Saving Seafood

Hurricane Michael leaves long-term rebuild for Florida

October 23, 2018 — Hurricane Michael blew through the Florida panhandle nearly two weeks ago, but it appears the major storm will have long-lasting effects on the state’s commercial fishing industry.

The state’s shellfish industries were especially hard-hit, as the storm impacted areas known for clam and oyster beds.

T.J. Ward, whose family has worked in the shellfish business for five generations, said his aquaculture business “is done for at least a year or two” in an interview with WBUR radio in Boston.

“The damage in Apalachicola is the worst I’ve ever seen, and locals that are older than me and been through more hurricanes haven’t seen it this bad,” he said.

The impact to fisheries isn’t just to human structures, as the environment can be heavily impacted by flood waters changing the shape of the landscape.

“We won’t know how this system responds until after. When you look at catastrophic storms, very often they can shift baselines in systems,” Duane DeFreese, executive director of the Indian River Lagoon National Estuary Program, told Florida Today. “Completely over-wash the wetland, upland transitions, and then it takes some time for systems to recover. The commercial fishing impacts on this could be extreme.”

The effects also will be felt beyond the Gulf for at least one company.

According to The Seattle Times, Michael took a nearly-completed 261-foot trawler and ripped it from the shipyard’s mooring in Panama City, Florida. The ship, being built at Eastern Shipbuilding for Glacier Fish Co., was supposed to depart for Alaska in November and start processing groundfish.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Hurricane Michael leaves a seaside Florida town in an existential crisis

October 23, 2018 — For generations, families have come to Mexico Beach to soak up old-style Florida: the mom-and-pop seafood shacks, the dinky one-story motels and pastel bungalows, the retro ice cream parlor with claw machines and vintage arcade games.

But Hurricane Michael, which less than two weeks ago pummeled the tiny seaside town with 155-mph winds and demolished roughly three out of every four buildings, has left the community in an existential crisis. Nobody is sure what comes next.

Many residents and business owners, anticipating massive insurance shortfalls, have yet to decide whether to commit to the daunting challenge of rebuilding structures strong enough to withstand the next big storm.

About a third of the town’s 1,200 full-time residents are senior citizens. Many homes were not covered by flood insurance. A vast swath of older ranch-style homes and commercial structures sat at ground level and did not meet the state’s current elevation and windstorm requirements.

“They’re gonna make you build so heavy duty, you can’t afford to rebuild,” said Charles “Chuck” Smith, 56, owner of the Gulf View Motel, a modest 1940s-era building that his parents bought in the mid-1980s.

Read the full story at the Los Angeles Times

U.S., Cuban marine biologists put an end to ‘academic embargo’

October 22, 2018 — There are no borders that separate the water, reefs and marine life off the coasts of Cuba and Florida, and that’s why scientists in both countries say they need to get along and collaborate.

During the recent MarCuba conference in Havana, U.S. scientific institutions were well represented and researchers also used the conference to highlight research collaborations and a milestone edition of the Bulletin of Marine Science, a respected marine science journal published by the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science.

The Bulletin devoted its entire spring issue to marine science research in Cuba, carried out by both U.S. and Cuban scientists.

“Science plays an excellent role in diplomacy,” said Joe Roman, a conservation biologist at the University of Vermont and the guest editor of the special Cuba edition. What better area for collaboration than one with shared ocean systems, fisheries and conservation efforts, he said.

In a Bulletin editorial, Roman wrote that the Cuba edition “celebrates Cuban marine science and conservation efforts, while recognizing that improved relations and increased tourism and trade could put some natural areas at risk. Joint research shows promise that Cuba, the U.S., and other countries can work together on regional conservation efforts.”

“It’s time for Cuban researchers to reach a wider audience,” Roman said.

Read the full story at the Miami Herald

 

Harris Teeter shoppers may have bought mislabeled and ‘distressed’ crabmeat for years

October 19, 2018 — Harris Teeter is contacting members of its VIC loyalty-card program this week to offer refunds involving crab meat sold between 2010 and 2015.

The crab, supplied by a Virginia company called Casey’s Seafood, is part of a massive federal fraud case over the mislabeling of seafood.

The Washington Post reported Sept. 26 that Casey’s owner James Casey, 74, pleaded guilty in September to relabeling and reselling “distressed” crab meat from other countries as fresh crab meat from the Chesapeake Bay. Distressed crab meat is crab that was recalled, returned or out of date. Casey will be sentenced in January and is facing up to five years in prison, according to the Post.

The charges involved more than 360,000 pounds of crab sold between 2012 and 2015, although prosecutors believe the crab meat switch may have dated to as early as 2010, the Post reported.

The crab meat was valued at millions of dollars, and was sold to stores and restaurants in multiple Southeastern states, including North and South Carolina, Florida, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, the District of Columbia and Tennessee, according to the Associated Press.

Checks by The Observer of other supermarket chains, including Publix, Food Lion, Bi Lo, Earth Fare and Whole Foods, didn’t find other companies in North Carolina involved in the sales of the Casey’s crab meat.

Multiple news reports about the case say that federal agents were notified by a tip and did DNA tests on samples of the product in several states, including North Carolina.

Danna Robinson, communications manager for Harris Teeter, wouldn’t say how many customers were contacted or how much it is providing in refunds.

Read the full story at The Charlotte Observer

What happens to fish and other sea creatures underwater during a hurricane

October 18, 2018 — Hurricanes can be just as deadly for marine life, sometimes stranding them on land or far out at sea. But sometimes marine life benefits or even thrives after these extreme weather events.

Normally when a hurricane is headed for us, we run the other way. But not Isla. She’s a leatherback turtle who was meandering off the coast of Virginia when she accidentally swam straight into Hurricane Florence. Scientists were worried she’d get caught up in the worst of the storm but Isla managed to survive by swimming toward deeper waters.

Turns out, there’s a part of hurricanes we don’t often think about: What happens under the surface. And Isla is just one example.

Far out at sea, fish that live near the surface might feel some turbulence as a storm passes. But most sea creatures — including dolphins, whales, and sharks — avoid the rough surface water and swim to calmer seas. But it’s a different story near shore.

Changes in water temperature and salinity can be catastrophic for marine life. Hurricanes can generate massive waves. Which mix warm surface water with colder, saltier water below generating currents that extend up to 91 meters below the surface. These currents are so strong that they can sweep manatees inland to canals and ponds or away from the coastal waters they prefer, and out into the open ocean. Where they can become disorientated, and even die.

Hurricanes also bring heavy rain, so freshwater often floods coastal regions. And because freshwater is less dense than salt water, it sits on top of the sea water like oil on vinegar. Where it can prevent oxygen from reaching the salty layer below. And disrupt the salinity levels, which can lead to sores, lesions, and ultimately death in whales, dolphins, and porpoises.

Hurricanes also kick up dirt and sand in shallow seas. Which can kill fish by clogging their gills. Experts think this is probably one of the factors that killed an estimated 9.4 million saltwater fish in 1992, during Hurricane Andrew. The dirty, murky water also blocks sunlight from reaching corals and seagrass. In fact, scientists found that coral cover in the Caribbean decreases by 17% in just one year after a hurricane strikes. And that’s in addition to the stress coral already face from human interference.

But it’s not always so bad for sea life. After Hurricane Katrina damaged or destroyed almost 90% of fishing boats in the Mississippi Sound scientists observed a huge increase in dolphin births. Without the fishing boats, dolphins suddenly found themselves with more available prey which helped their populations thrive.

Read the full story at Business Insider

Florida: Red tide creeps up to Melbourne Beach, Indialantic

October 17, 2018 — INDIALANTIC, Fla. — While test results to prove red tide are pending, the itchy throats and rancid fish carcasses on the beach this week have some already convinced, and fearing a repeat of the toxic tides that thoroughly flogged the Space Coast 16 years ago.

For tourists, another red tide now would be lousy timing. For fish, too.

“Right now we’ve got a big mullet run on the beach, so there are a lot of migratory fish following the mullet runs,” said Jon Shenker, associate professor of marine biology at the Florida Institute of Technology. “I have no idea how bad this is.”

Beachgoers and beachside residents have complained in recent days of coughing and irritated throats after being by the ocean. Dead fish reported in Indialantic and Melbourne Beach on Tuesday included bluefish, Spanish mackerel, mullet and other fish. A dead fish dotted the shoreline every 10 feet or so at Paradise Beach Park.

Brevard County is helping Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission gather water samples to test for the red tide organism, Karenia brevis. The algae releases a neurotoxin that can cause asthma-like symptoms. If ingested, it can cause digestive problems. Brevard County Natural Resources has coordinated with FWC for sampling beginning Tuesday and hopes to know the results on Wednesday.

“In the meantime, we have been monitoring conditions and have reached out to various agencies, such as Keep Brevard Beautiful, Tourism and Development, the city of Cocoa Beach, to plan for a coordinated response if and when we have reported fish kills,” Brevard County spokesman Don Walker said via email.

Read the full story at Florida Today

 

Storm-tossed trawler: Hurricane Michael capsizes new factory trawler North Star

October 17, 2018 — The nearly finished 261-foot Alaska factory trawler North Star is currently resting on its starboard side in the waters of Saint Andrews Bay, Fla., a victim of fierce winds from Category 4 Hurricane Michael that swept through the region last week.

The trawler is under construction at Eastern Shipbuilding in Panama City for Seattle-based Glacier Fish Co. The boat was launched in April 2018 and was scheduled to be completed and make its way to Alaska next month to start netting and processing Alaska groundfish.

“The boat was nearing completion, and because of all the destruction down there we have not been able to survey the vessel,” Jim Johnson, president of Glacier Fish Co. told the Seattle Times.

Glacier Fish Co. and Eastern Shipbuilding are reportedly working together, along with insurance and salvage officials to assess the damages. No representative from either company was available to comment directly in the days following the incident

Eastern Shipbuilding Group President Joey D’Isernia relayed a message to employees on the company website: “…both shipyards have taken hurricane damage. First and foremost, please take care of your families and secure your homes. Once that is done we need to hear from you and get back to work. The cleanup effort will take all of us so we can get back to building vessels.”

Read the full story at National Fisherman

FLORIDA: Toxic Red Tide Could Sicken People as Hurricane Michael Pushes It Ashore

October 11, 2018 — Hurricane Michael could push this season’s toxic red tide inland, exposing more people to the dangerous health effects of a record algae bloom that has bedeviled much of Florida’s coast.

The hurricane is expected to generate a storm surge as great as 14 feet along parts of the Florida Panhandle, where it made landfall early Wednesday afternoon. That part of the coast that has seen some of the worst concentrations this year of red tide, a variety of algae that kills fish and releases toxins that cause respiratory symptoms in humans similar to tear gas.

Hurricane Michael could carry that algae past the beaches and into neighborhoods, scientists warn.

“A storm surge or king tide could bring red tide up onto land,” Larry Brand, a professor in the Department of Marine Biology and Ecology at the University of Miami, said by email. “The toxin would get into the air and people would be breathing it.”

Red tide is made up of Karenia brevis, an organism that can trigger attacks in people with asthma, according to Richard Pierce, program manager and senior scientist at the Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium in Sarasota. Even people who don’t have asthma can suffer from choking, coughing and stinging eyes. Some have reported lingering headaches and flu-like symptoms.

Pierce said this is the first time the state has had a severe red tide and severe hurricane at the same time, which makes the health effects harder to predict. But one risk is that the breaking waves could turn the algae into an airborne toxin, spreading the risk beyond the reach of the storm surge.

“Bubbles make an excellent surface for them,” Pierce said. “It’s a very efficient mechanism for getting toxins from the water onshore.”

Read the full story at Bloomberg Quint

FLORIDA: Southeastern Fisheries Association’s Bob Jones Is At Last Pulling in His Oars

October 1, 2018 — In the summer edition of 850 Magazine, editor Steve Bornhoft profiled Raffield Fisheries, a Gulf County business that for generations has farmed the Gulf of Mexico, harvesting food fishes and baitfish.

Here, he explores the career of Bob Jones, the longtime director of the Southeastern Fisheries Association, established by commercial fishing interests who recognized that they needed representation by a strong advocate.

For 54 years, Jones has filled that role with a voice that is today a little breathier than it used to be, but always has been as sweet as fresh water and steadfast in support of livelihoods and a culture he is committed to preserving.

Bob Jones, his brother, his sister and his mother moved into a 12 x 16 cabin at a fish camp in Vilano Beach, Florida, near St. Augustine, in 1948. For the family, the place was a relative palace.

Jones’ parents had divorced four years earlier and, homeless, the family essentially free ranged until the camp’s owner, P.J. Manucy, a commercial fisherman and shrimper, permitted the Joneses to indefinitely occupy a cabin usually reserved for weekend anglers.

Manucy was a savior and a protector and would soon emerge as a hero.

Mary Frances Jones had often sternly demanded that Bob’s baby sister, Lessie, never go out on the dock at the camp without an adult escort. But the dock, as most things forbidden do, became irresistible. Lessie, unaccompanied, fell into the dark, moving waters of the North River.

Jones, 13 at the time, was cleaning up a room where outboard motors were kept and did not see Lessie tumble from the dock, but he caught in the corner of his eye Manucy sprinting toward the river while trying to remove his wristwatch.

Read the full story at 850 Magazine

Red Tide, Take Warning

October 1, 2018 — As the Spanish cartographer Juan López de Velasco sailed along southwest Florida in 1575, he was greeted by a sight that became odiously familiar this summer to those on the peninsula he mapped for the Spanish Empire so long ago. “The coast is all in ruin,” he wrote in his journal, “because in these four or five leagues of sea there is barely 1.5 fathoms of water where many fish are dying.”

It is possible that López made this entry within sight of the shell mound where my house of yellow pine has, since 1926, witnessed a time warp flow of conquistadors, past and present, and too many harmful algae blooms to count.

Rather than puzzle over the mystery of dying fish, López continued south to Cuba. A wise choice. The people who built the mound (contemporaries of the Aztec) disliked interlopers, as proved in 1521 when, on the same bay, near Sanibel Island, they sent Ponce de León packing with a lethal arrow to the thigh.The Calusa, as the indigenous are called, were no less hostile to conquistadors than was the land they inhabited — a lesson modern interlopers would do well to remember.

A typical lethal algae bloom, also known as red tide, moves like a slow-motion hurricane, piling itself ashore with an epicenter that, geographically, varies along the coast. Fishing might be great in Tampa Bay but a waste of time near Sanibel, as was true until recently. As history all but guarantees, it will happen again. As of now, though, the view from my dock includes islands where the beaches are clean and clear — and empty of tourists who still fear the stink and airborne toxins that irritate eyes and lungs. And possibly worse, if certain noxious blue-green bacteria flood into the mix, as was the case this summer. But more on that later

During my 50 years on this coast, I’ve experienced four killer algae blooms as a fishing guide (1972, ’82, ’96 and 2004). As a novelist, I’ve researched the subject, yet my understanding lacks the certainty of those newly acquainted with these blooms. Every 10 to 15 years after a rainy winter or hurricane, acres of bloated fish wash ashore, as well as bottlenose dolphins and manatees. These are lovable mammals with Disney faces — unless poisoned by lethal toxins. On the heels of public outrage come theories. Biologists squabble, environmental groups debate. Learjet conquistadors swoop in, aspirant politicians who see Florida as an untethered plum and who buy their way into office with big bucks and bumper-sticker cures.

Read the full story at The New York Times