Saving Seafood

MASSACHUSETTS: Weeks after shellfishing ban is lifted, Wellfleet worries remain

December 5th, 2016 — A soft rain falls just before sunrise and Jason Weisman is at work on Duck Creek armed with a knife and a bushel basket, scouring the muddy shoreline for food that supports his young family, still asleep in their beds miles down the road.

He’s cooked in kitchens in the North End and Allston. He’s worked on lobster boats. He’s studied painting and has a keen appreciation for art. And now, at his feet, he recognizes the artistry before him.

“It sparkles like a diamond when the light hits it just right,’’ he tells me, holding a freshly harvested oyster, the shellfish that has become his passion and livelihood.

He’s got his eyes on the water and on the horizon, preferring to look ahead and forget about the economic calamity from which he is just emerging — a month-long shellfishing ban that has staggered him and his town.

Read the full story at The Boston Globe 

Florida gets $32M more in oil spill money

November 16, 2016 — PANAMA CITY, Fla. — Florida will receive $32 million for four projects aimed at restoring natural resources damaged by the 2010 oil spill, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) announced Tuesday.

The money is part of a $370 million announcement to finance 24 grants, the foundation’s fourth and largest round to date. Louisiana will receive $245 million, Alabama $63 million, Mississippi $16 million and Texas nearly $12 million.

NFWF was awarded a total of $2.5 billion over five years in settlements and penalties from BP to repair natural resources damaged during the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, which is considered one of the largest environmental disasters in history. It began April 10, 2010, and lasted 87 days, releasing millions of barrels worth of oil into the Gulf.

In Florida, the latest round of grants will go toward conserving oyster reefs, building a sea turtle necropsy facility, better assessing stocks of Florida’s reef fish, and restoring shorebird and seabird populations.

Read the full story at the Panama City News Herald

Oysters, Clams, and More: Future of Green Farming in a Garden State?

November 1, 2016 — Streamlining regulations and getting rid of excessive paperwork could spark an upsurge in “green aquaculture” in New Jersey

In an effort to promote the eco-friendly aquaculture industry, the Senate and Assembly have unanimously passed a bill to reduce the paperwork involved in setting up this type of business. The lawmakers, who hope the governor will sign their bill to encourage “green aquaculture,” believe that fish-farming in New Jersey waters holds the potential to create jobs for the long term.

“We’ve made it virtually impossible for them to succeed. Only the most persistent people have been able to move forward,” said Jeff Van Drew (D-Cape May Court House), who sponsored the legislation (S-317) to drastically streamline regulations so applicants could essentially submit one packet to be distributed interdepartmentally instead of encountering the many conflicting demands they currently face.

Rutgers University estimates that the 160 aquaculture businesses already operating in the state contribute $36 million directly and indirectly to the economy. But considering that surrounding states have grown their aquaculture industries to 30 times the size of New Jersey’s, those aren’t nearly enough dollar signs for the Garden State’s legislators and would-be aquaculturalists; they think the legislation will help to cut out some of the 11 different state, local, and federal agencies with which those aspiring to be part of the industry currently must file paperwork.

The New Jersey Department of Agriculture defines aquaculture as “the raising of marine and freshwater organisms under controlled conditions” and includes “food fish and shellfish, cultured pearls, ornamental and aquarium fish, and plants for food, fuel, garden ponds and aquariums.”

Read the full story at the NJ Spotlight

Study shows oyster reef restoration helps economy

October 26th, 2016 — A 54-acre oyster reef built in Matagorda Bay is benefiting more than sea life.

Half Moon Reef has become a fishing hot spot, adding $691,000 to the state’s domestic gross product each year and creating a dozen jobs, according to a Nature Conservancy study released this month.

About three years ago, the reef was dead. While there was some hard material left to build upon, there were no live oysters, said Mark Dumesnil, the associate director of coastal restoration in Texas for The Nature Conservancy.

The reef was once almost 500 acres, but dredging, major changes in hydrology that altered the amount of water entering Matagorda Bay and, possibly, a hurricane left the reef defunct.

In 2013, when Dumesnil and other researchers began their effort to bring the reef back to life, their main priority was to create a habitat for fish.

“It’s more than just the oysters,” he said. “My goal was to restore it for all of the ecosystem services.”

Oyster reefs can help clean water, provide habitat for a huge diversity of reef-dependent sea life and help reduce the amount and prevalence of harmful algal blooms by removing nitrogen from the water.

But soon Dumesnil was receiving phone calls and emails from fishing guides who were reaping benefits of their own. So, The Nature Conservancy teamed up with Texas Sea Grant to survey anglers and fishing guides to quantify the social and economic benefits of Half Moon Reef.

Read the full story at the Victoria Advocate 

NORTH CAROLINA: 40,000 oysters ‘planted’ in Great Bay

October 11th, 2016 — Your thoughts about oysters may not extend beyond the dinner table, but it turns out the little critters are pretty important to the ecosystem.

Realizing that the local oyster population was greatly depleted, the University of New Hampshire and The Nature Conservatory launched a program in 2009 to bring them back by nurturing millions of microscopic larvae each year and “planting” the surviving young oysters in Great Bay.

Friday was the culmination of the eighth season, when some 40,000 new oysters were heaved into the bay near Nanny’s Island by a group of about 30 volunteers and conservation workers, both adults and children.

“To the oysters!” said Molly Bolster, over an apple cider toast. “May they flourish and spend a lot of time down there,” said Bolster, who is executive director of the Portsmouth-based Gundalow Company, which provided the boat.

Oysters help filter the water, reducing pollution. However, due to diseases, excess silt, climate change and past over-harvesting, the population has greatly declined over the last few decades, said Ray Grizzle, research professor of biological sciences at UNH. Many oysters were not living long enough to produce offspring.

So how does one go about “planting” an oyster?

Millions of larvae each year are sent to the UNH Jackson Estuarine Lab, where the microscopic oysters are reared using shells collected and donated from restaurants around the state. The vast majority of larvae die before reaching adulthood, but those that survive are placed back in the bay after they have matured for several months.

Read the full story at The Portsmouth Herald 

Eelgrass and Ocean Acidification: California Takes Action

October 4, 2016 — What do eelgrass, the California state legislature, crabbers, and Ocean Conservancy have in common? They are all part of the solution in California’s remarkable actions this past week to address the threats that ocean acidification presents to California’s healthy fisheries, marine habitat and coastal jobs.

Governor Jerry Brown just signed into law a pair of bills that will address the concerns over ocean acidification raised by oyster growers, crabbers and others who make a living off of the ocean.

The two pieces of state legislation were crafted by Assemblymember Das Williams and Senator Bill Monning, as tailored place-based solutions to what amounts to a global problem. SB 1363 will protect and restore eelgrass habitats, increasing carbon sequestration amongst the roots of this coastal vegetation.

Read the full story at the Ocean Conservancy

How Seaweed Could Protect Your Oysters

September 14, 2016 — When you’re sitting at a raw bar feasting on oysters, the environment may be the furthest thing from your mind. But Washington state’s shellfish industry is threatened by a global problem – ocean acidification.

The oceans absorb about half of all human emissions of carbon dioxide. That extra carbon makes the water more acidic and interferes with the ability of clams, mussels, and oysters to build strong shells.

For help keeping the fishery productive, researchers are turning to an unexpected ally: a fast-growing type of seaweed called kelp.

Kelp absorbs carbon during photosynthesis. So Jan Newton of the University of Washington says scientists believe that growing and then removing kelp before it decays may take enough carbon out of the water to provide a better environment for shellfish. However …

Newton: “The oceans are extremely large, and this effect will be very much a localized effect.”

To test the approach, scientists began planting floating beds of kelp offshore this past spring. And over the next two years, Newton and her colleagues will monitor CO2 levels in the surrounding waters.

Read the full story from Yale University

LOUISIANA: Oyster shortage causes closed harvest areas

September 12, 2016 — GRETNA, La. — The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries says the state’s oyster industry is suffering and as a result, several harvesting areas will be off-limits.

WDSU-TV reports (http://bit.ly/2cjCgEK) that oyster season opened Wednesday in parts of Louisiana. However, a low oyster population is causing problems for oyster farmers.

Factors contributing to the low resources include too much fresh water in the areas in which the oysters grow and the 2010 Gulf oil spill.

Oyster farmer Matthew Lepetich says he believes the oyster stock never recovered after Hurricane Katrina.

LOUISIANA: Oyster farmers brace for slow season; shortages close harvest areas

September 8, 2016 — JEFFERSON PARISH, La. — Oyster season opened Wednesday, but only in parts of Louisiana. Reports from the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries do not look good for oyster stock or oyster farmers.

Louisiana is the biggest oyster-producing state in the nation. According to figures from 2014, it is a $317 million industry employing about 3,500 people. But the industry is suffering, and several harvesting areas will be off-limits because of shortages.

Factors contributing to the low resources include too much fresh water in the areas in which the oysters grow and the 2010 Gulf Oil spill, which has led to a steady decline in production.

“It’s getting worse and worse, and I don’t know where it goes from here,” said Matthew Lepetich, a second-generation oyster farmer and owner of Mato’s Premium Oysters. “I remember this time of the year, right after Labor Day, we were getting the boats ready and we were going to work.”

On opening day of this season, however, Lepetich was nowhere near the water, “because there’s no season. There’s no seed. There’s no oyster. There’s nothing, and it’s been that way for several years. Ever since Katrina, it never really recovered because Katrina knocked holes in the levee and they haven’t filled them,” he said.”

Read the full story at WDSU