Saving Seafood

Spiny Dogfish Eat Atlantic Cod: DNA May Provide Some Answers

November 17, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Conventional observations show that spiny dogfish in the western North Atlantic rarely eat Atlantic cod. However, some believe the rebuilding dogfish populations are limiting depleted cod numbers by competition or predation. To find out what is going on, NOAA Fisheries scientists looked to genetic testing to confirm cod presence in dogfish stomachs.

To get the samples they needed, scientists at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center asked local fishermen for help. Commercial fishing boats from New Bedford, Gloucester, Plymouth and Newburyport in Massachusetts stepped up.  All participate in the Study Fleet, a program in the center’s Cooperative Research Branch. Spiny dogfish were collected on 15 fishing trips during normal trawling operations between May 2014 and May 2015 in the Gulf of Maine and on Georges Bank.

“This was an excellent example of how cooperating fishing partners supplied fish for a pilot study of interest, and have helped advance this field of study,” said Richard McBride, chief of the center’s Population Biology Branch and a co-author of the study. “We were able to demonstrate that identifying cod in predator stomachs with environmental DNA works. It let us show fishermen that these innovative laboratory techniques can work on samples collected in the open ocean.”

Read the full release here

Black Sea Bass Sensitive to Ocean Noise in Wind Energy Development Areas

November 10, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Scientists looking at the effects of underwater pile driving and construction noise on sea life have found that black sea bass can hear these sounds. The noise may interfere with their natural behavior.

Their study is the first to look at the impact of ocean noise on this fish species. It found that younger fish were more sensitive to sounds than older fish. The frequencies at which the fish are most sensitive to sound directly overlap with frequencies of human-produced noise pollution. This noise comes from activities like shipping and the underwater construction required for offshore wind farms.

“No one knew for sure how much black sea bass can hear and how that changes as they age,” said Beth Phelan, a fishery biologist at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center’s laboratory at Sandy Hook, New Jersey and a co-author of the study. “We do know that black sea bass are attracted to underwater structures, and have anecdotal information that they move away from noise. We had to first determine the range of sounds they can hear by giving them a type of hearing test, much like we do to humans.”

Black sea bass are a commercially and recreationally important fish in the Mid-Atlantic Bight, the coastal region from Cape Hatteras, North Carolina to southern New England. Wind farms planned in the region overlap with current black sea bass habitat, exposing fish to construction and operational noises. Pile driving, for example, produces sounds that might stress fish, impacting their choice of habitat, feeding, social interaction and reproduction.

Read the full release here

Long-Running Plankton Survey to Resume in the Gulf of Maine

November 10, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

A new agreement between NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center, the Marine Biological Association in Plymouth, England and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution will allow a plankton survey to resume. The survey was originally conducted across the Gulf of Maine from 1961 to 2017.

NOAA Fisheries is providing funding for the survey through the NOAA Cooperative Institute for the North Atlantic Region, hosted by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. The Marine Biological Association manages merchant vessel-based plankton surveys around the world. The association will run and maintain the resumed Gulf of Maine survey through 2024 under this agreement.

“Continuing a long-term time series like the Continuous Plankton Recorder Survey is essential to understanding the impact of climate change to marine ecosystems,” said Chris Melrose, a research oceanographer at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center’s laboratory in Narragansett, Rhode Island and NOAA representative on the agreement.

“Many marine species are shifting their distributions as ocean waters warm,” explained Melrose. “Because plankton are an important food source for many species, including the endangered North Atlantic right whale, knowing about changes in the plankton helps us to understand other changes we see in the ecosystem.”

Read the full release here

NOAA scientists study how offshore wind construction noise may affect black sea bass

November 3, 2020 — Scientists at federal fisheries laboratories are investigating how sound generated by the construction and operation of offshore wind turbines may affect black sea bass – a valuable species in the Northeast that is attracted to underwater structures like turbine foundations.

“No one knew for sure how much black sea bass can hear and how that changes as they age,” said Beth Phelan, a fishery biologist at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center’s laboratory at Sandy Hook, N.J. and a co-author of the study, in a narrative published online by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “We do know that black sea bass are attracted to underwater structures, and have anecdotal information that they move away from noise. We had to first determine the range of sounds they can hear by giving them a type of hearing test, much like we do to humans.”

Black sea bass typically congregate around hard structure, including docks, jetties and shipwrecks, and recreational fishermen and charter captains target them around the Block Island Wind Farm turbines off Rhode Island. The species supports a commercial fishery from the Mid-Atlantic into southern New England, and with waters warming in the Northeast black sea bass are extending their range into the Gulf of Maine.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Long-running plankton survey to resume this winter

October 28, 2020 — Scientists this winter will revive a long-running survey of plankton in the Gulf of Maine. Plankton, drifting microscopic sea organisms, are food for endangered North American right whales and other marine species. 

The Gulf of Maine plankton survey was originally performed from 1961–2017. It is returning under a new agreement between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Northeast Fisheries Science Center, the Marine Biological Association in Plymouth, England, and the Massachusetts-based Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.  

“Many marine species are shifting their distributions as ocean waters warm,” said Chris Melrose, a research oceanographer at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center’s laboratory in Narragansett, R.I. “Because plankton are an important food source for many species, including the endangered North Atlantic right whale, knowing about changes in the plankton helps us to understand other changes we see in the ecosystem.” 

Melrose, who is NOAA representative on the agreement, said continuing the survey “is essential to understanding the impact of climate change to marine ecosystems.”  

Read the full story at the Mount Desert Islander

Black Sea Bass Sensitive to Ocean Noise in Wind Energy Development Areas

October 27, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Scientists looking at the effects of underwater pile driving and construction noise on sea life have found that black sea bass can hear these sounds. The noise may interfere with their natural behavior.

Their study is the first to look at the impact of ocean noise on this fish species. It found that younger fish were more sensitive to sounds than older fish. The frequencies at which the fish are most sensitive to sound directly overlap with frequencies of human-produced noise pollution. This noise comes from activities like shipping and the underwater construction required for offshore wind farms.

“No one knew for sure how much black sea bass can hear and how that changes as they age,” said Beth Phelan, a fishery biologist at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center’s laboratory at Sandy Hook, New Jersey and a co-author of the study. “We do know that black sea bass are attracted to underwater structures, and have anecdotal information that they move away from noise. We had to first determine the range of sounds they can hear by giving them a type of hearing test, much like we do to humans.”

Black sea bass are a commercially and recreationally important fish in the Mid-Atlantic Bight, the coastal region from Cape Hatteras, North Carolina to southern New England. Wind farms planned in the region overlap with current black sea bass habitat, exposing fish to construction and operational noises. Pile driving, for example, produces sounds that might stress fish, impacting their choice of habitat, feeding, social interaction and reproduction.

Read the full release here

Long-Running Plankton Survey to Resume in the Gulf of Maine

October 23, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

A new agreement between NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center, the Marine Biological Association in Plymouth, England and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution will allow a plankton survey to resume. The survey was originally conducted across the Gulf of Maine from 1961 to 2017.

NOAA Fisheries is providing funding for the survey through the NOAA Cooperative Institute for the North Atlantic Region, hosted by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. The Marine Biological Association manages merchant vessel-based plankton surveys around the world. The association will run and maintain the resumed Gulf of Maine survey through 2024 under this agreement.

“Continuing a long-term time series like the Continuous Plankton Recorder Survey is essential to understanding the impact of climate change to marine ecosystems,” said Chris Melrose, a research oceanographer at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center’s laboratory in Narragansett, Rhode Island and NOAA representative on the agreement.

“Many marine species are shifting their distributions as ocean waters warm,” explained Melrose. “Because plankton are an important food source for many species, including the endangered North Atlantic right whale, knowing about changes in the plankton helps us to understand other changes we see in the ecosystem.”

Read the full release here

Lobstermen: Documents Reveal ‘Catastrophic Impact’ Right Whale Protections Could Have On Industry

October 19, 2020 — Newly released documents by Maine’s Department of Resources are providing a glimpse of what federal action to protect endangered North Atlantic right whales could look like — including the closure of extensive areas of offshore ocean to lobstering.

In an August letter to the head of the agency that reviews proposed federal regulations, DMR Commissioner Patrick Keliher asked for a meeting to go over options for reducing the risk of right whales becoming dangerously entangled in lobster trap gear and rope.

That was after conversations with the federal Northeast Fisheries Science Center that brought to light a proposal that could put big swaths of ocean off-limits to lobstering — in federal waters known as Lobster Conservation Management Areas, or LCMAs.

LCMA 1, in particular, is heavily fished by Maine lobster boats.

“The concern was those areas in Area 3 could come across to Area 1 if, in fact, we don’t meet our risk reduction target,” Keliher says.

Read the full story at Maine Public

NOAA Supports American Lobster and Jonah Crab Research Fleet Led by Fishermen

October 14, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

The Lobster and Jonah Crab Research Fleet, organized by the Commercial Fisheries Research Foundation (CFRF), was established in 2013. It has collected biological data from nearly 160,000 American lobsters and about 90,000 Jonah crabs from the Gulf of Maine and south to the Mid-Atlantic.

In September, the Northeast Fisheries Science Center provided funding to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission to support the research fleet’s work.

“I am thrilled that we were able to work with the Commission to provide support for the Lobster and Jonah Crab Research Fleet,” says Anna Mercer, Science Center  Cooperative Research Branch Chief. “The project exemplifies the value of working with fishermen to address science needs and has tangible impacts on the stock assessments and management of these valuable species. I look forward to following along as this research continues and expands.”

Read the full release here