Saving Seafood

Fish Oil Supplements May Do Your Heart Good

October 1, 2019 — Millions of Americans pop a fish oil supplement each day, hoping to bolster their heart health. Now, research suggests they may be on the right track.

The most up-to-date review of data from 13 prior studies found daily omega-3 fish oil supplement use tied to a significant lowering of risk for heart attack, according to a team led by Dr. JoAnn Manson. She is a professor of epidemiology at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, in Boston.

Daily use of the supplement — typically about 840 milligrams per day — was also linked to a lower overall risk of dying from heart disease, the review found.

In total, the 13 studies involved data on more than 120,000 adults, a sample size that is 64% larger than any other yet conducted, the researchers said.

Although the findings are encouraging, fish oil remains just one factor in heart health, Manson said in a school news release.

Read the full story at U.S. News

Wide-scale US wind power could cause significant warming

October 5, 2018 — It’s expanded 35-fold since 2000 and now provides 8% of the nation’s electricity. The US Department of Energy expects wind turbine capacity to more than quadruple again by 2050.

But a new study by a pair of Harvard researchers finds that a high amount of wind power could mean more climate warming, at least regionally and in the immediate decades ahead. The paper raises serious questions about just how much the United States or other nations should look to wind power to clean up electricity systems.

The study, published in the journal Joule, found that if wind power supplied all US electricity demands, it would warm the surface of the continental United States by 0.24 ˚C. That could significantly exceed the reduction in US warming achieved by decarbonizing the nation’s electricity sector this century, which would be around 0.1 ˚C.

“If your perspective is the next 10 years, wind power actually has—in some respects—more climate impact than coal or gas,” coauthor David Keith, a professor of applied physics and public policy at Harvard, said in a statement. “If your perspective is the next thousand years, then wind power is enormously cleaner than coal or gas.”

Specifically, the “avoided warming” achieved by eliminating fossil-fuel sources could surpasses any warming from wind in about a century in the studied scenario, as emissions reductions accumulate.

Keith and lead author Lee Miller, a postdoc at Harvard, stress that the conclusions mean scientists and policymakers should take this side effect of wind power seriously—and carefully consider what role the resource should play in the shift to clean energy.

“Our analysis suggests that—where feasible—it may make sense to push a bit harder on developing solar power and a bit less hard on wind,” Keith said in an e-mail.

Notably, the warming effect from wind in the studied scenario was 10 times greater than the climate effect from solar farms, which can also have a tiny warming effect.

Read the full story at MIT Technology Review

For sustainable fisheries, try eating ‘underloved’ fish

January 4, 2018 — Eating a wider variety of fish, including species like hake, skate, and cusk, would help keep overall fish stocks strong, according to chef and author Barton Seaver. Diversifying in this way would help ensure that people can keep eating plenty of fish—an important source of nutrients—as well as ensure economic stability for fishermen and coastal communities.

In a December 18, 2017 interview with Terry Gross on NPR’s Fresh Air, Barton, director of the Sustainable Seafood and Health Initiative at the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, discussed sustainable fishing and other fish-related topics, such as fish farming and tips for buying quality fish.

Seaver said that just three species—tuna, salmon, and shrimp—account for 65% of total fish consumption. But overexploitation can decimate species, he said. For example, a boom in popularity of sea bass that began in the 1990s led to overfishing and depleted stocks.

Read the full story at the Harvard School of Public Health

 

1 in 10 people may face malnutrition as fish catches decline

July 1, 2016 — There are many important reasons to manage the world’s wild fisheries. We do it to maintain stock levels, to ensure biodiversity and because fish are valuable. But researchers say there’s something else in need of protection: The very people who rely on fish for food.

Scientists are predicting more than 10 percent of the world’s population, a whopping 845 million people, will experience deficiencies in critically important micronutrients including zinc, iron, vitamin A, vitamin B12, and fatty-acids in the coming decades if global fish catches continue to decline.

Christopher Golden, lead author and research scientist at Harvard School of Public Health, calls it “a perfect storm” for countries like Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, the Maldives, Angola, Ghana, Nigeria and others that rely heavily on wild-caught fish for sustenance, and cautions the findings are just “the tip of the iceberg.”

It’s in these regions, close to the Equator, where nutrition is highly dependent on wild seafood, and where fisheries are “most at risk from illegal fishing, weak governance, poor knowledge of stock status, population pressures and climate change,” Golden and his co-authors warn in a commentary in the journal Nature. “These countries urgently need effective strategies for marine conservation and fisheries management to rebuild stocks for nutritional security.”

Up until now, they say, studies have focused only on protein loss from lack of seafood — overlooking how micronutrient loss could greatly impact health, says Golden.

We humans need micronutrients in only tiny amounts, but our bodies still require them for good health, explains Ashley Koff, a Washington, D.C.-based registered dietitian. Zinc, for example, is important for immune health. Iron is critical for bringing oxygen into red blood cells, helps prevent anemia and for children, it’s important for total body growth. Fatty acids are essential for brain growth and development.

“While they’re micro, they play a significant role in reproductive and overall health,” she says.

Read the full story at Minnesota Public Radio

New manual outlines steps for fishermen, communities to take in crisis

GLOUCESTER, Mass. (March 25, 2016) — The concept first began to crystallize in Angela Sanfilippo’s mind about four years ago, when the president of the Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association realized she needed to start putting some things down on paper.

Sanfilippo, both in her roles with fishing-based community groups and her own experience as a wife, daughter and sister of fishermen, had helped develop a series of protocols to help fishermen avoid calamities on the water and help the Gloucester fishing community deal with fishing tragedies when they occur.

“I just thought that we should start putting these things in writing because we’re not going to be around forever,” Sanfilippo said.

Thus was born the idea that burst into reality Thursday when the Fishing Partnership Support Services unveiled its RESCUES manual in an event at the U.S. Coast Guard’s Station Gloucester.

The title of the manual, assembled with assistance from staffers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sea Grant College program and Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, is an acronym for “Responding to Emergencies at Sea and to Communities Under Extreme Stress.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times