Saving Seafood

Pollution Has Slowed Around The World. Scientists Wonder How That Will Affect Maine

April 2, 2020 — Atmospheric and oceanographic scientists are just as concerned as anyone about helping their friends and family, the nation and the world make it through the trials of the COVID-19 pandemic. But it is also their job to pay attention to a kind of grand experiment that’s underway — an unprecedented hiatus in human pressure on global ecosystems and what that hiatus could mean on the ground, and on the water, for Maine.

Paul Mayewski is the director of the University of Maine’s Climate Change Institute. He says that the COVID-19 pandemic has pushed the pause button on pollution worldwide.

“Unfortunately, like 9/11, this is a situation in which there is a tremendous shutdown in activity, even more dramatically than 9/11 because it is happening all over the world,” he says.

For scientists such as Mayewski, it’s a chance to study phenomena that hearken back to the pre-industrial era and, some believe, could provide a snapshot of what a post-fossil future could look like.

Read the full story at Maine Public

MAINE: State officials get an earful about proposed Belfast fish farm

February 13, 2020 — Dozens implored the Maine Board of Environmental Protection this week to put the brakes on plans for a $500 million land-based salmon farm here.

At a hearing Tuesday night, many who came to the University of Maine’s Hutchinson Center wore red to signify their opposition to Nordic Aquafarms’ project. It was the only chance for the public to address the BEP officials during their three-to-four-day visit to the midcoast city, where they will review environmental permit applications required for the project.

“I beg you to deny Nordic this opportunity to destroy our environment, our home, to line their pockets with gold,” Aimee Moffit of Belfast told state environmental officials.

The Norwegian-owned company is angling to build a flagship facility near the Little River in Belfast, with a goal of producing 33,000 metric tons of Atlantic salmon every year. It would construct 10 buildings — including several grow-out modules that company officials have described as “the largest aquaculture tanks in the world” — on a 54-acre site that’s currently mostly woods and fields.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

Fishermen adapt to environmental change in varied ways, UMaine study finds

January 7, 2020 — A study published in Ecology and Society by University of Maine researchers Kara Pellowe and Heather Leslie found that regulations and financial resources that influence how people fish have as great an effect on how they deal with change as where and how they fish.

The ecologists, based at the Darling Marine Center in Walpole, took a deep look at how fishermen adapt to environmental and economic change in Baja California Sur, Mexico.

The study includes research that Pellowe conducted as part of her UMaine Ph.D. dissertation in ecology and environmental science, which she completed in August.

Over the last six years, Pellowe has traveled from New England to Baja regularly, working closely with fishermen who harvest chocolate clams (Megapitaria squalida) near Loreto Bay National Park, on the gulf coast of the Baja peninsula.

“Alternatives matter,” says Pellowe. “Having different ways to respond to environmental and economic change is vital for individuals and communities to be able to thrive in changing conditions.”

Read the full story at the Boothbay Register

Forecast calls for warmer oceans, fewer lobsters in Maine

January 2, 2020 — Maine lobster landings, which have been over 100 million pounds every year since 2011 seem to be in for a period of decline, and probably won’t get back to that 132.6 million in 2016 or 2018’s 119.6 million pounds, according to scientists, many of whom blame rising ocean temperatures.

The Gulf of Maine lobster fishery is in one of the more rapidly warming regions of the world’s oceans. Recently two scientific journal articles, both written by University of Maine scientists, look at the role of warming temperatures and differences in local bottom and oceanography conditions and their role in affecting lobster populations.

Read the full story from National Fisherman at Seafood Source

Studies: Warming waters, local conditions contribute to Maine’s lobster stock changes

December 3, 2019 — Two new studies published by University of Maine scientists point to the role of a warming ocean and local oceanographic differences in the rise and fall of lobster populations along the coast from southern New England to Atlantic Canada.

Maine’s lobster catch was valued at $484.5 million last year, according to the state Department of Marine Resources. It is the state’s largest fishery by far, accounting for 76% of the $637 million fishing industry — making the findings that much more significant.

One study suggests the Gulf of Maine lobster fishery may be entering a period of decline, as a  “cresting wave” of lobster abundance heads northward in response to the region’s changing climate.

Published in the scientific journal “Ecological Applications,” the study was led by Noah Oppenheim, who completed his research as a UMaine graduate student in 2016, with co-authors Richard Wahle, Damian Brady and Andrew Goode from UMaine’s School of Marine Sciences, and Andrew Pershing from the Gulf of Maine Research Institute.

Read the full story at MaineBiz

Lobster Catch Headed for Decline, Not Crash, Scientists Say

December 2, 2019 — A pair of studies by Maine-based scientists suggest the U.S. lobster industry is headed for a period of decline, but likely not a crash.

Lobster fishermen have brought in record hauls this decade, a period in which Maine catches that previously rarely topped 70 million pounds (32 million kilograms) have routinely soared above 120 million pounds (54 million kilograms). The new studies, both published with University of Maine scientists as lead authors, show a fishery in which warming waters off Maine have changed the dynamics of the lobster population.

Noah Oppenheim, author of one of the studies, said his model projects the lobster catch in the Gulf of Maine “will return to previous historical levels.” That means tens of millions fewer pounds of lobster per year, but still enough lobsters to support a robust business and supply hungry seafood lovers.

Oppenheim and colleagues base their opinion on a finding that temperature and the number of young lobsters populating shallow coastal areas allow scientists to predict what lobster catches will look like in four to six years. They published their study in the scientific journal Ecological Applications.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The New York Times

UMaine Launches Initiative To Help Mainers Understand How State Is Affected By Arctic Climate

November 18, 2019 — The University of Maine is launching an initiative designed to help Mainers better understand how the state is affected by Arctic climate.

Called “UMaine Arctic,” the project explores how the changing climate will impact the state’s fisheries, native populations and coastal communities.

“The Arctic has a huge impact on life in Maine,” says Christopher Gerbi with UMaine’s College of Natural Sciences, Forestry and Agriculture. He says the Gulf of Maine is fed by waters from the arctic regions of Canada and Greenland.

“As the water changes temperature, that changes the temperature in the Gulf of Maine, which has a huge impact on all our fisheries, the lobster industry,” he says.

And on all of the industries that rely on those industries, such as marine suppliers, restaurants and coffee shops in coastal communities, says Gerbi.

Read the full story at Maine Public

Warming waters, local differences in oceanography affect Gulf of Maine lobster population

October 25, 2019 — Two new studies published by University of Maine scientists are putting a long-standing survey of the American lobster’s earliest life stages to its most rigorous test yet as an early warning system for trends in New England’s iconic fishery. The studies point to the role of a warming ocean and local differences in oceanography in the rise and fall of lobster populations along the coast from southern New England to Atlantic Canada.

One of the papers, published in the scientific journal Ecological Applications, was led by Noah Oppenheim, who completed his research as a UMaine graduate student in 2016, with co-authors Richard Wahle, Damian Brady and Andrew Goode from UMaine’s School of Marine Sciences, and Andrew Pershing from the Gulf of Maine Research Institute. They report that the numbers of young-of-year lobsters populating shallow coastal nursery habitats each year, and temperature, provide a reasonably accurate prediction of trends in the lobster fishery some four to six years later.

Their model predicted regional differences in the recent record-breaking boom over the past decade, and now suggests the Gulf of Maine lobster fishery may be entering a period of decline; in effect a “cresting wave” of lobster abundance that may be heading northward in the region’s changing climate.

“Our model projects that the Gulf of Maine’s lobster landings will return to previous historical levels,” said Oppenheim, who is now executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations and the Institute for Fisheries Resources in San Francisco. “These results don’t suggest a lobster crash, but this tool could give the  and policymakers additional lead time as they make decisions about their businesses and communities in the years ahead.

Read the full story at PHYS.org

Sharks and tuna will be the focus of UMaine research grant

October 8, 2019 — Commercially valuable tuna, swordfish, sharks and other “highly migratory species” will be the focus of research to be conducted by a consortium that includes the University of Maine.

The consortium was awarded $1.6 million by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, according to a news release.

The funds came through NOAA’s 2019 Sea Grant Highly Migratory Species Research Initiative.

The study will focus on the life histories of highly migratory species in the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico. It’s expected the research will help contribute to better management of the species.

The new research consortium, called the Pelagic Ecosystem Research Consortium or PERC, is led by Walt Golet at the University of Maine.

Read the full story at MaineBiz

University of Maine receives grant for marine species research

October 7, 2019 — The University of Maine has been awarded $1.6 million to help research Atlantic Marine Species.

The grant is made possible from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Sea Grant College Program.

The funds will support a research project on tuna and shark species in the Gulf of Mexico and the Northwest Atlantic Ocean.

Data researches hope to collect includes growth, age, and migratory behavior.

Maine’s Congressional Delegation made the following statements:

“Maine’s coastal communities depend on Highly Migratory Species fisheries as an economic engine, sustaining and creating jobs as well as driving coastal tourism and recreation year after year,” said Senator Collins. “In order to better understand and maintain the health of HMS fisheries, more research is needed. This funding will assist researchers at UMaine as they work with partner institutions to fill the knowledge gaps about the history and biology of HMS fisheries.”

Read the full story at WABI