Saving Seafood

Can salmon eat their way out of climate change?

December 12, 2019 — Warm waters are a threat to cold water fish like salmon and trout. But a study led by researchers at University of California, Davis suggests that habitats with abundant food sources may help buffer the effects of increasing water temperature.

The study, published in the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences today, Dec. 10, shows that the availability of food in a natural system—not just stream  and flows—is an essential component of  habitat.

“In the future under climate change, productive ecosystems like spring-fed rivers, floodplains, estuaries and seasonal lagoons will be key links that give  like  and trout a leg up,” said lead author Robert Lusardi, a research ecologist and adjunct faculty at UC Davis and the California Trout Coldwater Fish Scientist.

For the experiment, researchers reared juvenile Coho salmon in a series of enclosures within the Shasta River basin, which is a tributary to the Klamath River. They examined how natural gradients in temperature and prey availability affected summer growth rates and survival.

Read the full story at PHYS.org

Eating fish can help fight childhood asthma, finds new study

November 19, 2018 — A clinical trial led by researchers from La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia has found that eating seafood species high in good fats such as salmon, trout, and sardines as part of a healthy diet can reduce the symptoms of asthma in children.

National body Seafood Industry Australia (SIA) has welcomed the new study, calling it a potential easy and effective treatment for asthma sufferers.

“Childhood asthma is the most common respiratory disorder worldwide. We know these species of fish are high in omega-3 fatty acids which have anti-inflammatory properties and have been shown to help in the reduction of symptoms for other inflammatory conditions like arthritis,” SIA CEO Jane Lovell said.“This new research shows that following a diet which is high in oily fish could be an easy, safe, and effective way to reduce the symptoms of asthma in children which is fantastic news.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Omega 3 fatty acids found in seafood tied to healthy aging

October 24, 2018 — People may be more likely to age without health problems when they have more omega 3 fatty acids in their blood, a recent study suggests.

The study authors focused on so-called healthy aging, or the number of years people live without developing disabilities or physical or mental health problems. They examined data on 2,622 adults who were 74 years old on average, following them from 1992 to 2015. Only 11 percent of participants experienced healthy aging throughout the entire study period.

“We found that older adults who had higher levels of omega 3 from seafood were more likely to live longer and healthier lives,” said lead study author Heidi Lai of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University in Boston.

“These findings support current national dietary guidelines to consume more seafood,” Lai said by email.

Adults should get about eight ounces a week of seafood, ideally by eating it twice a week in place of meats, poultry or eggs, according to U.S. dietary guidelines. Some options that are high in omega 3s include salmon, anchovies, herring, shad, sardines, oysters, trout and Atlantic or Pacific mackerel.

Read the full story at Reuters

 

Science Ignored in New Anti-Aquaculture Law

March 23, 2018 — OLYMPIA, Wash. — As the leading trade association representing Washington’s multi-million-dollar finfish aquaculture industry, WFGA is deeply disappointed by Governor Inslee’s failure to take science into consideration by signing into law HB 2957. Our organization holds the position—supported by leading fisheries scientists—that this law completely lacks any scientific basis.

We are additionally dismayed by the fact that in early March of this year, a group of concerned scientists reached out to the state legislature, refuting the basis of HB 2957 and outlining the best peer-reviewed science available to date. In an Open Letter to the State Legislature, nine leading fisheries scientists challenged the key assumptions in HB 2957 having to do with purported interbreeding between Atlantics and native species, colonization, disease transfer, and competition for food. In passing HB 2957 by a 31-16 vote, it was clear that the legislature chose to ignore the science in favor of other political considerations.

After the vote, we reached out to Governor Inslee, urging him to veto HB 2957.

At the same time, the signatories to the Open Letter to the legislature requested a meeting with the Governor. While the Governor was not available to meet, a small group of scientists met with the Governor’s staff to present the science and request that the Governor veto the most troublesome sections of HB 2957 or postpone implementation until the study in Section I was completed.

By the actions taken today by Governor Inslee, it is clear that science has taken a back seat to politics in our state’s natural resources policymaking.

Our association includes many Washington subsidiaries of international companies, representing all sectors of the seafood value chain, from egg producers to feed suppliers, equipment manufacturers, vaccine companies, technology companies, and producers of freshwater species such as trout and steelhead.

We are concerned that this ill-conceived and fundamentally flawed legislation may be sending the wrong message to companies seeking to do business in Washington.

Read the full statement by the Washington Fish Growers Association at Value Spectrum

 

Will Klamath River Salmon Thrive Again After Dams Are Gone?

November 23, 2016 — Year after year, volunteers return to tributaries of the Klamath River, just like the fish they’re trying to help do the same thing.

Jimmy Peterson, a fisheries project coordinator for the Mid-Klamath Watershed Council, places rocks and stones to make fish passages in Fort Goff Creek, 60 miles up from the river’s mouth on California’s North Coast.

“This creek has extremely awesome habitat up top here,” Peterson says. “Extremely awesome.”

Then he translates: “The water stays really cold and there’s plenty of nice spawning gravel that go up fairly far into the watershed. There’s not a lot of human activity up there either, so it’s fairly untouched.”

Scientists estimate that a century ago, hundreds of thousands of coho may have run up the Klamath’s streams and tributaries. Now it’s a few thousand. Federal and private grants fund the council’s work, helping coho access “extremely awesome” habitat because coho are threatened with extinction.

Dams aren’t the only reason salmon, trout and other fish need help on the Klamath. But they are a big one. The promise of dam removal is free passage for fish up to cooler spots and native headwaters. And the Klamath River, near California’s northern border, may become the next big western river to see that happen. Federal energy regulators are considering a plan that would open hundreds of miles of the Klamath to the potential of the largest river restoration in U.S. history.

Read the full story at KQED

Got brook trout? Then you’ve also got a healthy stream

November 2, 2016 — “A wild trout in its native habitat is a compact example of the Earth working well.” — Christopher Camuto

The brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) is a small, brilliantly colored freshwater fish native to clear, cold streams and rivers in the headwaters of the Bay watershed. It’s also the state fish of New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia.

Brook trout are recognized by their dark green back covered with lighter, worm-shaped markings. These markings, resembling the pattern created when the sun shines through rippled water, help to camouflage brook trout from predators such as larger fish and herons and even fly fishers. Bluish sides are sprinkled with yellow spots and red spots surrounded by blue halos. The brook trout’s fins are starkly edged in white, which again is unique among other common trout.

These fish thrive in clear, silt-free, well-shaded freshwater streams with numerous pools and a substrate made of mixed gravel, cobble and sand. Because brook trout are not tolerant of water temperatures above 75 degrees Fahrenheit, they are rarely found in developed areas.

Brook trout are not picky eaters and eat a wide variety of food. Opportunistic feeders, they will eat whatever they can find, including: aquatic insects, like mayflies, caddisflies and stoneflies; land insects that fall into the water, like ants and beetles; small crayfish; and even small fish and minnows, but only when they are easy to catch.

Read the full story at the Bay Journal

A Fish’s-Eye View Of The New England Drought

October 11, 2016 — Just as they do every fall, Massachusetts Fisheries and Wildlife workers are stocking dozens of rivers and ponds with rainbow trout, raised in hatcheries, for anglers to catch.

But this year, because of the drought, a few places won’t get fish. And  some anglers are choosing not to go after wild fish—to give them a break.

According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, most of western Massachusetts is in a severe or even extreme drought.  Stream flows are “much below normal” in most of the state, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. That’s tough on fish.

Brian Keleher, a fisheries manager with the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, took me to the eastern bank of Dufresne Pond in Granby, where lily pads are splayed out over mud flats.

“I really don’t think there would be anything of any size at least over here,” Keleher said.

There are small pools, but they’re not a great place for fish trying to hide from predators, like birds.

“Fish can be trapped and exposed,” explained Keleher. “They have no where to go, no where to escape. They can’t escape to the depths.”

Read and listen to the full story at New England Public Radio

Evolutionary scientists find surprising new link between humans and fish

August 18, 2016 — Since the work of Charles Darwin, it has been more or less accepted that people, horses, porpoises, and bats share a common ancestor — one that’s arms and digits developed over many, many years to suit its needs. But only recent research has revealed that the human hand is actually extremely similar to the fin of a fish.

Although you wouldn’t know it comparing your hand side-by-side with a trout (and might only guess it watching Michael Phelps swim), human fingers and fish fins “follow some of the same rules,” The New York Times reports. In hands, we have a kind of tissue called “endochondral bone”; fish, however, have only small endochondral bones at the tip of their fin, the rest of the fin being made of rays of dermal bone. But by toggling with two genes related to limbs, scientists realized that the same cells in fish and in tetrapods either ask the body to develop dermal bones or endochondral bones.

Read the full story at The Week

RONNIE SHELDON: Menhaden aren’t being ‘decimated’

August 16, 2016 — The following is an excerpt from a letter-to-the editor in the Mississippi Sun Herald.

Lately, I’ve read several opinion articles about the menhaden fishery and problems with Omega Protein.

I’m a lifelong resident of Pascagoula and a sport fisherman. I have no connections or interests in Omega Protein, but most of my spare time is spent fishing for trout and redfish, and I typically fish the same area (Round Island) where Omega Protein fishes for menhaden.

I have no issue with menhaden fishing. Their industry provides hundreds of jobs and pumps millions of dollars into our local economy. Indirectly, their product helps provide food for many as animal feed.

Their bycatch is closely regulated and very small. I’ve never personally seen evidence of any bycatch dumped overboard.

In his “Menhaden haven’t been ‘researched’” (July 31) letter, Steve Shepard’s statement that “menhaden are being decimated by boats during the hot summer months” doesn’t seem to be viable. The commercial menhaden fleet has been operating in our area for 60 years now. If Omega Protein were to decimate the menhaden fishery, they would put themselves out of a job, so it’s not probable.

Read the full letter at the Sun Herald

Maine Seafood Company Shut Down For Food Safety Violations

February 14, 2016 — A high-end Hancock seafood company has been shut down for repeated unsanitary conditions and food safety violations, including manufacturing in the presence of rodent excrement, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

U.S. District Judge Jon D. Levy on Friday signed a consent decree of permanent injunction against Mill Stream Corp., which does business as Sullivan Harbor Farm, and its owner, Ira Joel Frantzman.

The action followed more than a decade of warnings to the company by the Food and Drug Administration, which found the company’s smoked fish products were being prepared, packed and held under unsanitary conditions so that the products may have become contaminated with filth or rendered injurious to health, says a complaint filed by the Justice Department in U.S. District Court in Maine.

The company, founded in 1992, has annually made about 75,000 pounds of ready-to-eat smoked fish and fishery products, such as smoked salmon, trout and char, which are sold across the country. Customers include Legal Sea Foods in Boston and Dean & DeLuca of New York. The company’s smoked fish products have received a number of food industry awards.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald