Saving Seafood

Researchers map best conditions for forage fishes in the Chesapeake

October 28, 2021 — Big fish eat smaller fish, but only if there are smaller fish to eat. A new study led by researchers at William & Mary’s Virginia Institute of Marine Science maps the conditions most suitable for key species of forage fishes in the Chesapeake Bay, offering guidance for any future efforts to protect or restore the habitat required to yield sufficient prey for predatory fishes such as striped bass.

Lead author on the study, which appears in the October issue of Frontiers in Marine Science, is Dr. Mary Fabrizio, a professor and chair of Fisheries Science at VIMS. Co-authors are fellow VIMS researcher Dr. Troy Tuckey, along with Drs. Aaron Bever and Michael MacWilliams of Anchor QEA, LLC. Bever is a VIMS alum.

“Small fishes such as bay anchovy are important components of the diets of predatory fishes in Chesapeake Bay,” says Fabrizio, “but factors that affect local abundances of these  fish have been largely unexplored.”

To throw light on these factors, the research team set out to quantify and map suitable habitats for four common species of forage fishes in Bay waters, and to assess the relationship between habitat extent and fish abundance. In addition to bay anchovy, the forage species studied were juvenile spot, juvenile spotted hake, and juvenile weakfish.

The team based their study on data generated by counting the number of forage fishes caught in a trawl net during fishery surveys conducted by VIMS and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources between 2000 and 2016. These surveys sample at more than 100 sites throughout the Bay each month. They coupled these catch data with output from computer models simulating the environmental conditions at each sampling site. These conditions include water depth and temperature, salinity, stratification, dissolved-oxygen levels, and current speeds. The researchers also noted whether the bay floor beneath each net tow was sandy or muddy, and the distance to the nearest shoreline.

Read the full story at Phys.org

Fishery managers set deadline on rockfish rebuild

October 27, 2021 — At its 2021 Annual Meeting last week, the Atlantic Striped Bass Board of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) took a positive step toward rebuilding our beloved rockfish stock from its currently depleted condition.

The move came in response to news from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (MD DNR) that its 2021 Juvenile Striped Bass Index was 3.2, well below the annual average of 11.4 for the third consecutive year. In fact, it
has been below average for ten of the past 16 years. Virginia’s index of 6.30 was closer to, but still below, its long-term average of 7.77.

Concern about rockfish has been building for at least five years, and ASMFC’s Striped Bass Board initiated development of a new amendment (number 7, but the first since 2003) to the fishery management plan last winter. The Board’s May meeting sketched out six priorities for the Commission’s Plan Development Team to build into the amendment. The team submitted its draft for Board approval at last week’s meeting.

Read the full story at Chesapeake Bay Magazine

 

Maryland oyster industry hoping for rebound as new season begins

October 26, 2021 — This time last year, Jason Wilford was preparing to bring his farm-grown oysters to a Thanksgiving pop-up sale in Easton.

Events like that one were something of a lifeline for Wilford, a newcomer to the industry. With the coronavirus pandemic raging as the weather grew colder in the fall of 2020, many seafood restaurants were closed or offered only carryout. There was practically nowhere for his first batch of hand-raised oysters to go.

Experts say covid-19 depressed demand for oysters, in part because shucking them wasn’t popular among diners looking for quick to-go meals. That sank prices for harvesters on the Chesapeake Bay.

This year, aquaculture farmers such as Wilford and those in the rest of the oyster industry — watermen, seafood restaurants and distributors — are hoping for a rebound in demand.

Read the full story at the Washington Post

Virginia’s striped bass forecast looks stable as juvenile numbers hold steady

October 20, 2021 — Juvenile striped bass numbers are holding steady in Virginia’s Chesapeake Bay tributaries, the latest annual survey by the Virginia Institute of Marine Science found.

But a parallel survey in Maryland waters showed below-average numbers.

The surveys look at striped bass that hatched in the spring and that will be large enough to catch, legally, in three to four years.

Preliminary results of the Virginia survey showed an average of 6.3 fish for each haul of a seine net in the James, York and Rappahannock rivers. These young striped bass usually measure between 1.5 and 4 inches. That’s the 9th consecutive year of average or above average results, VIMS said.

Read the full story and listen to the audio at the Daily Press

 

Maryland Striped Bass Survey Below Average for 3rd Year

October 19, 2021 — Maryland’s juvenile striped bass survey finds rockfish reproduction is below average for the third year in a row, continuing a worrisome trend. Virginia’s survey, meanwhile, shows a nine-year streak of average or above-average reproduction.

Both states conduct surveys of young-of-year striped bass to track reproductive success of the Bay’s treasured fish. The Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) reports an index of 3.2 in the 2021 survey, which remains well below the long-term average of 11.4.

DNR is optimistic, saying in a press release, “The coastal striped bass population has decreased in size, but is still capable of strong reproduction with the right environmental conditions. Variable spawning success is a well-known characteristic of the species.”

They do acknowledge that the below-average numbers “are a concern”. In 2019 the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) determined the striped bass species was being overfished, and set new limits for East Coast states to follow. Still, some environmental groups and even anglers feel that states like Maryland should be doing more.

Read the full story at Chesapeake Bay Magazine

 

$14.7 Million NOAA Marine Debris Grant Includes Mid-Atlantic Projects

September 13, 2021 — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is tackling the growing issue of marine debris, funding cleanup and research projects nationwide. A $7.3 million grant is matched to a total of $14.7 million—which will make 25 different projects possible, including some in the Bay region.

Of the funding, about $1.4 million will support five marine debris research projects, including one in Maryland and one in Delaware. The grantees will “investigate and identify the critical input pathways for marine debris introduction into the coastal zone,” NOAA says.

Read the full story at Chesapeake Bay Magazine

 

MARYLAND: Nearly 80% of commercial fishermen stopped work during COVID. Relief on way for industry

September 2, 2021 — A seafood industry recovering from a pandemic just got additional support thanks to $3.4 million in relief funds announced in August  by Gov. Larry Hogan.

The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 doubles down on financial assistance for the industry previously provided under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, for those who have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The pandemic has slowed our sales down because people aren’t buying our products like before,” said Harry Phillips, owner of Russell Hall Seafood LLC in Fishing Creek. “Due to lack of (employees) in restaurants and being only at half capacity, that’s why sales have been down. It’s actually possibly getting worse, but we haven’t received assistance like this because our sales were strong last summer.”

Read the full story at Delmarva Now

Offshore turbines could be a windfall for the US steel industry

August 10, 2021 — The Biden administration frames addressing the climate crisis as the greatest opportunity to create jobs in generations. It’s a claim that many of the workers watching the number of well-paid, unionized jobs in fossil fuels diminish are skeptical of. But an announcement made last week offers a preview of what’s in store if the energy transition is fueled by Made-in-America technologies.

US Wind, a developer of offshore wind farms, announced plans to expand its in-development 22-turbine project off the coast of Maryland, adding up to 82 more turbines that will make the facility capable of powering half-a-million homes. In conjunction with the expansion, US Wind has also proposed constructing a new wind turbine manufacturing facility just outside Baltimore.

The plant, called Sparrows Point Steel, will fabricate monopiles, the steel foundations that anchor giant wind turbines to the seafloor. It will sit on the site of the former Bethlehem Steel Corp. mill and shipyard, which during its heyday produced steel for World War II ships and the Golden Gate Bridge, according to E&E News.

Read the full story at Grist

Maryland is awarding $3.4 million in relief funds to seafood industry

August 10, 2021 — Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources on Monday, Aug. 9 opened a grant application process for the commercial seafood and aquaculture industry, with plans to distribute a total of $3.4 million in direct payments to businesses and operations in the sector this fall.

The application portal is available via Maryland Onestop: onestop.md.gov. The deadline to apply is Aug. 27.

DNR will award the money to commercial, for hire, aquaculture and seafood processing businesses and operations that can show in the application that they have suffered a loss of greater than 35% in generated revenue because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The grant money comes through the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021, passed by the U.S. Congress in late 2020 for economic assistance to Americans during the pandemic.

In a statement, Gov. Larry Hogan said he was “proud” to invest in the seafood industry, which is particularly vibrant on the Eastern Shore where many of the watermen work and seafood plants and operations are located.

Read the full story at My Eastern Shore

Ambrose Jearld, Jr.: Researcher, Educator, Mentor and Advocate for Diversity and Inclusion

August 9, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Ambrose Jearld, Jr. has spent his life around animals and water—both freshwater and seawater. He was born in 1944 into a Navy family in Annapolis, Maryland, and grew up on the family farm in Orrum, North Carolina. He attended elementary school there, but returned to Annapolis in sixth grade and graduated from Wiley H. Bates High School in 1961. He credits his high school biology teacher and the Boy Scouts for encouraging his interests in science.

He graduated from Maryland State College, now the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, with a degree in biology and a minor in chemistry in 1965. He was just one course away from a double major when he graduated. “My family wanted me to go into teaching, but I wanted to do research and instead went straight into science,” he recalled recently. With a brother and sister heading to college soon, he took a few years off after college to work at “a good-paying job” as a chemist at Publicker Industries Inc. in Philadelphia.

A Fateful Meeting

Meeting Bradford Brown changed the course of Jearld’s career. Brown was a fisheries scientist at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center’s Woods Hole Laboratory from 1962 to 1965 and from 1970 to 1984. In He had taken a position as assistant leader with the newly established Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units Program at Oklahoma State University-Stillwater to complete his Ph.D . The Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units Program in the United States Geological Survey is a joint effort between federal and state governments. It is also a host university offering graduate students research opportunities in fisheries and wildlife sciences.

Brown was recruiting black graduate students to the program. He met two of Jearld’s former professors, who were also completing their Ph.D.s at OSU. They recommended he speak with Jearld. Although some people were skeptical about Jearld heading to Oklahoma given the civil rights climate in the country, Jearld accepted the full ride offer. That meant a research assistantship award that covered all expenses.

Less than a week after he arrived in Stillwater Jearld was headed to his first scientific meeting as a graduate student with Brown and three other white men whom he did not know. The 1967 meeting was for the Southern Division of the American Fisheries Society in New Orleans. The meeting was part of the annual meeting of the Southeastern Association of Game and Fish Commissioners. They had to deal with the intense heat and driving hours in a packed station wagon with no air conditioning. More importantly, they had not discussed safety or how to deal with segregated facilities en route to the meeting. The trip was memorable for many reasons.

Read the full release here