvestable size between 26 and 29 years, over three times faster than 200 years ago.”

The papers, published in the journals Continental Shelf Research and Estuarine, Coastal, and Shelf Science, examined ocean quahog growth rates, and their changes over time, by studying the age and length data of a large, diverse sample set of ocean quahogs, and finds a clear pattern of biological change over time in response to climate conditions.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

ALASKA: ‘Too hot’ for salmon: How climate change is contributing to the Yukon salmon collapse

September 27, 2023 — Scientists know one thing for sure about the collapse of Yukon River king and chum salmon: there’s more than one culprit.

“It’s really hard and probably unrealistic to just point your finger at one thing and say that’s what’s doing it,” said Jayde Ferguson, a fish pathologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

Researchers have identified many threats facing Yukon king and chum salmon, and those threats pop up at each stage of the salmon life cycle — when salmon hatch in freshwater streams, as they swim down the Yukon to the ocean, where they spend most of their lives and on their arduous journey back upriver to spawn and die.

Scientists think many of these threats are connected to climate change. Ferguson studies one of them, a parasite named ichthyophonus, at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game lab in Anchorage.

Read the full article at Alaska Public Media

Researchers build and test a framework for achieving climate resilience across diverse fisheries

September 27, 2023 — What makes for a successful climate-resilient fishery, one that sustainably produces resources for human benefit despite increasing climate stressors and human impacts? It’s a question that faces present and future fisheries, their practitioners and fishing communities as the world turns to the ocean to feed its growing population.

“For a fishery to be resilient it needs to be able to prepare for, resist, cope with, recover from, or adapt to any given impact,” said Jacob Eurich, who is a research associate at UC Santa Barbara’s Marine Science Institute, and a fisheries scientist at the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). “In most cases a fishery will need to have a combination of these capacities to continue to produce food, income and well-being to the people who rely on them.”

It’s not a one-size-fits-all situation, according to Eurich, who led an international cohort of researchers for a paper published in the journal Fish and Fisheries. Because fisheries are complex marine ecosystems that face unique combinations of circumstances across the globe, achieving climate resilience will require equally diverse strategies, he said.

Fortunately, there are climate resilience success stories to draw lessons from. To gain these valuable insights, Eurich and colleagues examined 18 fisheries that expand our knowledge about how resilience operates across the world.

Read the full article at UC Santa Barbra

New Studies: Climate Change Causes Ocean Quahog to Grow Quicker, Mature Earlier

September 26, 2023 — Climate change has radically altered the life cycle of ocean quahog (Arctica islandica), one of the longest-lived species in the ocean. According to a new pair of studies funded by the Science Center for Marine Fisheries (SCEMFIS), the species is growing much faster and maturing much earlier as global temperatures have risen over the past 200 years, one of the clearest examples yet of how climate change is affecting marine life.

Because of the ocean quahog’s extreme longevity, they provide a unique record of climate change over the centuries. The oldest ocean quahogs are over 200 years old, and can provide us with insights into the ocean climate before widespread industrialization. The new papers, published in the journals Continental Shelf Research and Estuarine, Coastal, and Shelf Science, examine ocean quahog growth rates, and their changes over time, by examining the age and length data of a large, diverse sample set of ocean quahogs, and finds a clear pattern of biological change over time in response to climate conditions.

In 1800, the average ocean quahog reached full maturity between 18 and 26 years, and reached a commercially harvestable size (according to the standards of the modern fishery, developed in the 20th century) in anywhere from 63 to 119 years. By 2000, ocean quahogs were reaching maturity as early as 8 years, and had reached harvestable size between 26 and 29 years, over three times faster than 200 years ago.

Read the full article at Accesswire

As climate change and high costs plague Alaska’s fisheries, fewer young people take up the trade

September 26, 2023 — Lane Bolich first came to work in Alaska for the freedom and excitement that comes with being a fisher.

A self-described adrenaline junkie, Bolich moved from his hometown in rural Washington state because he loves being on the ocean even in cold winter weather and it gave him the chance to make more money than back home. After working as a deckhand for two years on a family friend’s boat, Harmony, he took the wheel as captain this year at just 20 years old.

Bolich is a rarity in an aging industry with high barriers to entry — equipment and access rights are costly — and increasing unpredictability as human-caused climate change alters marine habitats. As some fish populations dwindle and fewer people pursue the trade, fishers and conservation groups are actively working to bring in and retain the next generation of fishers through grants and training even as the industry continues to shrink in Alaska.

Read the full article at the Independent

NOAA Fisheries releases interactive climate vulnerability tool

September 23, 2023 — A new interactive tool from NOAA Fisheries allows users to access the agency’s data and see how vulnerable fish and their habitats are to climate change.

With data on roughly 400 marine species and habitats, the Climate Vulnerability Assessment Tool can create reports by drawing on the agency’s assessments of fish stocks, protected species, habitats, and fishing communities. NOAA Fisheries develops assessments based on the subject’s level of exposure to environmental changes and its sensitivity to those changes.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

When climate change throws the Pacific off balance, the world’s weather follows

September 20, 2023 — The Pacific Ocean is a juggernaut. It’s the largest ocean on our planet, almost double the size of the Atlantic. Its vast expanse, exposure to trade winds, and range of temperatures makes it incredibly dynamic. All these factors contribute to create the El Niño—Southern Oscillation (ENSO), a climate pattern that affects seasonal precipitation, heat, storms, and more around the world.

ENSO is made up of three stages: El Niño and La Niña, which can both increase the likelihood of extreme weather from the Philippines to Hawaii to Peru—and the neutral phase that we are typically in. El Niño is currently underway and is predicted to go strong until winter. With it come a slew of weather patterns like exacerbated heat waves in the northern US and Canada, increased risk of flooding in the south and southeast US, delayed rainy seasons, and even droughts in countries like Indonesia and the Philippines. And this is for an El Niño period that is predicted to be strong, but not particularly extreme. But as the Pacific warms due to human-driven climate change and temperature gradients across the ocean widen, scientists warn that El Niño and La Niña periods are becoming longer, more extreme, and more frequent.

In one recent study published in the journal Nature Reviews, researchers looked at different climate models to see how ENSO has changed through the past century, and how it may shift in coming years. While El Niño and La Niña ordinarily last nine to 12 months, the vast majority of models predict that we will see them stretch out over multiple years. “In the 20th century you got about one extreme El Niño per 20 years,” says Wenju Cai, chief research scientist at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation in Australia and lead author of the Nature Reviews paper. “But in the future, and in the 21st century on average, we will get something like one extreme event per 10 years—so it’s doubling.”

Read the full article at Popular Science