Saving Seafood

10 years after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, oil pollution found in thousands of fish, study says

April 21, 2020 — Oil pollution has been detected in thousands of fish in the Gulf of Mexico, including higher levels in popular seafood choices like yellowfin tuna, tilefish and red drum, according to a new study.

The research was carried out between 2011 and 2018, sampling more than 2,500 individual fish that belonged to 91 species living in 359 different locations in the Gulf. All of them contained oil exposure.

When the Deepwater Horizon explosion occurred 10 years ago, millions of gallons of oil spewed into the Gulf of Mexico’s waters over 87 days. The BP oil spill became the largest accidental oil spill in US history.

After the explosion, researchers, like those at the University of South Florida, raced to study the spill and its environmental effects in real time.

Weeks later, BP made a 10-year, $500 million commitment to fund research. While the funding comes to a close this year, research done over the last 10 years is being released.

Read the full story at CNN

Florida’s charter fishing industry is hurting, and operators don’t see any relief coming

April 21, 2020 — Kit Mobley’s phone starting ringing in mid-March. That’s not unusual for a charter boat captain based in the Florida Keys, especially with peak fishing season approaching. But these calls were different.

“It started with, like, one a day,” Mobley recalled. “Then two a day. And then the phone just kept ringing — six, seven calls a day. All of them canceling.”

The novel coronavirus pandemic forced most captains in the country’s unofficial fishing capital to dock their boats indefinitely. Tourists disappeared, and business dried up. But unlike in many other industries, fishing boat captains say government relief probably won’t make them whole, and many fear a lost fishing season will sink their small, tourist-dependent businesses.

“Right now we’re just hoping this blows over as quickly as possible,” said Mobley, who hasn’t had a client since March 20 — after taking 45 trips in the previous month. “This time of year is when we make our money.”

Read the full story at The Washington Post

FLORIDA: First, a hurricane, Then, an algae bloom. Now, Keys fishermen try to weather a pandemic

April 20, 2020 — Ernie Piton and his crew unloaded traps filled with stone crab claws at a Key Largo dock Wednesday afternoon.

The claws were placed in two large steel vats and steamed by propane heat before Piton’s sons, Travis and Ernie III, iced them down and spread them on a white cleaning table to be sorted.

This day’s haul was a good catch — hundreds of claws ranging in size from large to “colossal.”

But this was among the last trips the crew of the Risky Business II will make this season to harvest the Florida delicacy. With restaurants mostly closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, Piton and most other Keys commercial anglers are calling it an early season, which is scheduled to end May 10.

Piton, 54, has been in the lobster and crab business for nearly 40 years and is among the most successful operators in the Keys. He said he’ll be able to weather the pandemic, but he feels for the many other commercial anglers who won’t.

“Fishing is like farming,” he said. “You have to plan ahead.”

Read the full story at the Miami Herald

Florida congressional delegation fishes for CARES Act assistance for seafood industry

April 17, 2020 — Members of Florida’s Congressional Delegation sent a letter to the U.S. Commerce Department seeking help for the fishing industry.

Sens. Marco Rubio, Rick Scott and 25 Florida members of Congress signed onto the request for aid.

“Florida’s fishing industries have experienced several crises in recent years. Impacts from Hurricanes Irma and Michael, major fish kills caused by harmful algal blooms, significant habitat loss in the Florida Reef Tract due to coral bleaching and disease, and massive seagrass die offs in many of our state’s estuaries have taken their toll,” the letter reads.

“Even for those businesses who have endured these events, the economic crisis we face today as a result of the pandemic may prove fatal without your assistance.”

All members of the state Delegation signed the letter to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross except Tallahassee Democrat Al Lawson and Dover Republican Ross Spano.

Read the full story at Florida Politics

Florida Delegation Wants Commerce Department to Quickly Distribute Stimulus Funds for Fishing Industry

April 17, 2020 — The Florida delegation on Capitol Hill is urging the U.S. Commerce Department to quickly move to distribute funds from the $2.2 trillion coronavirus stimulus enacted at the end of last month to help the fishing business.

As part of the stimulus package, $300 million was included to help fisheries and Florida’s two senators–Republican U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott–and 25 of the state’s 27 members of the U.S. House sent a letter to U.S. Commerce Sec. Wilbur Ross on the matter on Wednesday.

“Florida’s recreational and commercial fishing industries are critically important to Florida’s tourism-based economy, as well as for the state and nation’s food security and have been hit especially hard during the COVID-19 pandemic,” Rubio’s office noted.

The Florida delegation also called on Ross to work U.S. Agriculture Sec. Sonny Perdue “ to expand seafood commodity purchases for nutrition programs, take further action to guide Florida’s fishing communities to new resources such as the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), and expedite consideration of the State of Florida’s pending Fisheries Disaster Declaration request related to severe red tide events which occurred between 2015 and 2019.”

Read the full story at Florida Daily

Coastal fish populations didn’t crash after the Deepwater Horizon spill – why not?

April 16, 2020 — When the Deepwater Horizon oil spill released 4 to 5 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, some early projections estimated that the toll on fisheries could reach US$5-10 billion by 2020. Chemicals in crude oil may affect fish and other marine creatures directly, through their toxicity, or indirectly by harming their food or habitat, and the effects can be immediate or long-term.

I began conducting marine science research in the northern Gulf of Mexico in 2006, and was immediately taken by the diversity of fishes, water bodies, habitats and economic sectors along the coast. This region is still home to my favorite saltwater environments – places like the Chandeleur Islands off Louisiana, and Florida’s St. Joseph Bay.

From 2006-2009, I worked with teams studying the ecology of fishes that inhabit the tidal salt marshes and underwater seagrass meadows of the northern Gulf. As the Deepwater Horizon spill unfolded, I shared many other people’s deep concerns about the terrible human toll, and the ecological and economic damage to places like the sensitive shores where I had worked.

Ten years later, though, there’s some welcome good news. In our research, my colleagues and I have found that the Deepwater Horizon spill did not appear to cause significant oiling injury to coastal fish populations.

Read the full story at The Conversation

Amid Pandemic, Charter Fishing Captains Try to Stay Afloat

April 13, 2020 — On a normal spring morning, when March has segued to April and legions of snook scurry in shallow water near robust mangroves, Tom Campbell’s boat and schedule would be packed.

His 24-foot Canyon Bay with the half tower and 300-horsepower engine would be hauling corporate types, locals or even the last wave of spring-breakers across flats and beneath bridges. He’d be baiting one hook after another with pilchards, suggesting where customers should cast for optimal chance of pulling in that trophy redfish, or at least that evening’s entrée.

“This time of year, it’s not uncommon to run a dozen (charters) a week,” Campbell said.

Yet on this cloudless, cool morning, Campbell’s boat is empty as he idles toward a vacant ramp at Maximo Park in south St. Petersburg. A blissful day like this normally would be bountiful for him and the customers, who normally pay $400 (per two anglers) for a half day and $700 for eight hours.

Read the full story at NBC Miami

FLORIDA: Local commercial fishermen and fish markets feel affect of COVID-19

April 7, 2020 — With doors closed to area seafood restaurants due to the coronavirus, there’s not much call for commercial fishermen to haul in those fish.

“We had just got a 14,000-pound load of red snapper in, anticipating a whole bunch of busy restaurants,” said Eddie Morgan of Harbor Docks Seafood Market. “But that didn’t happen at all.

“We’re not hardly selling anything to restaurants … we’re still selling a little bit to the fish markets,” he said such as Shrimpers and Goatfeathers in South Walton. “But the restaurants are not like they should be.”

Morgan said they opened their seafood market on Mountain Drive last week and sold whatever they had at wholesale prices to the general public.

But with restaurants closed for in-door dining, and only a few still doing carry out, the demand for fish is low.

“There are a few (commercial) boats fishing, but most of the boats that we work with … we’ve told them to stay at the dock,” Morgan said. “We don’t need much now.”

Read the full story at The Destin Log

Lessons from the front line — Florida’s fight with sea level rise

March 26, 2020 — In the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, many people are dreaming of Florida as a retreat from long days of self-isolation. Hundreds of miles of beautiful beaches, azure skies, shimmering oceans, teeming wilderness including barrier reefs and the Everglades, and strands of picturesque keys and islets. But this paradise is staring down a menace of its own — a rising sea level — and it’s time for a paradigm shift to help us save the Sunshine State. How that battle plays out will have huge implications for other coastal regions across the rest of the United States.

Floridians are experiencing the undeniable impacts of sea level rise firsthand on a daily basis. For Florida’s environment, the signs of danger and damage are everywhere. Saltwater is inundating the Florida Bay, exacerbating an already hyper saline ecosystem and negatively impacting fish stocks and sea grass.

Mangroves, which are estuarine trees that thrive in salty habitats, are creeping northward into the Everglades and taking over critical freshwater habitat that serves as important rookeries for birds and as nurseries for freshwater fish and reptiles such as alligators. In South Florida, rising seas stand to upset the balance between the fresh water and salt water environments, possibly reshaping the bays, wetlands and waterways of the greater Everglades ecosystem.

Read the full story at The Hill