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

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

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