Saving Seafood

How Marine Heat Waves Affect the Ocean – And What Can Be Done

July 17, 2023 — On 4 July 2023, the World Meteorological Organization declared the beginning of an El Niño phase, a climate pattern that drives up temperatures across land and sea.

Past weather events provide clues about what extreme temperatures could mean for the ocean. For instance, in December 2010, a wave of unusually warm water swept across the luxuriant and biodiverse seagrass meadows of Australia’s Shark Bay. In a matter of days, it destroyed a third of the habitat, unthreading the delicate seagrass quilt and, over the next three years, releasing between 2 and 9 billion tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere. “The losses there were phenomenal,” says Kathryn Smith, a researcher with the UK’s Marine Biological Association.

Scientists call the event a “marine heatwave”, meaning a period of exceptionally high water temperature that starts suddenly and continues for days to months, distinguishing it from long-term warming trends. Like heatwaves on land that threaten terrestrial ecosystems, heatwaves at sea harm marine life, posing “a clear and present threat to the systems we depend on,” says Sarah Cooley, director of climate science at the Ocean Conservancy.

These impacts are expected to grow. The UN’s climate science body, the IPCC, projects that by 2100 marine heatwaves will be up to 50-fold more frequent, and 10-fold more intense compared to pre-industrial times. Scientists are now developing ways to forecast these events. Their research can feed into measures that mitigate the threats for vulnerable habitats, species, and the coastal communities that depend on them.

Read the full article at The Maritime Executive

Warmer Ocean Temperatures Increase Risk of Salmon Bycatch in Pacific Hake Fishery

July 17, 2023 — Rates of Chinook salmon bycatch in the Pacific hake fishery rise during years when ocean temperatures are warmer, a signal that climate change and increased frequency of marine heatwaves could lead to higher bycatch rates, new research indicates.

During years when sea surface temperatures were higher, including during a marine heatwave, Chinook salmon were more likely to overlap with the Pacific hake and raise the risk of bycatch as they sought refuge from higher temperatures.

The findings, based on 20 years of bycatch data and ocean temperature records, provide new insight into the ecological mechanisms that underlie bycatch, which is the incidental capture of a non-targeted species, said the study’s lead author, Megan Sabal.

“The impact of ocean warming on bycatch has potential cultural, economic and ecological consequences, as the hake and salmon fisheries are each worth millions of dollars and salmon are critical to both Indigenous tribes’ cultural heritage and healthy ecosystems,” said Sabal, who worked on the project as a postdoctoral scholar at Oregon State University.

Pacific hake, also known as Pacific whiting, is the largest commercial fishery by tonnage on the U.S. West Coast. The rate is low, but bycatch remains a concern for the Chinook salmon population, said Michael Banks, a marine fisheries genomics, conservation and behavior professor at Oregon State University and a co-author of the study.

Read the full article at ECO Magazine

New experiment to test whether ocean warming opens a pathway for sea turtle

July 13, 2023 — Every now and then, small groups of endangered North Pacific loggerhead turtle hatchlings swim from Japan to the coastal waters of Baja Mexico and California, a journey of nearly 8,000 miles that has mystified scientists for decades.

The crux of the mystery is not how loggerheads find their way: Scientists believe they navigate the globe using Earth’s magnetic fields, as do salmon, elephant seals, some species of shark, and other turtle species. Rather, experts have puzzled over how these young, tropical, temperature-sensitive turtles manage to cross a deep-ocean zone that’s cold enough to be nearly impassable for most creatures.

“They go past the point of no return and head toward Baja, when most of the other turtles turn back,” said Stanford marine ecologist Larry Crowder. Now, an international team of scientists has released from a ship on the high seas 25 satellite-tagged turtles in an experiment that could confirm or modify the leading explanation for how they do it. Three more cohorts are planned for release over the next four years, for a total of 100 tagged turtles.

Pacific Ocean Deep-Sea Mining Could Threaten Tuna ‘Climate Refuge’

July 12, 2023 — A new study has found that deep-sea mining may pose a big threat to tuna species moving into the eastern Pacific Ocean as climate change pushes them into the open ocean.

Dr Diva Amon, a scientific researcher at the Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory at the University of California, Santa Barbara and Director and Founder of NGO SpeSeas explains that climate pressures are expected to push bigeye, skipjack and yellowfin tuna from their current range near small, developing Pacific nations into a “climate refuge” in a deep-ocean zone of the eastern Pacific Ocean.

“These tuna are going to be leaving these Pacific Nations and moving into the high seas and progressively eastward,” she says, adding that the highly-mobile tuna might arrive to these new areas only to find it is already inhospitable due to deep-sea mining.

Read the full article at Forbes

MASSACHUSSETTS: Technology, marketing among 20 Massachusetts grants for $1.6 million

July 9, 2023 — Massachusetts state officials announced $1.6 million in grants will go to 20 businesses and organizations “to support innovative approaches to enhance Massachusetts commercial marine fisheries and the seafood industry.”

“Massachusetts is a leader in protecting the health of our fishing industry, and this funding shows our commitment to keep the industry thriving by utilizing cutting-edge technology and the latest scientific research,” Gov. Maura Healey said in announcing the grants June 30. “Our administration is taking a holistic approach to combating climate change, which includes supporting our fisheries, advancing green energy, and enhancing the state’s blue economy.”

The funding is coming through the Environmental Economic Innovation and Resiliency in Marine Fisheries Grant Program, supplemented by the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). The goal is encouraging projects “that work to mitigate economic barriers resulting from climate change and promote sustainable, local fisheries development in Massachusetts,” according to the state Division of Marine Fisheries.

 “The fishing industry is on the front lines of climate change, and it’s critical we make meaningful, long-term investments now to ensure the sustainability and resiliency of our marine fisheries,” Rebecca Tepper, the state energy and environmental affairs secretary. “This funding is two-fold in that we are helping fishers and their families recover from the pandemic while supporting new approaches that will safeguard our valuable marine resources from climate harm.”

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

NEW JERSEY: Tax break for offshore wind energy developer Orsted narrowly approved in New Jersey Legislature

July 3, 2023 — A bill to let Danish offshore wind energy developer Orsted keep tax credits that it otherwise would have to return to New Jersey ratepayers was approved by the slimmest of margins in the state Legislature Friday afternoon and went to the desk of Gov. Phil Murphy, a strong supporter of offshore wind farms.

The measure initially failed to gather enough support in the Senate but won one additional vote in a subsequent try — just enough to pass it.

The bill to allow Orsted to keep federal tax credits was designed to help counter what lawmakers termed lingering economic effects on the developer from the COVID-19 pandemic and elevated inflation.

It applies to Orsted’s first project in New Jersey, Ocean Wind I, which aims to generate enough electricity to power 500,000 homes.

The New Jersey legislation highlighted a sharp partisan divide over offshore wind projects, with Republicans mostly opposing them as harmful to the environment, marine life and the fishing and tourism industries, and Democrats supporting them as crucial to moving away from the burning of fossil fuels that is contributing to a warming climate.

Read the full article at the Washington Post

Southeast troll fishermen help study a warming ocean: ‘Fishermen are natural scientists’

June 29, 2023 — Eric Jordan’s life on the ocean began more than 70 years ago, when his parents started taking him out on the family’s troller. At 73, Jordan still fishes regularly. But he says a lot has changed in the waters of Southeast Alaska.

“I was out there, the last two weekends at the Derby weigh station, seeing things that are truly dystopian. The lack of birds, the lack of fish,” Jordan said. “Those of us who are out there on the water, we are seeing the changes. And I’ll tell you it’s pretty spooky.”

Jordan started his own operation in 1978, trolling for coho and chinook salmon across Southeast Alaska and catching hundreds of fish a day. But today, the marine environment seems less abundant. Most species of Southeast salmon have had record low harvests in recent years, and the devastation from “the Blob” — a Pacific heat wave that caused massive die-offs of marine species — lingers.

Scientists expect a future with warmer oceans and more marine heat waves. But there’s a lack of data to explain how climate change is shaping Southeast fisheries. Now, two new citizen science projects from Alaska Sea Grant and the Alaska Trollers Association will help longtime troll fishermen like Jordan take the lead to gather data about how the waters they depend on are changing.

Read the full article at KTOO

‘Unprecedented’ ocean heat wave could linger through fall

June 22, 2023 — An intense marine heat wave that has fueled record-warm sea surface temperatures in the world’s oceans in recent months could linger well into the fall, according to an experimental forecast produced by scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Researchers with the agency’s Physical Sciences Laboratory said unusually warm conditions in the North Atlantic are all but certain to last all summer, with an up to 90% chance that the marine heat wave will persist through November.

Members of the research team are set to issue an outlook online later this week that unveils the new forecast and discusses its implications.

Dillon Amaya, a research scientist at NOAA’s Physical Sciences Laboratory, called the situation in the North Atlantic “unprecedented,” adding that researchers have been trying to understand what is driving the current warm spell and its potential consequences.

Read the full article at NBC News

‘Nothing like this has ever happened before’: The world’s oceans are at record-high temps

June 20, 2023 — Ocean surface temperatures vaulted to unprecedented levels this spring, alarming scientists and prompting predictions of increased extreme weather this year, including from hurricanes.

While ocean temperatures have been rising for at least 70 years, the new measurements taken from a network of satellites, ships, and buoys around the globe show an unexpected spike that began in March and appears to still be climbing.

“It’s just totally shocking, because it is so far out of the realm of what has been observed in the records,” said Brian McNoldy, a hurricane and climate expert at the University of Miami. “Nothing like this has ever happened before.”

Read the full article at Boston Globe