Saving Seafood

Color saving crustacean from pot

July 25, 2016 — When a local restaurant hosts a lobster party this weekend, it won’t be the usual bake with clams.

Instead s’mores will be served and a special crustacean will be freed from the eatery’s saltwater tank and returned to the sea.

Earlier this week, lobsterman Dean Mould was pulling traps aboard the FV Dominatrix, when he discovered something unusual. When he offloaded his catch at Capt. Joe & Sons on East Main Street, the prize landed there.

It was a blue lobster, a color that only one in 1 million to 2 million lobsters have, according to scientists. Tony LaCasse, a spokesman for the New England Aquarium, said the blue color may be due to genetics, or diet. Diet — a missing protein — is the more likely culprit when there is a bunch of blue lobsters caught in the same area, he said.

Lacasse says more blues have been popping up in the last three or four years, and blue is the most common of the unusual colors lobsters may show, with white being the rarest. “But it’s still pretty uncommon, and personally my favorite.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

New Poll the Latest Salvo in Fight Over a Marine National Monument for New England

July 14, 2016 — A new poll finds that eighty percent of Massachusetts residents favor protecting special ocean areas from activities like mining and fishing. A coalition pushing President Obama to create a marine national monument in New England waters say this is one more measure of support. But opponents say the poll was misleading and biased.

The National Coalition for Fishing Communities has criticized the poll, calling it misleading. They say the way the poll was constructed led people into saying yes. Also, they argue economic impacts on fisheries were down-played, and alternative ways of achieving conservation goals – besides a marine monument – were omitted.

“This isn’t an issue of do you believe or do you not believe important natural assets should be protected,” said Bob Vanasse, Executive Director of Saving Seafood. “It’s a question of how they should be protected, what should be allowed in those areas, and should there be a fair public process using existing law to do that.”

The fishing industry has maintained that they’re not opposed to protecting important areas, but that those protections should come out of a transparent public process. The pro-monument coalition counters that the fishery management process doesn’t provide adequate protection, and the federal legislature is unlikely to act. That leaves executive action as the only feasible option, they say.

Read the full story at WCAI

The push is on to develop fishing ropes that won’t kill whales

June 17, 2016 — The 45-foot creature might not notice when the rope first snags its mouth, its tail, or a flipper. But when it realizes what has happened, the whale will panic, thrashing and spinning underwater. This is the critical moment: Will it break the rope and swim free?

For the North Atlantic right whale, the answer most often is no.

In an effort to aid the endangered animal, the state is awarding $180,000 to the New England Aquarium to help develop whale-friendly fishing ropes that would help save them from entrapment and often painful deaths.

On Thursday, Massachusetts’ energy and environmental affairs secretary, Matthew Beaton, held a news conference outside the aquarium to announce the Baker administration’s support for the aquarium’s work, which emphasizes saving the dwindling North Atlantic right whale population.

Scientists say 83 percent of right whales show evidence — usually deep scars or unnaturally arched backs — of having been entangled in fishing rope, which over the past 20 years has been manufactured to be stronger.

Researchers at the aquarium are trying to create ropes that whales would be able to breakif they are entangled. Beaton said the ropes would be “workable for the industry and could minimize the severity of whale entanglements.”

Read the full story at The Boston Globe

MASSACHUSETTS: Aquarium’s New Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life to Focus on Fisheries Conservation, Aquaculture, Marine Mammal Health, Research

June 10, 2016 — The New England Aquarium is celebrating the launch of its new Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life in Boston, a scientific institute focusing on fisheries conservation and aquaculture solutions, marine mammal research and conservation, habitat and ecosystem health, and marine animal health – a major new initiative for the Aquarium.

“The New England Aquarium has done excellent research and conservation work for 40 years,” said Nigella Hillgarth, the Aquarium’s President and CEO, who marked her second anniversary in late May and sees the Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life as the culmination of her work to date to raise the profile and public understanding of the Aquarium’s vital marine science work internationally.

“The idea of combining our strengths to create a center of excellence that can focus on solving some of the anthropogenic problems of the oceans was the right thing to do,” particularly around climate change, said Hillgarth who sought to create the Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life so scientific research can help shape international conservation policy.

Hillgarth and the Aquarium’s Board of Directors joined Massachusetts Environmental Secretary Matthew Beaton, National Geographic underwater photographer and Aquarium Explorer in Residence Brian Skerry along with other dignitaries on Wed. June 8 to celebrate the launch at the Aquarium’s Simons IMAX Theatre.

Read the full story at Newswise

Scientists, fishermen plot ways to prevent whale entanglements

May 25, 2016 — PORTSMOUTH, N.H. — Nette Leverman was reading from a sheaf of papers she held in her hand, detailing the interactions between whales and fishermen in Greenland, where she is a population biologist.

Humpback, minke, fin and bowhead whales were getting caught in fishing line and nets in the waters off the country’s coast. It’s a familiar refrain, heard over and over Monday, the first day of a four-day international workshop on large whale entanglements.

“We’ve known for decades about this problem, yet solutions to it remain elusive,” said Tim Werner, a senior scientist at the New England Aquarium, and one of the workshop’s organizers.

Governments and fishermen around the world are feeling the strain from an increasing numbers of whales being snared in fishing gear as some whale species rebound and as the amount of gear in the water increases for fishing, aquaculture and other uses.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

NOAA Fisheries Hosts Thorny Skate Extinction Risk Workshop

May 10, 2016 — The following was released by NOAA:

NOAA Fisheries is hosting a Thorny Skate Extinction Risk Workshop to discuss the threats to thorny skates and their risk of extinction.

We are currently evaluating whether thorny skates should be listed under the Endangered Species Act.

Where: Maritime Gloucester, 23 Harbor Loop Road, Gloucester, MA.

When: May 19 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Goals and objectives:

An extinction risk analysis (ERA) can be used to help evaluate the known or perceived risk to the continued persistence of a species. At the ERA Workshop, participants will review and discuss the information on the threats to thorny skate (Amblyraja radiata) noted in the petition and in the literature, available data sets and models regarding status; and types of ERAs that have been used for other species. A summary of the workshop will be prepared for use by the ERA working group and NOAA Fisheries.

Following the workshop, an ERA working group comprised of invited participants with expertise in thorny skates or other elasmobranchs will review data and analysis on thorny skates and select a method to use to develop an extinction risk assessment for the species. Following the discussion and results of the extinction risk assessment, the ERA working group will document their individual expert opinions and findings related to extinction risk for the species in a report. Both the workshop summary and the ERA working group’s report will be independently peer reviewed and will be used to help inform the listing determination for the species.

Invited Expert Participant Selection Criteria:

Invited working group participants were identified based on their working knowledge and recent experience with one or more of the following: 1) expertise in extinction risk analysis and/or population modeling; and/or 2) expertise in fisheries population dynamics, stock assessments and life history of elasmobranchs; and/or 3) advanced working knowledge of and recent experience developing and running population models with the available thorny skate data. 

Working Group Invited Expert Participants:

  • Tobey Curtis- Greater Atlantic Regional Office
  • Sonja Fordham- Shark Advocates International
  • Jon Hare- Northeast Fisheries Science Center
  • Fiona Hogan- New England Fisheries Management Council
  • John Mandelman- New England Aquarium
  • Katherine Sosebee- Northeast Fisheries Science Center


Webinar:  https://noaaevents.webex.com/noaaevents/onstage/g.php?MTID=e69a831a994ec9befe124bbef780a95d7
Conference Line: 877-710-3752

Participant Code: 7867681

Helping Fishermen Catch What They Want, and Nothing Else

May 3, 2016 — Heather Goldstone, of NPR affiliates WGBH and WCAI, discusses bycatch reduction in fisheries on a recent episode of “Living Lab.” Her guests were veteran gear designer Ron Smolowitz of the Coonamessett Farm Foundation, who has worked with the southern New England scallop industry; Steve Eayrs, a research scientist at Gulf of Maine Research Institute, who has worked with groundfishermen in Maine; and Tim Werner, a senior scientist with the New England Aquarium, who put acoustic pingers on gill nets to warn away dolphins. An excerpt from the segment is reproduced below:

It’s the holy grail of commercial fishing: catch just the right amount of just the right size of just the right species, without damage to the physical environment. It’s a tall order, and few fisheries are there yet.

Leaving aside the issue of straight up over-fishing, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimates that, each year, fishermen around the world accidentally catch more than seven million tons of marine life – everything from whales and turtles, to sea cucumbers – that they weren’t even after. Such by-catch, as it’s known, is essentially collateral damage.

And fishing has other environmental impacts. In some parts of the ocean, the scars left by trawls dragged across the sea floor can be seen for years.

But, it doesn’t have to be that way. Over the past decade or so, a lot of effort has gone into designing fishing gear and related equipment that allows fishermen to catch more of what they do want, and less of what they don’t, while also minimizing damage to the environment. For example:

  • Veteran gear designer Ron Smolowitz and the Coonamessett Farm Foundation have worked with the southern New England scallop industry over the past several years to develop a trawl that excludes loggerhead sea turtles. It turns out, it’s also better at capturing scallops, with the end result that scallopers can use smaller areas and less fuel – 75% less – to make their catch.

Read the full story and listen to the segment at WCAI

Scientists say more cod might survive fishing than thought

April 22, 2016 — BIDDEFORD, Maine — A group of scientists say more Atlantic cod might survive being thrown back in the water by fishermen than previously thought.

Scientists from several organizations, including the New England Aquarium in Boston and University of New England in Biddeford, conducted a study. It’s published in the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea’s Journal of Marine Science.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Washington Times

Right Whale, Wrong Place

April 20, 2016 — Whale watchers spent the day yesterday in Nahant looking for Mr. Right.

A wayward North Atlantic right whale made a splash just off the shore for most of the afternoon.

The endangered species is known to hang out near Cape Cod Bay this time of year, according to Charles “Stormy” Mayo, senior scientist at the Center for Coastal Studies in Cape Cod and director of the right whale ecology program.

“Anytime a few whales go up the shore it’s really a special thing and a rare occasion,” he said. 
“Every time, in the case of the right whales, their travel depends on the concentration of food; they’re grazers.”

Mayo added he thinks the whale frolicking off Nahant is likely to return to the Cape, where there is the highest concentration of North Atlantic right whales. Fewer than 500 are thought to exist.

Read the full story at the Boston Herald