Saving Seafood

Nicholas Sullivan looks ahead to a ‘Blue Revolution’ of high-tech fishing

May 6, 2022 — Nicholas Sullivan is an author and senior research fellow at The Fletcher School at Tufts University. He is interested in how developing technology is influencing the fishing and maritime industries in New England.

His new book, “The Blue Revolution: Hunting, Harvesting, and Farming Seafood in the Information Age” uses New England, and often, New Bedford as a model for the fishing industry across the United States. Sullivan looks ahead to see how these staple maritime industries will change in the information age.

Here, The New Bedford Light talks to Sullivan about his new book, “The Blue Revolution,” the future of the fishing industry, the challenges facing maritime economies, and the role of New Bedford in a post-industrial blue economy.

Read the full story at The New Bedford Light

 

Offshore wind grid woes may be worse than previously thought

December 7, 2021 — Experts are warning that the challenge of connecting large amounts of offshore wind to an aging onshore grid may be much larger than initially realized.

That’s because offshore wind will need to grow very big, very fast to decarbonize the grid, they say.

The White House has given a big boost to the burgeoning sector with its pledge to facilitate putting 30 gigawatts of offshore wind in the water by 2030 as part of a broader plan to decarbonize the economy by midcentury.

To reach the 2050 target, however, offshore wind would need to swell to 300 GW on the East Coast alone, said Eric Hines, a civil and environmental engineering expert at Tufts University, during an offshore wind panel hosted by Resources for the Future last week.

Hines is not alone in his assessment. While the Biden administration was lauded by industry and activists for the ambitious 30-GW target — which would be a 7,000 percent increase in offshore wind power from today — many academics crunching numbers conclude that the level of emissions cuts called for by Biden would require a lot more power.

A Princeton University study last year estimated that the United States may need to triple its transmission to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, for example.

Read the full story at E&E News

Decades-long study ties omega-3s from seafood to healthier aging

October 25, 2018 — A study of over 2,500 adults between 1992 and 2015 has found that omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids present in seafood reduce the risk of unhealthy aging.

The study, published in BMJ, started with adults at an average age of 74 in 1992 and examined the levels of four different omega-3s – eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), docosapentaenoic acid (DPA), and alpha linolenic acid (ALA) – present in their body. Over the course of the study, participants were surveyed regularly, and in three periods – 1992-1993, 1998-1999, and 2005-2006 – had the omega-3s present in their blood measured.

The study found, after correcting for other factors such as age, sex, and race, that adults with higher levels of EPA and DPA had a better chance of healthy aging. Participants with the highest level of omega-3s present had an 18 percent lower risk of unhealthy aging. Participants with the highest levels of EPA and DPA, the omega-3s commonly found in seafood, had the best results: Those with high levels of EPA had a 24 percent lower risk of unhealthy aging, and those with DPA had an 18 percent lower risk of unhealthy aging.

“We found that older adults who had higher levels of omega 3 from seafood were more likely to live longer and healthier lives,” lead study author Heidi Lai of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University in Boston told Reuters. “These findings support current national dietary guidelines to consume more seafood.”

The study also found that levels of DHA from seafood and ALA from plants did not seem to have an impact on whether the participant would age healthily or not.

“Docosahexaenoic acid from seafood and alpha-linolenic acid from plants were not associated with a lower likelihood of unhealthy ageing,” states the report.

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

 

Omega-3s in Fish Oils Tied to Healthy Aging

October 19, 2018 — Higher blood levels of omega-3 fatty acids, the fats found in fish, are linked to a healthier old age, according to a new study.

Researchers tracked 2,622 adults, average age 74 and healthy at the start of the study, from 1992 to 2015, looking to see if they continued to live without chronic diseases and without mental or physical problems.

The investigators measured blood levels of four common types of omega-3s: EPA and DHA, found in seafood; ALA, derived from plants; and DPA, which the body produces in small amounts.

After adjusting for many medical, dietary and lifestyle factors, they found that compared with people in the lowest one-fifth for omega-3 levels, those in the highest one-fifth had an 18 percent lower risk of unhealthy aging. The study appeared in BMJ.

Considered separately, EPA and DPA were associated with lowered risk of unhealthy aging, but DHA and ALA were not.

Read the full story at The New York Times

Vineyard Wind execs buoyed by financial report

October 1, 2018 — Top executives with Vineyard Wind were optimistic Thursday about completion dates for their offshore project after a financial report indicated timely permitting by a federal oversight agency.

Vineyard Wind intends to be in operation by 2021, said Laura Beane, president and CEO of Avangrid Renewables, which owns 50 percent of Vineyard Wind.

“We are on schedule,” Beane said in a phone call before her appearance Friday on an offshore energy panel at “The Ocean’s Turn” conference at Tufts University. Joining Beane on the call was Vineyard Wind CEO Lars Pedersen, an executive with Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, which owns the other 50 percent of Vineyard Wind.

“Vineyard Wind will be the very first large-scale offshore facility here in the U.S.,” Beane said. “There’s a tremendous amount of energy and excitement because people see the potential.”

Pedersen, too, said there is “a huge opportunity” for U.S. citizens to become part of an industry that is very mature in Europe and now being moved across the Atlantic.

“Those who get in early have a much better opportunity to be there long-term than those later on, and the opportunities will definitely be there,” he said.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

 

Infected East Coast seals are washing ashore – and are a danger to people and pets, experts say

September 4, 2018 — Hundreds of East Coast seals are showing up, stranded on New England shores dead or sick.

Harbor and gray seals on the northern Atlantic Coast of the United States have tested positive for avian influenza, or bird flu, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s fisheries. Others have tested positive for phocine distemper virus, similar to the virus dogs can contract and which has caused epidemics among seals in other parts of the world, killing thousands, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Both gray and harbor seals can range as far south as the Carolinas, where they sometimes travel during the winter months and haul themselves onto beaches to rest and soak up some sun.

The seals that end up stranded but alive are “in poor body condition with clinical signs of lethargy, coughing, sneezing and seizing,” according to NOAA. As of last week, 532 seals had washed up on the coasts of Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Of those, more than 400 were found dead.

Samples from those seals were sent to Tufts University and the University of California, Davis labs for testing, NOAA said. Samples tested “preliminarily positive” for either bird flu or the distemper virus. Four of the seals tested positive for both viruses.

Read the full story at The Charlotte Observer