Saving Seafood

Local scientists counting sea turtles with drones

July 5, 2016 — A team of researchers are conducting their annual sea turtle survey at the coast this summer.  But this year, they have a new tool to give them a bird’s eye view.  Drones equipped with cameras fly over the water and capture images of sea turtles from above.

The Federal Aviation Administration recently approved commercial drone flight.  Operators must adhere to strict guidelines like flying during daylight hours and keeping the unmanned aerial vehicle under 400 feet.  Still, the landmark rules open up a realm of possibilities for real estate, filmmakers, search and rescue and many other applications.

Here at the coast, Assistant professor of the practice of marine conservation and ecology at the Duke Marine Lab Dave Johnston has been exploring the potential for drones to aid in marine research.  He’s assisting with a sea turtle survey this summer.

Read the full story at Public Radio East

NOAA Fisheries Releases Draft Northeast Climate Science Action Plan

June 22, 2016 — The following was released by NOAA:

NOAA Fisheries is seeking comments on a draft plan to help guide our approach to increase the production, delivery, and use of climate-related information and to reduce impacts and increase resilience of fish stocks, fishing-dependent communities, and protected species. As part of its efforts to increase the production, delivery, and use of climate-related information, NOAA Fisheries has released a draft climate science action plan for the U.S. Northeast. It outlines a strategy and specific actions for increasing understanding of, preparing for, and responding to climate change effects on the region’s ocean species — including marine and anadromous fish, invertebrates, marine mammals, sea turtles and seabirds — and the people that depend on them.

The draft action plan was developed to meet the growing demand for information to better prepare for and respond to climate-related impacts. Ultimately, this information will be used to develop science-based strategies to sustain our marine resources and human communities that depend on them during this time of changing climate. Each NOAA Fisheries’ region will have a climate science action plan that helps implement the NOAA Fisheries Climate Science Strategy.

“Our science center is studying how climate variability is affecting fishery species and marine communities in the region,” said Bill Karp, Director of NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center. “Warming oceans, rising seas, and ocean acidification are affecting marine life and also disrupting fisheries and local economies. We hope this plan will help us provide the kind of information needed to support actions that will ensure sustainable fisheries and coastal communities in this time of great change.”

The Northeast region includes waters that extend from Cape Hatteras, North Carolina to the western end of the Scotian Shelf, the Mid-Atlantic Bight, Southern New England, Georges Bank, and the Gulf of Maine. These waters are among the fastest warming in the world’s oceans, a result of both human-caused climate change and natural climate variability. Fish, shellfish, marine mammal, and sea turtle populations are already responding to this changing environment, which is also affecting habitats that these species use, predator-prey relationships, and competition in the ecosystem. Human communities that depend on the function and health of this ecosystem are also feeling the effects.

“With water in the Gulf of Maine warming at a significant pace, understanding how environmental changes are affecting our species is critical to planning for a sustainable fisheries future,” said John Bullard, regional administrator for NOAA Fisheries Greater Atlantic Region. NOAA Fisheries’ Northeast Fisheries Science Center collects, analyzes and provides scientific information necessary to fulfill the agency’s mission to sustain marine species in watersheds, estuaries and the coastal ocean. The NOAA Fisheries Greater Atlantic Regional Office ensures effective science-based management of these resources to achieve the same goals. The Northeast Regional Climate Action Plan focuses on present climate variability and future climate change in this large marine ecosystem.

“This plan builds on the work already underway in the region to address climate change,” said Jon Hare, of NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center and lead author of the plan. “For instance, we’ve been leaders in long-term monitoring needed to explain change, linking stock assessment and climate models, and working toward an ecosystem-based understanding of sub-regions like Georges Bank. We are also providing biannual and annual state-of-the-ecosystem reports to federal fishery managers to support their efforts to implement fishery management in a more holistic way, accounting for ecosystem factors as well as the biology of the fish.”

The core elements of the Northeast Regional Action Plan include developing new multispecies models that incorporate environmental terms such as temperature and ocean acidification, conducting work to better understand how climate change is forcing change in species distribution and habitat use, initiating a Northeast Climate Science Strategy Steering Group, cooperative research with the fishing industry, and integrating social science into ecosystem assessments in order to better account for human dimensions.

Designed to increase the production, delivery, and use of climate-related information, the plan will guide efforts to provide timely information to managers to reduce impacts and increase resilience of fisheries, protected species and coastal communities.

If you have questions about the plan, please contact jon.hare@noaa.gov. Written comments can be submitted via email to nmfs.gar.nerap@noaa.gov by July 29, 2016.

See the release at NOAA

Virginia Institute of Marine Science deploys ‘Frankenturtles’ in effort to boost species survival

June 14, 2016 — A part of David Kaplan recognizes that his new research into sea turtle mortality is pushing the envelope.

The assistant professor and his graduate student Bianca Santos are doing something never before attempted: repurposing the carcasses of two dead loggerheads, outfitting them with GPS devices and setting them adrift in the Chesapeake Bay, all in the name of science.

“Most people have not had the reaction that this is disgusting,” Kaplan said Monday morning from the boat basin at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) in Gloucester Point.

“It’d be interesting to see what the public thinks, because I think of it as a really great thing. I mean, it’s pretty gruesome, but it’s taking animals that died tragically and reusing them for the (greater) good. A better purpose.”

Read the full story at the Daily Press

NOAA Announces Proposals to Expand Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary

June 9, 2016 — Building on more than 30 years of scientific studies, including numerous reports released in the last decade and in the aftermath of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster, NOAA today announced a proposal to expand Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary to protect additional critical Gulf of Mexico habitat.

The plan lays out five expansion scenarios, ranging from no expansion of the 56-square-mile sanctuary, to one bringing it to a total of 935 square miles. In NOAA’s preferred scenario, the sanctuary would expand to 383 square miles to include 15 reefs and banks that provide habitat for recreationally and commercially important fish, as well as a home to 15 threatened or endangered species of whales, sea turtles, and corals.

“These habitats are the engines of sustainability for much of the Gulf of Mexico and are critical to fish such as red snapper, mackerel, grouper and wahoo, as well as other protected species,” said John Armor, acting director, NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries. “The proposed expansion also advances NOAA’s mission to conserve and manage coastal and marine ecosystems and resources that help sustain local communities and America’s economy.”

Read the full story at Ocean News

Feds continue to discuss potential new regulations for turtle excluder devices

April 22, 2016 — The federal government is considering new requirements and regulations for turtle excluder devices to reduce sea turtle bycatch in shrimp fisheries.

Michael Barnett, a fisheries biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service, said it has been documented that there are an abundance of turtles in the Gulf of Mexico in the same areas and at the same times that skimmer trawl fisheries operate.

Through the use of TEDs and protecting nesting sites, turtle populations have had a “dramatic increase,” Barnett said. However, with a number of catches being seen in skimmer trawls, it is necessary for NOAA to look into rules regarding bycatch in skimmers.

Notably from the data already collecting, Barnett said, is that the turtles being seen in the bycatch were small, young turtles that could have passed through the 4-inch bar spacing of standard TEDs.

Read the full story at Houma Today

More stranded turtles wash up on Cape

January 6, 2016 — More sea turtles stunned by the weather have washed ashore on Cape Cod this week, following a cold spell that came with several inches of snow in the area.

About 57 turtles — both loggerheads and Kemp’s ridleys — have been found since the start of the year, said Bob Prescott, director of Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary. Approximately 25 of those animals were alive and sent to the New England Aquarium’s Animal Care Center in Quincy for treatment.

The recent rescues bring the total number of turtles recovered since the fall to more than 500, the second-highest number per season in history.

Kemp’s ridley and loggerhead turtles are both endangered species that come to the waters of New England to feed in warm weather. As the water cools, they attempt to migrate south, but many become stranded by the hook of the Cape.

The colder it gets, the more hazardous conditions become for the animals.

Read the full story at the Boston Globe

Sea turtle strandings surpass 500, second-highest on record

January 3, 2016 — For the first time since the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary started rescuing endangered cold-stunned sea turtles in 1982, the sanctuary recovered living cold-stunned turtles in January, according to a statement from the sanctuary.

Usually, the season ends by Christmas.

Since November, rescuers with the sanctuary have recovered 520 turtles from Cape Cod Bay beaches, making it the second-highest stranding year on record.

Last year, 1,200 turtles were stranded, according to the release. The vast majority of turtles that strand here are Kemp’s ridleys, which are born on beaches in Mexico and Texas.

Read the full story at Cape Cod Times

 

FLORIDA: Waters close to gill nets

November 5, 2015 — Waters in the Pamlico Sound and the northern portion of Core Sound will close to anchored, large-mesh gill nets starting this morning due to interactions with sea turtles.

The closure impacts Management Unit B under the state’s Sea Turtle Incidental Take Permit, which includes all of Pamlico Sound and the northern portion of Core Sound down to a line from Club House on Core Banks to a point on the shore at Davis near Marker 1, according to a North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries news release.

The closure took effect beginning one hour after sunrise.

DMF staff have observed numerous interactions with sea turtles in the management unit since it reopened Nov. 2. The closure is meant to avoid exceeding the allowed number of sea turtle interactions for the management unit.

Read the full story at Jacksonville Daily News

 

NORTH CAROLINA: Sea Turtle Interactions Trigger Immediate Area B Closure

November 4, 2015 — The following was released by the North Carolina Fisheries Association:

DMF staff observed nine sea turtle interactions in large mesh gill nets in Management Unit B this morning.  A proclamation closing large mesh gill nets in this management unit will be issued later today, effective at one hour after sunrise tomorrow.  The estimated takes are getting close to the allowed takes for Management Unit B, so we’re not sure if we’ll be able to reopen later in the fishing year (Sept. 1, 2015-Aug. 31, 2016).  This is the most sea turtle interactions the division has observed in November since the settlement agreement management measures were implemented in 2010.  

How Restaurants and Fisheries Are Saving Edible Seafood From the Trash

October 22, 2015 — As demand for seafood rises, chefs have their seafood supplier on speed dial. And while species like tuna, cod, and halibut are popular, these days, the daily catch on the blackboard might be something unfamiliar — squirrel fish or the banded rudderfish. Don’t be scared off. Most likely it’s bycatch or trash fish. While perfectly edible and quite tasty, these fish are so named because they might otherwise be thrown overboard or ground into fishmeal because they aren’t the intended catch on commercial fishing boats.

If they had a choice, fisherman would rather not have to deal with bycatch, but fishing nets aren’t particular about what they scoop up. Bottom trawlers have little discretion when they drag along the seafloor. Longlines with baited hooks extend for 50 miles or more, which attracts anything that swims by — including unwanted edible fish as well as sea turtles, sharks, and other sea mammals. Opportunistic seabirds flock to longlines in hopes of an easy meal, often getting snagged.

All in all, it’s an inefficient way catch fish, and even the fisherman dislike it. The most recent tally from Johns Hopkins University estimates that in United States-controlled waters, 573 million pounds of fish are lost due to fisherman bycatch every year. This pales in comparison to the even-more striking fact that 51-63 percent of seafood is wasted at the consumer level.

Read the full story at Eater