Saving Seafood

Changing Oceanographic Conditions And Environmental Justice Concerns In The Northeast Shelf

April 6, 2022 — Two new reports show the Northeast continental shelf marine ecosystems are experiencing notable ocean warming and changes in oceanography. The reports include new indicators that evaluate environmental justice concerns.

The Northeast shelf extends from North Carolina to Maine and is one of the most productive marine ecosystems in the United States. The annual New England and Mid-Atlantic State of the Ecosystem reports capture the big picture of the biology, climate, physical, and social conditions of the marine ecosystem. The assessments inform fisheries management by showing how the ecosystem is connected and changing. This ecosystem change, in turn, affects the distribution and abundance of marine species from phytoplankton to whales.

“We develop these reports along with the regional fishery management councils to provide information on current social, economic, and environmental conditions and address priority questions on factors affecting their management objectives. Every year, the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council uses these reports to update their ecosystem level risk assessment. This gives managers a quick overview of conditions that may affect fisheries,” said Sarah Gaichas, co-editor at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center.

Read the full story at NOAA Fisheries

‘Resilient’ leatherback turtles can survive fishing rope entanglements. Mostly

April 6, 2022 — Leatherback sea turtles run a gantlet of fishing lines and other human impacts during their annual migratory loop from Caribbean nesting grounds to the eastern coast of North America and back. One of the leatherback turtle’s biggest obstacles is entanglement in ropes from lobster pot traps deployed by commercial fisheries in the waters of New England. A recently published report in Endangered Species Research found that while turtles can survive entanglement if reached by rescuers, new approaches in fisheries are needed for them to survive over the long term.

“I was surprised and encouraged by how many of the cases [showed] that the turtles were able to survive these events,” said lead author Kara Dodge, from the New England Aquarium in Massachusetts, who analyzed 15 years’ worth of data collected by the Center for Coastal Studies (CCS) based in Provincetown, Massachusetts.

The CCS played the dual role of collecting data and coming to the rescue during turtle entanglements with its Marine Animal Entanglement Response Program. Between 2005 and 2019, the CCS saved more than 100 leatherback turtles. The world’s largest sea turtle, the leatherback, Dermochelys coriacea, is currently listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, and is threatened by fisheries, destruction of beaches and climate change.

Read the full story at Mongabay

 

East Coast fisheries ‘climate scenario’ workshop planned

April 5, 2022 — East Coast fisheries managers will host a June 21-23 workshop with fishermen and other stakeholders to develop possible scenarios for how management could adapt to shifting fishing stocks and biological and economic changes coming with climate change.

Since late 2020 the East Coast Climate Change Scenario Planning Initiative, fishery scientists and managers have been “working collaboratively and engaging diverse fishery stakeholders to explore jurisdictional and governance issues related to climate change and shifting fishery stocks,” according to the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council.

The initiative is a joint project of the Mid-Atlantic, New England and South Atlantic fishery management councils, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission and NMFS.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Climate Change Scenario Planning: Scenario Creation Phase; Apply by April 18 to Participate in Two-and-a-Half-Day Workshop

April 4, 2022 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

East Coast fishery management bodies are currently engaging in a Climate Change Scenario Planning initiative to explore governance and management issues related to climate change and fishery stock distributions.

The next phase of this work centers around a two-and-a-half-day Scenario Creation workshop to be held June 21-23, 2022 in the Washington D.C. metro area. Anyone interested in participating should fill out the application form by April 18, 2022. Here are the workshop details.

Workshop Overview

Through a series of conversations and exercises, participants will create a set of scenarios that describe how climate change might affect East Coast fisheries in the next 20 years. Each scenario will describe a different way in which changing oceanographic, biological, and social/economic conditions could combine to create future challenges and opportunities for East Coast fisheries.

Read the full release from the New England Fishery Management Council

Salmon travel deep into the Pacific. As it warms, many ‘don’t come back.’

March 30, 2022 — During a typical fall, almost a million chum salmon pour into Alaska’s Yukon River, a torrent of wild fish that has sustained the economy and Indigenous culture in the far north for generations. Last year, that run collapsed, with salmon trickling upstream at a 10th of normal levels, forcing the state to airlift frozen fish from other regions to feed the population.

About 400 miles to the south, in Bristol Bay, the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery set a record last year, with more than 66 million salmon returning to the rivers in the watershed. That total is expected to be broken again this year.

Salmon in the Pacific Ocean face dramatically different fates from one river system to the next. As the planet warms, driven by the burning of fossil fuels, scientists say changes in ocean conditions are helping drive these wild swings and collapses of key stocks. These North Pacific fish account for most of the world’s wild-caught salmon, and their survival has implications for economies and cultures around the Pacific Rim.

During her three decades as a government scientist, as climate change has intensified, Laurie Weitkamp has watched these fluctuations in salmon numbers become bigger and the models that predict how many salmon will return from sea become more unreliable.

“Salmon will go out, in what we think is a really good ocean, and then it collapses,” said Weitkamp, a fisheries biologist with the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration based in Oregon. “They don’t come back.”

Read the full story at The Washington Post

UNC Researchers: Climate change causing fish migration

March 30, 2022 — The University of North Carolina Institute of Marine Sciences says climate change is threatening the fishing industry, which contributes close to $300 million to the economy in North Carolina.

Marine researchers say climate change is continuing to impact the environment along the coast and is now impacting the amount of fish in the water here in the east.

University of North Carolina’s Marine Sciences college in Morehead City has conducted research into the decrease in the number of fish.

Dr. Janet Nye, Associate Professor at the Institute of Marine Sciences, has been studying water temperatures and how it impacts fish along North Carolina’s Coast.

Nye says the increase in temperatures has caused flounder and grouper numbers to decrease.

Read the full story at WITN

NOAA report highlights 2021 climate, weather, ocean research

March 29, 2022 — Launching the first ever national rip current forecast model, creating high-resolution sea ice information to improve navigation, and using artificial intelligence to process marine mammal calls: These are just a few of NOAA’s many notable scientific accomplishments from the past year. The newly released 2021 NOAA Science Report includes more than 60 stories that represent a selection of NOAA’s 2021 research and development accomplishments across the range of NOAA’s mission. Some of NOAA’s biggest science accomplishments from 2021 include the following 4 stories:

1. Looking at how climate change could impact West Coast fisheries

The “Future Seas” project is a collaborative effort that uses models to explore potential impacts of climate change on West Coast fisheries and evaluate strategies for managing those impacts. This year, the team of scientists completed detailed projections of West Coast ocean conditions out to the year 2100 and used them to project potential climate-driven changes in the distributions and landings of Pacific sardine and albacore tuna in the California Current System, an ocean current that moves southward along the West Coast of North America. Thanks to the Future Seas project, scientists can now provide  information and advice on climate resilience to West Coast fishing communities, which helps them better prepare for the effects of climate change.

Read the full story from NOAA

2021 was the hottest year on record in the Gulf of Maine, new data show

March 29, 2022 — Scientists say the highest water temperatures ever in the Gulf of Maine were recorded last year.

The Gulf is one of the fastest-warming bodies of water on the planet, and fishermen are noticing signs of the change.

Data released by the Gulf of Maine Research Institute show that last year surface water temperatures in the Gulf were on average a half-degree higher than the previous record, with record highs recorded on 169 days — almost half the year.

The Gulf experienced what scientists now call a “marine heatwave” for the entire year.
“As unusually warm as 2021 was in a historical context, it’s likely to be one of the coolest years we’ll experience going forward, especially if we’re not able to reduce greenhouse gas emission globally,” says the institute’s David Reidmiller.

Reidmiller says the latest data punctuate a decades-long trend that shows no sign of abating.

“The warming trend is unequivocal in the Gulf of Maine. It’s been going on now for decades, and from a climatological sense we are assuredly in a new regime,” Reidmiller says.

Read the full story at Maine Public Radio

MASSACHUSETTS: Offshore wind lease funds seen as potential aid for fishing industry

March 18, 2022 — The Baker administration and the Massachusetts Legislature have been gung-ho about pursuing offshore wind power and preparing the state’s infrastructure to deal with the consequences of climate change, but lawmakers during the week of March 7 impressed upon the administration the importance of keeping the state’s historic fishing industry in mind as well.

“We’ve been taking steps over the past couple of years to make sure that the commonwealth is a leader in the wind industry. However, I’m not insensitive to the fact that some of what we’re doing on wind and with renewables comes to the expense of one of our oldest professions, which is the fishing industry,” Rep. Ann-Margaret Ferrante of Gloucester said March 11 during a hearing on the energy and environment portions of Gov. Charlie Baker’s $48.5 billion fiscal-year 2023 budget bill.

Tension between the commercial fishing industry and offshore wind developers has been a constant thread as the new industry looks to establish its roots in the United States. The Responsible Offshore Development Alliance, among others, has sued federal agencies contending that by approving the Vineyard Wind I project “the United States has shortcut the statutory and regulatory requirements that were enacted to protect our nation’s environmental and natural resources, its industries, and its people.”

Annie Hawkins, executive director of RODA, said the fishing industry supports “strong action on climate change, but not at the expense of the ocean, its inhabitants, and sustainable domestic seafood.” The Massachusetts Seafood Collaborative, a group of seafood harvesters, processors and wholesalers, has come out in stout opposition to the offshore wind bill the House has passed and generally any other Beacon Hill plans to promote and grow the offshore wind industry here.

Read the full story at Wicked Local

The U.N. Treaty That Could Be the Oceans’ Last Great Hope

March 11, 2022 — United Nations member states have tried for years to reach a global agreement that would protect marine life on the high seas—those parts of the world’s oceans that fall beyond the jurisdiction of any individual country.

The endeavor is seen as hugely important for protecting the world’s biodiversity and limiting the impact of climate change. While existing laws and treaties address marine and maritime activities within countries’ jurisdiction, very little extends to the high seas, which include about 95 percent of the world’s oceans in terms of volume.

Member states began discussing the issue in 2004, with delegates meeting every two years. By 2020, the parties appeared to be close to striking a deal, but the outbreak of COVID-19 that year put the talks on ice.

Read the full story and listen to the audio at Foreign Policy