Saving Seafood

Baby fish will be lost at sea in acidified oceans

December 15, 2015 — The ability of baby fish to find a home, or other safe haven, to grow into adulthood will be severely impacted under predicted ocean acidification, University of Adelaide research has found. 

Published today in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the researchers report the interpretation of normal ocean sound cues which help baby fish find an appropriate home is completely confused under the levels of CO2 predicted to be found in oceans by the end of the century.

“Locating appropriate homes is a crucial step in the life cycle of fish,” says Tullio Rossi, PhD candidate with the University’s Environment Institute. “After hatching in the open ocean, baby fish travel to reefs or mangroves as safe havens to feed and grow into adults.

“Baby fish can find those places through ocean noise: snapping shrimps and other creatures produce sounds that the baby fish follow.

“But when ocean acidity increases due to increased CO2, the neurological pathways in their brain are affected and, instead of heading towards those sounds, they turn tail and swim away.”

Read the full story at Science Daily

China Is Turning Its Fish Breeding Grounds Into Smartphone Factories

October 21, 2015 — A sixth of the globe’s fish catch comes from waters off China’s coasts. Yet the nation’s industrial push is imperiling that 15 million-ton annual haul. Fully 60 percent of the China’s wetlands have been paved over for development projects—and much of what’s left is under threat of more of the same.

That’s the conclusion of a jarring new report (hat tip to the New York Times) by the US-based Paulson Institute, the Chinese State Forestry Administration, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Coastal wetlands are the breeding and feeding grounds for fish, migratory birds, and other creatures. They also buffer coastal cities from the sea’s caprices by absorbing energy from storm-roiled waves—an increasingly important function as climate change proceeds apace. Over the last half century, the report found, China has developed more than half of the coastal wetlands in its temperate northern regions and nearly three-quarters of the mangrove forests and 80 percent of coral reefs along its southern coast. Losses accelerated between 2003 and 2013—in that time frame alone, China’s total coastal wetlands shrank by about 23 percent.

Read the full story at Mother Jones