Saving Seafood

Massachusetts: Lectures at New Bedford Whaling Museum will focus on restoring ocean health

April 18, 2018 — “Where the Land Meets the Sea,” a series of lectures at the New Bedford Whaling Museum in 2018, will feature projects, organizations and people who are working to restore and maintain ocean health and marine wildlife.

The series premieres April 26 with “Underwater Yellowstones.” Experts will explore marine sanctuaries off the coast and their associated benefits and challenges for fish, whales, scientists and humans. “Underwater Yellowstones” speakers are Benjamin Haskell, acting superintendent of Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, NOAA ; Jenni Stanley, marine scientist with Northeast Fisheries Science Center, NOAA; and Michelle Bachman, habitat coordinator for New England Fishery Management Council.

The lecture begins at 7 p.m. and will be preceded by a reception at 6. Tickets are $10 for museum members and $15 for nonmembers. To register call (508) 997-0046 (ext. 100) or visit whalingmuseum.org.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

 

Deep-sea coral habitat south of Cape slated for protection

February 6, 2018 — The New England Fishery Management Council voted last week to protect deep-sea coral from the effects of fishing across a large stretch of ocean located about 100 miles south of Nantucket.

“The main reason why the council wanted to take this action and protect them from fishing is they are long-lived and very sensitive to disturbance. They can easily be broken and take a long time to recover,” said Michelle Bachman, who works for the council and is the group’s habitat plan development committee chairwoman. “We know they have a special ecological connection to other species like invertebrates and fish.”

Once approved by the National Marine Fisheries Service, the 25,153 square miles of ocean will join a 38,000-square-mile coral protection area off the Mid-Atlantic, and another protected area off the Southeastern U.S. covering, in total, nearly 100,000 square miles of the Atlantic continental shelf ecosystem.

Deep sea corals are found all over the world at depths of between around 130 to 10,000 feet. Most occur at between 1,000 and 2,600 feet, according to what Florida State University researcher Sandra Brooke told The Pew Charitable Trusts. They exist in a twilight – sometimes pitch black – world where photosynthesis isn’t possible. Northern coral don’t form reef structures, but include individual “plants,” fans, trees, that can be brightly colored, 10 feet across and live hundreds to thousands of years, growing slowly.

“Although the council could have chosen stronger protections, the measure marks a major expansion of coral habitat shielded from dredging and dragging,” said Peter Baker, who directs ocean conservation efforts in the Northeast for The Pew Charitable Trusts.

Few fishermen set pots or tow nets or dredges where coral live on the steep canyon walls that descend from the table top of Georges Bank, but even an accidental jostling by a lobster or crab pot or line or a misplaced tow could cause irrevocable damage. Fishermen told the council they didn’t tow gear below 1,600 feet; the measure protected coral below the 2,000-foot contour established by the New England council last week. The lone exemption was for the red crab fishery, which has relatively few participants, said Bachman.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times