Saving Seafood

OSU chosen to lead NOAA institute for marine research

June 9, 2021 — Oregon State University said Tuesday it has been selected to host a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration institute focused on collaborative study of the rapidly changing ocean and expanded demands on its use.

The Cooperative Institute for Marine Ecosystem and Resources Studies, or CIMERS, will focus on four research themes: conservation, protection and restoration of marine resources; marine ecosystems; ocean acoustics; and ocean, coastal and seafloor processes.

The institute will be eligible for up to $37 million in funding over the next five years, with potential for renewal for five more years.

“NOAA’s significant support of this collaborative marine institute underscores Oregon State University’s longstanding contributions in leadership, research and teaching to protect and enhance our oceans,” said OSU Interim President Becky Johnson. “We must accelerate that work due to the extraordinary pressures and changes taking place in our oceans and climate. OSU’s collaborative model of engaging many colleges, academic disciplines and external partners is well-suited to address these issues.”

NOAA supports 20 cooperative institutes in 28 states and the District of Columbia, providing funding to extend basic and applied research beyond the federal agency’s capacity. The institutes also serve as a training ground for future NOAA employees through undergraduate, graduate and post-doctoral education programs that align with NOAA’s mission.

Read the full story at KTVZ

ALASKA: Fundraising campaign aims at testing Anchorage salmon streams for toxin traced to tires

April 27, 2021 — Are toxins from road runoff a threat to salmon in Anchorage’s most popular fishing streams? A Go Fund Me campaign has been launched so Alaskans can chip in to find out.

The push stems from an organic compound in tires called quinone that was newly identified by researchers at the University of Washington, said Birgit Hagedorn, a geochemist and longtime board member of the Anchorage Waterways Council.

“The little flakes that rub off of tires, especially larger truck tires, can be transported into the streams via stormwater. And they leach out the compound that they discovered was highly toxic to salmon. They were specifically looking at coho salmon,” she explained.

Hagedorn hopes to raise $5,500 to test the urban waters that run off the Seward and Glenn highways into Ship Creek and Campbell Creek. The Ship Creek salmon sport fishery is the region’s most popular and successful, with anglers targeting stocked chinook and coho salmon. Other stocked coho fisheries have been established in Campbell and Bird creeks, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

Biden Taps A Former Top Scientist At NOAA To Lead The Weather And Climate Agency

April 26, 2021 — President Biden is nominating Rick Spinrad to lead the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the government’s premier agency on climate science which oversees the National Weather Service.

Prior to his current role as a professor of oceanography at Oregon State University, Spinrad served as NOAA’s top scientist under President Obama and the U.S. representative to the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission.

The nomination comes at a difficult moment in NOAA’s history. The agency has been without an official, Senate-confirmed leader since former President Donald Trump took office in January 2017, after his two nominees to lead the agency failed to garner enough support to win a full vote before the Senate.

If Spinrad manages to win over the Senate, he will have to contend with a challenge beyond the agency’s already-rigorous scientific mandate: restoring public confidence in a traditionally apolitical agency marred by political scandal.

Read the full story at NPR

Biden taps ocean scientist Rick Spinrad to run NOAA

April 23, 2021 — President Biden has picked Rick Spinrad, an oceanographer with decades of science and policy experience, to run National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the government’s leading agency for weather, climate and ocean science.

The White House announced Spinrad’s selection along with several additional climate and environmental nominees, including Tracy Stone-Manning, a senior adviser for the National Wildlife Federation tapped to lead the Interior Department’s Bureau for Land Management.

Spinrad, a professor of oceanography at Oregon State University, served as chief scientist at NOAA under President Barack Obama and before that led the agency’s research arm and ocean service. He also held ocean leadership positions in the Navy.

Named to lead the agency on Earth Day, Spinrad has been a champion of funding research to advance the understanding of climate change, a top priority of the Biden White House.

Read the full story at The Washington Post

Biden nominates Rick Spinrad to head NOAA

April 23, 2021 — U.S. President Joe Biden announced on Thursday that he has nominated Rick Spinrad, a professor of oceanography at Oregon State University and the former chief scientist for NOAA, for the position of NOAA administrator.

The nomination comes as NOAA is amidst the longest period without a Senate-confirmed administrator since its creation in 1970. Former U.S. President Donald Trump had nominated Barry Myers – the former CEO of AccuWeather – to the position in 2017, but his nomination was never brought to a full vote before Myers ultimately withdrew from consideration.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Warm Water Important for Cold-water Fish Like Salmon and Trout, Study Finds

March 26, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Warm river habitats appear to play a larger-than-expected role in supporting the survival of cold-water fish, such as salmon and trout. This information was published today in a new study in the journal Nature Climate Change.

The research has important implications for fish conservation strategies. A common goal among scientists and policymakers is to identify and prioritize habitat for cold-water fish that remain suitably cool during the summer. This is especially important as the climate warms.

Potential Blind Spot

“Prioritizing cold-water habitat devalues seasonally warm areas, even if they are suitable for fish most of the year,” said Jonny Armstrong, lead author of the paper and an ecologist at Oregon State University. He called this a “potentially severe blind spot for climate change adaptation.”

A huge challenge for conservation is to figure out how to help these fish survive a warmer future. Typically, efforts focus on saving the coldest places, such as high mountain streams, which are already the most pristine parts of basins. This approach often neglects the places that are warm in summer, forgetting that these places are optimal for much of the year.

“We’re talking about a subtle shift in how we think about these thermal habitats,” said Aimee Fullerton, a fisheries biologist at NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center and a study co-author. “Of course, we want to protect the high-quality cold-water habitats. But we need to expand our definition of high-quality habitat to include some warmer waters.”

Read the full release here

White House appoints former NOAA leader Jane Lubchenco to key climate change role

March 23, 2021 — The White House has appointed Jane Lubchenco, a well-known marine scientist at Oregon State University and former head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, to a high-level position coordinating climate and environmental issues within its Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP).

The announcement scheduled for Friday marks another step in the Biden administration’s all-of-government approach to tackling climate change.

Lubchenco is serving in the renamed position of deputy director for climate and the environment, which in previous administrations had been known as the head of “energy and the environment.” The renaming signifies the emphasis the Biden Administration is placing on climate change.

Lubchenco’s portfolio encompasses a broad set of issues that President Biden asked OSTP officials to address in a letter on Jan. 15. In the letter to Eric Lander, nominated to serve as presidential science adviser, Biden tasked OSTP with finding climate change solutions that will help improve the economy and health, “especially in communities that have been left behind.”

Read the full story at The Washington Post

OREGON: Crab fishery adapts following climate shock event

March 10, 2021 — An unprecedented marine heat wave that led to a massive harmful algal bloom and a lengthy closure of the West Coast Dungeness crab fishery significantly altered the use of ocean resources across seven California crab-fishing communities.

The delayed opening of the 2015-16 crab-fishing season followed the 2014-16 North Pacific marine heat wave and subsequent algal bloom. The bloom produced high levels of the biotoxin domoic acid, which can accumulate in crabs and render them hazardous for human consumption.

That event, which is considered a “climate shock” because of its severity and impact, tested the resilience of California’s fishing communities, researchers from Oregon State University, the University of Washington, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center found.

The study is the first to examine impacts from such delays across fisheries, providing insight into the response by the affected fishing communities, said James Watson, one of the study’s co-authors and an assistant professor in OSU’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences.

Read the full story at the Newport News Times

OSU researcher leads NOAA-funded project to study West Coast response to ocean acidification

March 4, 2021 — The following was released by Oregon State University:

An Oregon State University researcher is part of a new federally supported project investigating how communities along the West Coast are adapting to ocean acidification, with the goal of determining what they need to be more resilient.

Ana K. Spalding, an assistant professor of marine and coastal policy in OSU’s College of Liberal Arts, is leading a team looking into how shellfish industry participants in several towns along the Oregon and California coasts are responding to ocean acidification and where gaps in policy or resources have left them vulnerable.

The $1 million, three-year interdisciplinary project is funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) through its Ocean Acidification Program. At OSU, Spalding is working with Erika Wolters, assistant professor of public policy, and Master of Public Policy students Victoria Moreno, Emily Griffith and Ryan Hasert.

“The goal of this project is to better align policy responses with the immediate and very local needs of shellfish-reliant communities,” Spalding said. “This is both understanding that vulnerability and proactively thinking, ‘What can we do to respond to better support members of the shellfish industry and their needs?’”

Ocean acidification and its impact on shellfish first became a major concern for West Coast farmers after a 2007 mass oyster larvae die-off at the Whiskey Creek Shellfish Hatchery in Netarts Bay, Oregon. OSU scientists definitively linked that die-off to increased carbon dioxide in the water in a 2012 study.

Read the full release here

Researchers demonstrate new method to track genetic diversity of salmon and trout

February 19, 2021 — Scientists at Oregon State University and the U.S. Forest Service have demonstrated that DNA extracted from water samples from rivers across Oregon and Northern California can be used to estimate genetic diversity of Pacific salmon and trout.

The findings, just published in the journal Molecular Ecology, have important implications for conservation and management of these , which are threatened by human activities, including those exacerbating climate change.

“There has been a dearth of this kind of data across the Northwest,” said Kevin Weitemier, a postdoctoral fellow at Oregon State and lead author of the paper. “This allows us to get a quick snapshot of multiple populations and species all at once.”

In addition to demonstrating that environmental DNA, or eDNA, can be used to measure , the researchers also made unexpected discoveries about the history of these species, including a connection that links watersheds in northern and southern Oregon.

Read the full story at PHYS.org