Saving Seafood

Valuable crab populations are in a ‘very scary’ decline in warming Bering Sea

September 22, 2021 — Federal biologist Erin Fedewa boarded a research vessel in June in Dutch Harbor, Alaska, and journeyed to a swath of the Bering Sea that typically yields an abundance of young snow crab in annual surveys.

Not this summer. At this spot, and elsewhere, the sampling nets came up with stunningly few — a more than 99% drop in immature females compared to those found just three years earlier.

Biologists also found significant downturns in the numbers of mature snow crab as they painstakingly sorted through the sea life they hauled up.

“The juveniles obviously were a red flag, but just about every size of snow crab were in dramatic decline,” Fedewa said. “It’s very scary.”

This collapse in the Bering Sea snow crab population comes amid a decade of rapid climatic changes, which have scrambled one of the most productive marine ecosystems on the planet in ways that scientists are just beginning to understand. The changes are forcing them to reconsider how they develop models to forecast harvest seasons.

Read the full story at the Seattle Times

 

‘Blue Food Revolution’ to Tackle Climate Change and Malnutrition

September 22, 2021 — Doubling of global demand for aquatic foods calls for a ‘blue food revolution’ to tackle climate change and malnutrition, new research argues.

An unprecedented review of the aquatic foods sector has uncovered how fisheries and aquaculture can play a greater role in delivering healthy diets and more sustainable, equitable and resilient food systems around the world.

Five peer-reviewed papers in the journal Nature highlight the opportunities to leverage the vast diversity of aquatic, or “blue,” foods in the coming decades to address malnutrition, lower the environmental footprint of the food system, and provide livelihoods.

“People are trying to make more informed choices about the food they eat, in particular the environmental footprint of their food,” said Ben Halpern, a marine ecologist at UC Santa Barbara’s Bren School of Environmental Science & Management, who with colleagues examined the environmental sustainability of aquatic foods, the potential for the growth of small-scale producers and the climate risks that face aquatic food systems. “For the first time we pulled together data from hundreds of studies on a wide range of seafood species to help answer that question. Blue foods stack up really well overall and provide a great option for sustainable food.”

The research projects that global demand for blue foods will roughly double by 2050, and will be met primarily through increased aquaculture production rather than by capture fisheries.

Investing in innovation and improving fisheries management could increase consumption even more and have profound effects on malnutrition. For instance, a “high growth” modeling scenario showed that increasing supply by 15.5 million tons (8%), causing a drop in prices, would reduce cases of nutrient deficiencies by 166 million, especially among low-income populations.

Read the full story at ECO Magazine

 

US Pacific Fishery Managers Support Climate Change Research to Inform Management Decisions

September 22, 2021 — The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council voted today to approve several plans aimed at improving research and data in the region. The Council’s work relies on robust scientific information for its fishery management decisions. The Council and its advisors developed research priorities with the Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, setting the direction for the future.

Climate change is a high priority, in line with the Biden Administration’s efforts to mitigate the impacts and enhance fisheries resilience. Addressing the shift in distribution of stocks and fishing effort due to changes in oceanographic features is a good example.

The Council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee Three-Year Plan focused its priorities on science that directly supports fishery management. A major focus is helping fishing communities to understand the value of data for fishery sustainability.

The Council’s five-year regional research plan is mandated by the Magnuson-Stevens Act. The plan covers research priorities for pelagic and island fisheries, protected species, human communities, cooperative research and management strategy evaluation.

The Council also endorsed the Fishery Data Collection and Research Committee’s strategic plan for 2022 to 2026. The overarching goals of the plan are to:

  • Build local agency capacity to improve fishery-dependent data collection.
  • Provide non-peer-reviewed reports and unpublished datasets.
  • Conduct science and research to support ecosystem-based fishery management.

The Council concluded the first day of its three-day virtual meeting today. The meeting continues tomorrow with decisions on the American Samoa bottomfish rebuilding plan and initial action on seabird mitigation in the Hawai‘i longline fishery. Instructions on connecting to Webex, agendas and briefing documents are posted at www.wpcouncil.org/meetings-calendars.

The Council manages federal fisheries operating in waters offshore of the State of Hawai‘i, the Territories of American Samoa and Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) and the U.S. Pacific Remote Islands Areas.

 

Climate Change Scenario Planning: Kick-Off Webinars a Wrap; Input Now Needed on Fishery Impacts via Questionnaire

September 20, 2021 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

Climate-related forces such as ocean temperature changes and sea-level rises are certain to shape fisheries on the East Coast between now and 2040. Which forces do you think are most important? What are the unknowns? Do you support exploring how fishery management will be affected by shifting fish stock distributions due to climate-related factors?

These are the kinds of questions being asked as part of the scoping process for the East Coast Climate Change Scenario Planning Initiative. The Core Team overseeing the project recently held three kick-off webinars to introduce fishermen and other stakeholders to climate change scenario planning. Anyone who missed the webinars can watch the videos:

• Introduction to East Coast Climate Change Scenario Planning
• Introduction to Scenario Planning
• Initiative Details
• Process and Participants

The Core Team is now soliciting additional insights, perspectives, and feedback via a questionnaire to help guide future work on this initiative. The 12 questions should take no more than 10-to-30 minutes to complete, and some are short and simple, such as “where are you based.” Commercial and recreational fishermen, as well as others who are out on the water day after day witnessing changing ocean conditions first-hand, are especially encouraged to provide input. However, anyone who has a stake in this initiative is welcome to fill out the questionnaire on this webpage.

Read the release here

 

East Coast Fishery Management Organizations Invite Stakeholder Input on Climate Change Scenario Planning

September 14, 2021 — The following was released by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council:

To help prepare fisheries for an era of climate change, the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council is collaborating with other East Coast fishery management organizations on a climate change scenario planning initiative. Scenario planning is a way of exploring how fishery management may need to evolve over the next few decades in response to climate change. Additional details are available in the introductory brochure.

We are currently in the scoping phase of the initiative. During this phase we are gathering stakeholder input on forces of change that could affect East Coast fisheries in the future. We are inviting all interested stakeholders to complete a questionnaire about the ways you think climate change and other factors will affect fisheries and management in the future. The questionnaire, available at the link below, contains 12 questions and should take 10-30 minutes to complete. This is a great and easy opportunity to become involved and offer your ideas to help guide the issues that we will explore throughout this initiative.

Scenario Planning Scoping Questionnaire

The link will remain open until September 30, 2021, but we encourage you to submit responses as soon as possible. Additional Information about scenario planning can be found at the links below.

Introductory Videos:

Fishery regulators ponder how climate change will affect ocean management 

September 7, 2021 — Fishery regulators up and down the east coast met in a series of remote meetings last week to help them address how fishery management needs to evolve to handle an era of climate change in the coming decades.  

“We’re likely going to have to approach things differently in order to cope with these new and very uncertain conditions ahead,” said Deirdre  Boelke, a fishery analyst with the New England Marine Fisheries Council, at the first meeting, which included participants from several organizations and other members of the fisheries community.  

The “East Coast Climate Change Scenario Planning” series was done to rethink how the fisheries are governed, the different structures of management and how the different regulating bodies on the Atlantic coast would collaborate going forward at a time where species may be moving outside of their traditional range.   

Read the full story at the Mount Desert Islander

 

New Research Helps Explain a Sudden Population Crash for Rare Whales

September 1, 2021 — Climate change is the quiet force behind a sudden decline in the population of North Atlantic right whales, according to a new study that bolsters a growing body of research into why the critically endangered animals have veered from slow recovery to alarming decline.

An analysis of data on plankton, oceanic conditions and whale sightings, published Wednesday in the journal Oceanography, showed that the whales abandoned their traditional feeding grounds in the Gulf of Maine in 2010, the same year that warming water caused the fatty crustaceans they eat to plummet in the area.

Many of the whales eventually followed their food north to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, but the protections from fishing gear and ships that had safeguarded them in their previous habitat did not exist in their new one. Entanglement in gear is the leading cause of death for North Atlantic right whales, followed by collisions with vessels.

“They moved so fast that our policies didn’t move with them,” said Erin Meyer-Gutbrod, a quantitative marine ecologist at the University of South Carolina and one of the study’s authors. “The environment is just not as predictable as it used to be, so I think that we all need to think on our feet more.”

Read the full story at the New York Times

Climate Change Will Force Tuna Migration, Cripple Small Island Nations, Study Finds

August 31, 2021 — The climate crisis and warming waters may cause tuna to redistribute, threatening tuna-dependent economies in the Pacific, a new study concludes.

“All fish have preferred water temperatures, i.e., temperatures that suit their physiology best and which provide optimum conditions for growth and reproduction,” explained Johann Bell, lead author on the study and senior director of tuna fisheries at Conservation International‘s Center for Oceans. The international nonprofit works to protect the critical benefits that nature provides to people through science, partnerships and fieldwork.

Water temperature affects the distribution and abundance of prey species, Bell continued. As the ocean warms, new locations may become more favorable for prey species, and the fish will move accordingly. The predatory fish like tuna will follow. If not, a shortage of food could affect their growth and survival, Bell said.

The study found that the best conditions for skipjack and yellowfin tuna — the target species for the large purse-seine fishery in the Pacific Islands region — will progressively keep moving to the east as the ocean warms. Therefore, a greater proportion of these tuna will be caught in high-seas areas to the east of and outside the jurisdictions of Small Island Developing States (SIDS), Bell said.

Read the full story at EcoWatch

Why some fish are ‘junk,’ others are protected. California study points to past racism

August 30, 2021 — Andrew Rypel grew up fishing on Wisconsin’s pristine lakes and rivers. With just a worm on his hook, he caught suckers, gar, sunfish and other native fish he never saw in his game fishing magazines.

From a young age, Rypel loved all the fish species and it surprised him that others paid little attention to the native fish in his area. He noticed there were stricter fishing restrictions on game fish, like walleye and trout, than the native species. With no bag limits on many of his favorite native species, people could harvest as many as they pleased.

“I learned that there were all these different types of species,” Rypel said. “Most of the fishing community focused on these select game fish species.”

Anglers even told young Rypel to throw the less desirable native fish up on the bank after they were caught, as they were supposedly a “problem for the ecosystem” and took resources away from highly valued game species.

Rypel always found this perspective backward. Native fish are essential for healthy aquatic environments. And in the midst of the world’s climate crisis, protecting these native species is more critical than ever.

Read the full story at The Sacramento Bee

MASSACHUSETTS: Gloucester Mayoral candidates talk housing, blue economy, and respect

August 30, 2021 — With the blue economy being essential to the city’s legacy and future, candidates provided insight on how they would strike a balance between the competing interests of fishermen, development, wildlife, preservation and recreation.

“To say that the fishing industry is dead could not be further from the truth,” Harvey said, explaining that fish processing is one of the city’s largest employers as far as he knows.

Harvey said the mayor’s job is to use his or her soap box to pressure Congress for intelligent regulations and to lure more boats to Gloucester.

As his grandparents came to Gloucester from Sicily to fish, Verga knows the importance of the waterfront.

“It is something that is not going away,” he said. “It is not dead, it is different than from what it once was.”

Verga emphasized that Gloucester should be looking at employment opportunities on the waterfront other than fishing, such as lobstering.

“Gloucester has struggled with its blue economy for many, many years,” Russell said. “Unfortunately, there are two competing faces here in the city and we need to be unified.”

This means, as he said, that downtown and the harbor and the fisheries can coexist.

“We need to protect the heritage that we have in the harbor and we need to invest in working with downtown so we can coexist,” Russell said.

Romeo Theken said that everyone has been coexisting for years.

“We are almost 400 years old,” she said, explaining that tourists want to see a working waterfront.

In addition to listing the multiple ocean-front specific companies that work in collaboration with the rest of the city, Romeo Theken noted that she had reinvigorated the city fisheries commission.

She added that fishermen are environmentalists.

Pollard, who has a commercial fishing license and fishes part-time, would like to see additional dockage implemented in the city.

Sclafani said that “if you were to make the fatal mistake of rezoning the Gloucester fishing industry’s infrastructure, that infrastructure would just disappear.”

He added that the future of fishing is fish farms.

“I looked at a female lobster that has thousand a little babies under her,” he said. “If you could separate them, 30,000 from birth, pretty sure you could feed the world with lobster.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times