Saving Seafood

Record Salmon in One Place. Barely Any in Another. Alarm All Around.

August 16, 2021 — This summer, fishers in the world’s largest wild salmon habitat pulled a record-breaking 65 million sockeye salmon from Alaska’s Bristol Bay, beating the 2018 record by more than three million fish.

But on the Yukon River, about 500 miles to the north, salmon were alarmingly absent. This summer’s chum run was the lowest on record, with only 153,000 fish counted in the river at the Pilot Station sonar — a stark contrast to the 1.7 million chum running in year’s past. The king salmon runs were also critically low this summer — the third lowest on record. The Yukon’s fall run is also shaping up to be sparse.

The disparity between the fisheries is concerning — a possible bellwether for the chaotic consequences of climate change; competition between wild and hatchery fish; and commercial fishing bycatch.

“This is something we’ve never seen before,” said Sabrina Garcia, a research biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. “I think that we’re starting to see changes due to climate change, and I think that we’re going to continue to see more changes, but we need more years of data.”

The low runs have had ripple effects for communities along the Yukon River and its tributaries — the Andreafski, Innoko, Anvik, Porcupine, Tanana and Koyukuk Rivers — resulting in a devastating blow to the people relying on salmon as a food staple, as feed for sled dogs and as an integral and enriching cultural tradition spanning millenniums.

Read the full story at The New York Times

East Coast Climate Change Scenario Planning Webinars

August 12, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

In order to help fishing communities and fishery managers prepare for an era of climate change, numerous fisheries management bodies along the Atlantic seaboard have teamed up to launch the East Coast Climate Change Scenario Planning project.

The project is being organized by a core team of representatives from the New England, Mid-Atlantic, and South Atlantic Fishery Management Councils, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, and NOAA Fisheries.

The team has lined up three kick-off webinars to introduce stakeholders to climate change scenario planning, explain the benefits of participating in the process, outline additional ways to become involved, and begin collecting stakeholder input.

Webinar dates and times are listed below and advance registration is strongly encouraged.

  • East Coast Climate Change Scenario Planning Kick-Off Webinar #1
    Aug 30, 2021 4:00 PM – 5:30 PM Register for Webinar #1
  • East Coast Climate Change Scenario Planning Kick-Off Webinar #2
    Sep 1, 2021 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM Register for Webinar #2
  • East Coast Climate Change Scenario Planning Kick-Off Webinar #3
    Sep 2, 2021 10:00 AM – 11:30 AM Register for Webinar #3

PFMC Ad Hoc Climate and Communities Core Team to hold online briefing for Council committees and public September 2, 2021

August 12, 2021 — The following was released by the Pacific Fishery Management Council:

The Pacific Fishery Management Council’s (Pacific Council) ad Hoc Climate and Communities Core Team will hold an online briefing for Council committees and members of the public. The online briefing will be held Thursday, September 2, 2021, from 12 p.m. to 1:30 p.m., Pacific Daylight Time, or until business for the day has been completed.

Please see the public notice on the Council’s website for the purpose of the briefing and participation details.

For further information:

  • Please contact Pacific Fishery Management Council staff officer Dr. Kit Dahl at 503-820-2422; toll-free 1-866-806-7204.

Climate Change Scenario Planning: Input Needed to Prepare for an Era of Uncertainty in Ocean Conditions and Fisheries

August 11, 2021 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

On the East Coast of the U.S., some species of fish are already experiencing climate-related shifts in distribution, abundance, and productivity. No one knows for sure what the future holds, but a continuation or acceleration of climate change has the potential to strain our existing fishery management system and alter the way fishermen, scientists, and the public interact with the marine environment.

In order to begin preparing for this new era of uncertainty, management bodies along the entire Atlantic seaboard have teamed up to launch a project called East Coast Climate Change Scenario Planning. Scenario planning is a way of exploring how fishery management may need to evolve over the next few decades as climate change becomes a bigger issue. Here is the introductory brochure.

Read the full release here

Climate change ‘double whammy’ could kill off fish species

August 10, 2021 — New research suggests that fish like sardines, pilchards and herring will struggle to keep pace with accelerating climate change as warmer waters reduce their size, and therefore their ability to relocate to more suitable environments.

The study, published in Nature Climate Change, also provides the first evidence to counter the scientific theory that decreased movement will result in more species, by suggesting the opposite is true. This means many species will also be less able to evolve to cope with warmer temperatures, increasing their risk of dying out.

Professor Chris Venditti, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Reading, and co-author of the study, said: “Warming waters are a double whammy for fish, as they not only cause them to evolve to a smaller size, but also reduce their ability to move to more suitable environments.

“Our research supports the theory that fish will get smaller as oceans warm under climate change, but reveals the worrying news that they will also not be able to evolve to cope as efficiently as first thought. With sea temperatures rising faster than ever, fish will very quickly get left behind in evolutionary terms and struggle to survive.

“This has serious implications for all fish and our food security, as many of the species we eat could become increasingly scarce or even non-existent in decades to come.”

The study, led by the Center for Advanced Studies in Arid Zones (CEAZA) in Chile and the University of Reading in the UK, used statistical analyses of a large dataset of globally distributed fish species to study their evolution over the past 150 million years. The study provides first solid evidence of how historical global temperature fluctuations have affected the evolution of these species.

It focused on Clupeiforms — a highly diverse group of fish found all over the world, which includes important species for fisheries, such as anchovies, Atlantic herring, Japanese pilchard, Pacific herring, and South American pilchard. However, the findings have implications for all fish.

Fish have thus far only had to deal with a maximum average ocean temperature rise of around 0.8°C per millennium. This is far lower than current warming rates reported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of 0.18°C per decade since 1981.

Read the full story at Science Daily

Gulf of Mexico ‘dead zone’ has grown larger than Connecticut

August 9, 2021 — A “dead zone,” or an area of low to no oxygen, in the Gulf of Mexico has grown larger than Connecticut, creating an uninhabitable environment for some commercial marine life, and scientists are saying the sparse amount of tropical activity has played a role.

An hypoxic zone, also referred to as a dead zone, is formed when excess nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus from agriculture and sewage from cities and farms upstream wash into the Gulf. Algae then feeds on these nutrients during the warmer months, and when that algae dies and sinks to the Gulf’s floor, the bacteria that then eats away at the large tangled masses depletes the oxygen in the surrounding water.

The resulting area of low oxygen is called a hypoxic zone, or a dead zone as it becomes unable to support marine life, and it forms in the Gulf every year. Not only can it harm local wildlife, but it can also financially impact fisheries.

Hypoxic waters have been found to alter fish diets, growth rates, reproduction, habitat use and availability of commercially harvested species such as shrimp, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Now, fisheries along the coast of Louisiana will have to deal with a larger-than-average dead zone.

“Basically half of the Louisiana coast for several miles, many miles off shore, the oxygen was too low to support the occurrence of penaeid shrimp, which is one of our biggest economic fisheries in that area,” Dr. Nancy Rabalais, professor at Louisiana State University and LUMCON, and also the principal investigator, told AccuWeather. “So that area was basically lost as available and suitable habitat to those shrimp. How that’s going to convert to catches in money in the next month or so, I can’t really say.”

Read the full story at AccuWeather

Climate Change Scenario Planning: Input Needed to Prepare for Uncertainty in Ocean Conditions and Fisheries

August 9, 2021 — The following was released by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council:

On the East Coast of the United States, some species of fish are already experiencing climate-related shifts in distribution, abundance, and productivity. Although the future is uncertain, a continuation or acceleration of climate change has the potential to strain our existing fishery management system and alter the way fishermen, scientists, and the public interact with the marine environment.

In order to begin preparing for this possibility, management bodies along the entire Atlantic seaboard have teamed up to launch a new project called East Coast Climate Change Scenario Planning. Scenario planning is a way of exploring how fishery management may need to evolve over the next few decades in response to climate change. You can find additional details in the introductory brochure.

Weigh In! Stakeholder Input is Key to Effective Scenario Planning

The initiative is being organized by a Core Team of representatives from the New England, Mid-Atlantic, and South Atlantic Fishery Management Councils, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, and NOAA Fisheries. The team has lined up three kick-off webinars:

  1. Monday, August 30, 4:00 – 5:30 p.m.
  2. Wednesday, September 1, 6:00 – 7:30 p.m.
  3. Thursday, September 2, 10:00 – 11:30 a.m.

Please register at the links above. The webinars will introduce stakeholders to the overall initiative, explain the benefits of participating in the process, outline additional ways to become involved, and begin collecting stakeholder input.

An online questionnaire will be available soon to serve as an additional tool to collect input. Watch the Scenario Planning webpage for updates.

Warming R.I. marine waters force iconic species out, disrupt catch limits

August 9, 2021 — For generations, winter flounder was one of the most important fish in Rhode Island waters. Longtime recreational fisherman Rich Hittinger recalled taking his kids fishing in the 1980s, dropping anchor, letting their lines sink to the bottom, waiting about half an hour and then filling their fishing cooler with the oval-shaped, right-eyed flatfish.

Now, four decades later, once-abundant winter flounder is difficult to find. The harvesting or possession of the fish is prohibited in much of Narragansett Bay and in Point Judith and Potter ponds. Anglers must return the ones they accidentally catch to the sea.

Overfishing is easily blamed, and the industry certainly bears responsibility, as does consumer demand. But winter flounder’s local extinction isn’t simply the result of overfishing. Sure, it played a factor, but the reasons are complicated, from habitat loss, pollution and energy production — i.e., the former Brayton Point Power Station in Somerset, Mass., pre-cooling towers, when the since-shuttered facility took in about a billion gallons of water daily from Mount Hope Bay and discharged it at more than 90 degrees Fahrenheit.

Read the full story at The Westerly Sun

As new agreement goes into effect, countries align to protect and study Arctic fisheries

August 6, 2021 — An international agreement to protect the fisheries of the central Arctic region, signed in 2018, went into effect 25 June.

The agreement was signed by nine countries and the European Union. Signatories include Arctic countries – the United States, Canada, Russia, Denmark, and Norway – and countries with fishing interests there, including China, Japan, South Korea, and Iceland.

Read the full story at Seafood Source