Saving Seafood

Anchorage talk will dive into ocean acidification’s impact on Alaska marine life

October 16, 2019 — Hundreds of fishery stakeholders and scientists will gather in Anchorage next week as the state Board of Fisheries begins its annual meeting cycle with a two-day work session.

The seven-member board sets the rules for the state’s subsistence, commercial, sport and personal use fisheries. It meets four to six times each year in various communities on a three-year rotation; this year the focus is on Kodiak and Cook Inlet.

The fish board and the public also will learn the latest on how a changing climate and off-kilter ocean chemistry are affecting some of Alaska’s most popular seafood items at an Oct. 23 talk and Q&A on ocean acidification in Alaska.

They may also be surprised to learn that only two studies have looked at salmon response to ocean acidification, and both were conducted outside Alaska.

Most of the research to date has focused specifically on crab and fish stocks, said Bob Foy, director of the Alaska Fisheries Science Center at the NOAA Auke Bay lab in Juneau who will lead the Anchorage presentation.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

Global Ocean Acidification Research Starts at Local Level All Around the World

September 10, 2019 — SEAFOOD NEWS — Ocean acidification (OA) is a shift in the world’s oceans from neutral to more acidic water from the update of increasing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The ocean absorbs about 30% of the carbon in the air, resulting in increasing levels of carbonic acid in the sea.

Researchers in Alaska, the South Pacific, New England, and further afield are studying the effects of increasing OA on their waters. In Alaska, research is focused on fisheries — from the billion-dollar groundfish resource in the Bering Sea to life-saving subsistence food along coastline; in New England, Martha’s Vinyard oyster ponds are being protected locally as OA increases, and in the South Pacific, a recent gathering of environmental ministers announced new alliances on research for OA, including a brand new Pacific Climate Change Centre (PCCC) to address OA among other climate change impacts, research, and innovation in creating resiliancies among Pacific Nations.

Alaska ranks as the fastest-warming U.S. state, and because it is surrounded by cold oceans, it is experiencing the fastest rise in OA.

The Alaska Ocean Acidification Center connects scientists with stakeholders who want to know everything they can about how OA may affect the state’s valuable fisheries resources. Established in 2016, the Center tracks the latest carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere (as of March 30, at 412.48 ppm, the highest recorded ever) and conducts experiments that inform what higher OA will do to pollock, cod, and crab species.

Robert Foy, Science and Research Director for NOAA’s Alaska Fisheries Science Center, says the direct effects of OA may be to reduce growth rates of juvenile fish, decreasing survival. OA can also interfere with sensory signals in the brain causing the fish to not recognize predators or prey. Indirect effects on the food web may reduce abundance of prey for fish, such as pteropods, the main food for juvenile fish. Cumulative effects may be a reduction in the overall productivity of fish resulting in less to catch commercially or gather for subsistence.

The Alaska Marine Advisory Sea Grant program supports the research of University of Alaska Fairbanks assistant professor Amanda Kelley, a top researcher on ocean acidification’s effects in Alaska. Alaska Sea Grant has funded Kelley’s research studying how shellfish react to different levels of OA. Sea Grant recently produced a video of work Kelley is doing in Seward and in Kachemak Bay to better understand OA and how tribal members and citizen scientists are getting involved in monitoring it.

After Alaska, Rhode Island ranks as the fastest-warming state, following by New Jersey, Connecticut, Maine, and Massachusetts. The oyster industry in Martha’s Vinyard has been monitoring OA for years and may have an innovative approach to mitigating it.

The Martha’s Vineyard Shellfish Group launched a shell recycle program, where they collect shells, let them age until they’re clean, and release them back into Great Ponds for restoration. “Adding shells helps buffer the water in small scales,” Emma Green-Beach, lead scientist of the Group said. “It provides hard calcium for baby oysters.”

Oysters are a “keystone species” on Martha’s Vineyard, as their existence provides a habitat for other organisms. “When you have clusters of oysters, they make huge reefs where fish, urchins, crabs, and all sorts of plants and animals can live,” Green-Beach said. “Little fish can hide there. Big fish can hunt there. Oysters create a hard and complex structure on an otherwise muddy, flat bottom.” Oysters also filter water, and adults can filter up to 50 gallons a day, according to Green-Beach.

The work that is being carried out in the Pacific to address this issue was highlighted at a side event during the second day of the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP)’s 29th Meeting of Officials taking place in Apia, Samoa last week.

Among those highlighted was work of the New Zealand-Pacific Partnership on Ocean Acidification (NZPPOA) project in Fiji and Tokelau, Samoa’s joint initiative on OA monitoring with the Republic of Korea, and the recently published “Mainstreaming Ocean Acidification into National Policies” handbook on OA for the Pacific.

The NZPPOA project is a collaborative effort between the University of the South Pacific, the Pacific Community and SPREP, with funding support from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of New Zealand and the Government of the Principality of Monaco. It aims to build the resilience of Pacific island communities to OA and was developed in response to needs identified during the Third United Nations Small Islands States Conference in Apia in 2014.

Its focus is on research and monitoring, capacity and awareness building, and practical adaptation actions. The pilot sites for the practical adaptation actions were Fiji, Kiribati, and Tokelau, two of which were present at the side event this afternoon and presented on the progress of the work being done in their countries.

OA monitoring buoys have been set up and deployed successfully in Palau, and will soon be set up in Samoa, and staff of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment in Samoa will have the responsibility to operate and maintain these buoy systems.

This story was originally posted on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.

Study examines how the Atlantic surfclam is successfully adapting to climate change

July 15, 2019 — Global climate change poses a severe threat to marine life, but scientists have found at least one species that appears to be successfully adapting to warmer ocean waters.

A recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that, even without factoring in the impacts of fishing, global animal biomass in Earth’s oceans is expected to decrease by as much as 17 percent by 2100 under a “high emissions” scenario that leads to 3-4 degrees Celsius of warming. Even under a “low emissions” scenario, in which global warming is limited to just 2 degrees Celsius (the goal of the Paris Climate Agreement), the study found that marine life biomass would drop by 5 percent by 2100.

In addition to warmer waters, ocean acidification and oxygen depletion will take a toll on the wildlife that call Earth’s oceans home. On average, the research determined, we can expect a 5 percent decline in ocean life for every 1 degree Celsius increase in Earth’s average surface temperature.

However, a new study published in the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series shows that, as ocean temperatures rise, Atlantic surfclams, a large saltwater clam found mostly in the western Atlantic Ocean, are capably shifting their range into waters that would have previously been inhospitable to their survival.

According to the study’s authors, Jeremy Timbs and Eric Powell of the University of Southern Mississippi and Roger Mann of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, the number of larvae produced by Atlantic surfclams is the key to the species’ adaptability. The clams employ a strategy of producing a massive amount of larvae that are widely distributed throughout the ocean, allowing them to reproduce despite the deleterious effects of predators, lack of food, and inhospitable temperatures on surfclam larvae numbers.

Read the full story at Mongabay

Shellfish growers are feeling climate change’s effects now

July 3, 2019 — Shellfish farming in Washington is a multimillion-dollar industry with a history as deep as Puget Sound. However, recent decades of warming oceans and higher levels of ocean acidification continue to challenge shellfish farming practices.

In and around Whatcom County there are several aquaculture farms, such as Lummi Shellfish Hatchery, Drayton HarborOyster Co., Blau Oyster and Taylor Shellfish in Samish Bay. Each farm varies in size, number of employees and type of shellfish produced, but they share one thing in common: the water quality of Puget Sound.

There are more than 300 aquaculture farms across Washington, according to the Pacific Shellfish Institute. A WashingtonState Maritime Sector Economic Impact Study in 2017 found that the industry directly supports 15,900 jobs. Samish Bay shellfish farms alone include $2 million annual payroll and $6 million in wholesale oysters, clams and geoduck.

In June, four ocean acidification bills made bipartisan progress, in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate, to becoming law. The bills are designed to encourage research and spur new ideas for adapting to the affects of ocean acidification. The bills include the COAST Research Act of 2019, the Coastal Communities Ocean Acidification Act of 2019,the Ocean Acidification Innovation Act of 2019 and the NEAR Act of 2019.

As carbon dioxide is emitted into the atmosphere a certain percentage is absorbed into the water, causing a chemical reaction that makes the water more acidic. According to the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration, roughly 25%of carbon dioxide emissions are absorbed into the worlds oceans. The process is similar to bubbles escaping from a soda can, but in reverse. Since the industrial revolution ocean acidification has increased by 30% and reduced carbonate ions by16%, said Bill Dewey, director of public affairs for Taylor Shellfish. By the end of the century it is predicted that ocean acidification will increase by 100% to 150% and reduce carbonate ions by 50%, said Dewey.

Read the full story at The Bellingham Business Journal

During Capitol Hill Ocean Week, The U.S. House Passed Four Bills To Study Changing Ocean Chemistry

June 12, 2019 — Since the end of the 19th century, several billions of tons of carbon have been pumped into our planet’s atmosphere, causing sea surface temperatures and sea levels to rise. Additionally, as the oceans have absorbed some of this carbon, their overall acidity has increased by 30 percent.  Changes in acidity and overall ocean chemistry – termed “ocean acidification” – can negatively affect an animal’s sense of smell (which helps them avoid predators, find food, and identify good habitats) and ability to grow its shell.

“We first felt its effects in the mid-2000’s when more acidified water caused Pacific Northwest oyster farmers to suffer drastic losses and go nearly bankrupt,” says Dr. Sarah Cooley, Director of Ocean Conservancy’s Ocean Acidification Program, “Scientists later identified the threat acidification poses to other industries and the people who rely on them, including the $1 billion-dollar lobster industry in the northeast and the coral reef tourism industry of Florida.”

Last week, nearly 90 percent of the U.S. House of Representatives passed four bills to combat the ocean’s changing chemistry. The Ocean Acidification Innovation Act (H.R.1921) (which I previously reported on here), COAST Research Act of 2019 (H.R. 1237), Coastal Communities Ocean Acidification Act of 2019 (H.R.1716), and NEAR Act of 2019(H.R.988).  Together, these bills, if passed by the U.S. Senate, would provide resources to monitor changes in ocean chemistry in both coastal and offshore environments, understand the effects of acidification on coastal communities, and elicit a National Academies of Science study that examines changing chemistry in estuaries – the bodies of water between freshwater rivers and the oceans. The passage of these bills coincided with the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation’s annual Capitol Hill Ocean Week (CHOW).

Read the full story at Forbes

Life in the North Atlantic depends on this floating seaweed

May 15, 2019 — ‘THERE’S NOTHING LIKE it in any other ocean,’ says marine biologist Brian Lapointe. ‘There’s nowhere else on our blue planet that supports such diversity in the middle of the ocean—and it’s because of the weed.’

Lapointe is talking about a floating seaweed known as sargassum in a region of the Atlantic called the Sargasso Sea. The boundaries of this sea are vague, defined not by landmasses but by five major currents that swirl in a clockwise embrace around Bermuda. Far from any mainland, its waters are nutrient poor and therefore exceptionally clear and stunningly blue.

The Sargasso Sea, part of the vast whirlpool known as the North Atlantic gyre, often has been described as an oceanic desert—and it would appear to be, if it weren’t for the floating mats of sargassum.

The seaweed may seem unremarkable at first glance—just bunches of drifting plant matter—but as Lapointe has helped illuminate through his work, sargassum is the basis of a complex ecosystem that nurtures a stunning array of marine life. It serves as a mobile shelter and a movable feast.

For 36 years Lapointe, a biologist with Florida Atlantic University’s Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute in Fort Pierce, has combed the Sargasso Sea, observing sargassum by satellite and experiencing it firsthand in scuba gear. He wanted to figure out where the weed comes from, how it moves, what it sustains, and what sustains it—and to unravel the complex relationship sargassum has with other forms of marine life, from seahorses to great white sharks. Only by learning about this vital resource, he says, can we protect it from potential threats, such as ocean acidification and pollution.

Read the full story at National Geographic

During abrupt warming, lobsters in acidic water have reduced heart function, fewer infection-fighting cells

April 25, 2019 — Ocean acidification and warming may be an unhealthy combination for lobsters, say University of Maine scientists.

The heart rates of lobsters (Homarus americanus) who lived 60 days in water with predicted end-century  pH levels became erratic significantly sooner during an abrupt warming event than those of lobsters in ocean water with current pH levels.

The findings could be “likened to putting people on a treadmill and finding that people exposed to  fell off the treadmill from exhaustion much sooner than those not exposed,” says Heather Hamlin, a reproductive endocrinologist and associate professor in the School of Marine Sciences.

The lobsters exposed to acidic ocean conditions also had fewer cells that fight infection in their hemolymph (similar to blood), says Amalia Harrington, a recent marine biology Ph.D. graduate.

So while lobsters in acidic  may look and act normal, they experience physiological challenges when exposed to multiple stressors, says Hamlin.

She and Harrington tested adolescent female lobsters transitioning to adulthood. Effects of environmental stressors during this stage could have major impacts on the population of the species, say the researchers, who believe this is the first such study of its kind.

“We’re really trying to get at the ‘hidden’  on this understudied but extremely important stage of the American lobster,” says Harrington.

“Most of the previous work exploring climate change impacts on American lobster has focused on early developmental stages (eggs and larvae). While this is helpful for understanding how environmental change might impact the number of baby lobsters that survive their time in the plankton and make it to the seafloor, it doesn’t really tell us what impact that will have on the population as a whole.”

Read the full story at PHYS.org

Oregon lawmakers propose bill providing millions in funding for climate change research

April 15, 2019 — Oregon state lawmakers are proposing a bill which would provide nearly USD 2 million (EUR 1.7 million) to study and respond to the effects of rising ocean temperatures, low oxygen levels, and ocean acidification, according to a report in the Statesman Journal last week.

Thirty percent of man-made carbon dioxide is absorbed by the ocean, which causes the water to become more acidic, the report said. The change in ocean pH levels has made it difficult for animals like crabs, oysters, and shrimp to make their shells, which could be a blow to the state’s shellfish industry.

Senate Bill 260 would provide USD 1.9 million (EUR 1.68 million) from the state’s general fund to respond to the problems caused by climate change.

If the bill passes, the state’s Department of Fish and Wildlife would receive USD 470,000 (EUR 415,799) to map and assess estuaries – most existing research on acidification and hypoxia (low oxygen levels) has been done offshore.

Oregon State University would receive USD 370,000 (EUR 327,347) to conduct projects concerning shellfish breeding and ocean sampling and monitoring.

The Oregon Ocean Science Trust would receive the lion’s share of the funding, USD 1.06 million (EUR 937,727), which would be used for seven different projects, including modeling of aquatic vegetation, acidification and hypoxia monitoring, and a communications plan.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Mid-Atlantic Coastal Acidification Network Seeking Stakeholder Perspectives on Ocean Acidification

April 11, 2019 — The following was released by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council:

The Mid-Atlantic Coastal Acidification Network (MACAN) is seeking perspectives on ocean acidification from members of commercial fishing, seafood, aquaculture, charter boat and recreational fishing organizations in the Mid-Atlantic. MACAN is a nexus of scientists, tribal, federal, and state agency representatives, resource managers, and affected industry partners who seek to coordinate and guide regional observing, research, and modeling of ocean and coastal acidification. MACAN would like to gain a better understanding of how stakeholders see coastal and ocean acidification affecting business operations or recreational fishing activities now or in the future. In addition, MACAN is seeking thoughts on opportunities to raise awareness and encourage participation in regional efforts to monitor for and adapt to coastal and ocean acidification.

You can help by participating in MACAN’s Stakeholder Outreach Survey. To access the survey, click on your industry or affiliation from the list below. The survey should take about 5-10 minutes to complete. Your responses are voluntary and anonymous. Please respond by June 14, 2019.

If you have any questions about the survey, please contact survey coordinators Kirstin Wakefield at kirstin.wakefield@gmail.com or Grace Saba at saba@marine.rutgers.edu. If you’d like to learn more about MACAN, please visit www.MidACAN.org, or send an email to: info@MidACAN.org.

This survey is a collaborative effort with Rutgers University. For more information, please contact Dr. Grace Saba, Assistant Professor, Center for Ocean Observing Leadership, Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers University, 71 Dudley Rd, New Brunswick, NJ 08901. Email: saba@marine.rutgers.edu.

Will Large Protected Areas Save the Oceans or Politicize Them?

March 25, 2019 — How can we save the oceans? They cover two-thirds of the planet, but none are safe from fishing fleets, minerals prospectors, or the insidious influences of global warming and ocean acidification.

In the past decade, there has been a push to create giant new Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). They now cover nearly 9.7 million square miles, equivalent to more than the land area of North America. Cristiana Pașca Palmer, executive secretary of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, says the world is on course reach the convention’s target of having a tenth of the oceans protected by next year.

But questions are being raised. The growth has been driven by the formation of giant MPAs bigger than many countries, often in remote regions where the threat to biodiversity is lower. So, critics are asking, are countries creating big distant MPAs to distract attention from the harder task of protecting trashed coastal ecosystems closer to home? And is there a geopolitical game afoot, a stealth rush to control the oceans for political ends? And does that explain why half of the ocean waters covered by MPAs are in the hands of the United States and two former European colonial powers, Britain and France?

Most ocean scientists see the rush to create vast MPAs as a boon to marine conservation. They are cost-effective, connect different marine ecosystems, and encompass larger parts of the ranges of migrating species such as whales and tuna, protecting “corridors of connectivity among habitats in ways not afforded by smaller MPAs,” says Bethan O’Leary, a marine scientist at the University of York in England.

Read the full story at Yale Environment 360