Saving Seafood

Sara Rademaker is letting little eels get big in Maine

May 31, 2016 — SOUTH BRISTOL, Maine — “They are like little torpedoes,” Sara Rademaker says, looking down at a tank full of year-old eels in a feeding frenzy.

Her tone is fond, almost as if the eels wiggling in and out of a submerged laundry basket were a basket of lively kittens, but this is all business. Rademaker is doing what no one has tried to do in Maine before – grow out elvers to eels for the commercial food market.

Rademaker is a young woman, but has 12 years of farming and aquaculture experience. A graduate of Auburn University in Alabama, she’s worked with subsistence farmers in Uganda as part of a U.S. AID project and farmed tilapia in Ghana. She’s taught middle school students how to farm tilapia and lettuces.

Three years ago she began studying European and Asian systems for growing elvers into eels in contained areas, asking herself the question, why not here in Maine, the biggest source of American baby glass eels in the country?

Although she’s just starting her third year developing her eel aquaculture system, she’s gearing up to bring her first eels to market this summer, with plans to tap into the local sushi market to begin with.

“She’s already so far ahead of anyone else in the state,” says Dana Morse, a UMaine Cooperative Extension associate professor and researcher based at the Darling Marine Center. “It’s impressive.”

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Maine Department of Marine Resources Announces Lobster Research and Education Awards

May 23, 2016 — The following was released by the Maine Department of Marine Resources:

The Maine Department of Marine Resources has announced four grant awards from the Research, Education and Development fund. The four organizations receiving funding include the Penobscot East Resource Center, the Maine Lobstermen’s Community Alliance, University of Maine System, and Colby College. Each responded to a request for proposal issued in December 2015.

The Penobscot East Resource Center (PERC) will receive $37,500 to develop four lobster curriculum units for its Eastern Maine Skippers Program (ESMP), an educational initiative for high school students planning a career in Maine’s lobster fishing industry. Two units will cover lobster fisheries management and two will target science and life history. PERC, a Deer Isle-based non-profit, will engage industry experts including fishermen, dealers, advocates, managers and scientists in the development and implementation of the curriculum units.

The Maine Lobstermen’s Community Alliance will be awarded $37,500 to build on the success of its Maine Lobstermen’s Leadership Institute (MLLI). Begun in 2014, the MLLI provides education for Maine’s lobster industry members. Participants in the MLLI program will complete three training modules. They will include a workshop on industry issues such as management, science, market and supply chain dynamics, and product quality. There will also be modules that provide opportunities for experiential learning and information exchange with fisheries participants outside of Maine.

The University of Maine System will receive $127,482 to develop a research project titled “A Proactive Approach to Addressing Lobster Health in the Context of a Changing Ecosystem.” Focus of the University of Maine System’s project will be on the changing ocean ecosystem and how these changes can impact lobster reproductive development and susceptibility to disease. An objective of the project is to develop the ability to respond rapidly to reports of shell disease in lobsters.

Colby College will receive $81,657 to conduct an analysis of economic impacts at each point along the supply chain in Maine’s lobster industry. The analysis will not only quantify the direct and indirect economic impacts of the industry throughout the supply chain, but also the induced effects on Maine’s economy of spending by industry workers. Project research will involve confidential surveys of Maine’s lobster dealers and processors as well as analysis of existing Maine Department of Marine Resources and Department of Labor data.

“These projects will help sustain Maine’s iconic lobster fishery by fostering a new generation of educated and engaged fishermen, by improving our understanding of the complex marine environment, and by refining our ability to measure the impacts of the lobster industry on Maine’s economy,” said Maine Department of Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher.

With revenues from the sale of Maine lobster plates, the Research Education and Development Board provides funding for projects that support Maine’s lobster industry.

Odor plays a role in whether mussels stay or go

April 29, 2016 — For people looking to settle down, a location’s odor can be a factor in whether they stay or go.

Turns out the same is true for mussel larvae.

Mussel larvae swim toward odors from adult mussels, and swim away from odors from predators, including green crabs and dog whelks, says Scott Morello, a visiting researcher at the University of Maine Darling Marine Center in Walpole, Maine.

Morello found mussel larvae can recognize and respond to a broad range of odor cues when deciding whether to settle in wild beds or on aquaculture lines.

And, says Morello, the predator odors he used are from species that do not directly feed on mussel larvae, or even on newly settled mussels. The odors were from predators that feed on older mussels, which indicates larvae assess future risk on some level when they make settlement decisions.

Read the full story at the Boothbay Register

Extensive Coral Communities Found in Alaska’s Glacier Bay National Park

April 28, 2016 — On a recent research expedition in Alaska, scientists aboard the R/V Norseman II conducted the first-ever deepwater exploration of Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve. Using both surveys by scuba divers and the remotely operated vehicle (ROV) Kraken2, scientists found an abundance of cold-water corals and associated organisms that use these corals as habitat, from the very bottom to the top of the submerged portion of the fjords. Prior to the expedition, little was known about ecosystems in the depths of the fjord and records of corals were sparse. Led by Rhian Waller, Ph.D., of the University of Maine, this project was funded as part of NOAA’s Office of Ocean Exploration and Research’s 2014 Federal Funding Opportunity.

“This expedition was incredibly exciting. Not only did we find abundant cold-water coral communities at both deep and shallow depths, we recorded species new to this area and abundant life living around these corals, and we documented and took imagery for the first time of cold-water coral ecosystems existing within one of our national parks,” said Waller when asked about the success of the expedition.

Throughout the expedition, scientists were struck by the size of the corals, some estimated to be up to three meters tall, and the amount of corals observed on nearly every ROV dive and the majority of scuba surveys. Stony corals were also observed for the first time within the park, and a species of stoloniferous octocoral – a type of encrusting coral – was found at greater depths than has been observed anywhere else in the world.

Read the full story at Ocean News & Technology

Portland Press Herald: Case for EU ban on live Maine lobsters doesn’t hold water

April 21, 2016 — Thirty-two lobsters. Taken off the same shore in one day, and it’s a grand start toward a summer feast.

But picked out over a long stretch of coast in an eight-year period? That hardly warrants an absent-minded mention at the dinner table, much less an international trade incident.

But that’s just where Sweden is taking its find, as the country seeks to ban all imports of live American lobster into the European Union’s 28 member nations.

The ban would be a $10 million annual hit to the pockets of Maine lobstermen – and roughly $150 million for the U.S. industry as a whole – all over a number of bugs that would have a boat captain cursing if it were one day’s haul.

Sweden’s proposal, backed by dubious science and questionable motives, is now in front of the EU, which should reject the ban, and tell Sweden to find a solution much more on scale with the problem.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

New Lobster Scientist Hired by Maine Department of Marine Resources

February 18, 2016 — The following was released by the Maine Department of Marine Resources:

Katherine Thompson has been hired by the Maine Department of Marine Resources as the lead lobster sampling program scientist. Thompson, a Ph.D. student in Marine Biology at the University of Maine, will be responsible for the coordination, implementation, and participation in the lobster sea sampling program in all seven-lobster management zones as well as the juvenile lobster ventless trap survey.

Thompson’s responsibilities will include supervision of DMR scientific staff and contractors who participate in the sea sampling and ventless trap survey programs. 

The DMR sea sampling program places trained observers onto commercial lobster boats to gather data on the near shore lobster fishery. The ventless trap survey uses specially modified traps distributed along the coast to help the DMR characterize the juvenile lobster population in Maine waters. 

Thompson will also manage the lobster research program database, oversee data entry compilation and annual summary statistics/reports for publication and will assist in writing grant reports. In addition, she will present survey results at lobster zone council meetings. 

Thompson brings to the position experience both in commercial fishing and fisheries research. Raised in a fishing family in New Harbor, Thompson served as a sternman for a Round Pond lobster fisherman during summers while she pursued a degree in Biology from Smith College. The vessel she worked on participated in DMR’s ventless trap survey, providing her first experience with cooperative research. After graduating, Thompson completed an internship in lobster research through Bigelow Laboratory focusing on the settlement index survey conducted by Dr. Richard Wahle.

In 2013 Thompson received her Master’s degree in Living Marine Resource Science and Management from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth’s School for Marine Science and Technology. Her Master’s thesis project provided the first conclusive evidence of semiannual scallop spawning in U.S. waters on Georges Bank, which has important implications for management of the fishery.

From 2013 to 2014, Thompson served as a Supervisory Research Biologist for Coonamessett Farm Foundation, a scientific research and education foundation based in Falmouth, Massachusetts.

In January 2015 she began her doctoral studies at the University of Maine focusing on northern shrimp reproduction and distribution. 

“I’m excited about working closely with industry, especially here in my home state,” said Thompson.

“Katherine’s experience in scientific research of multiple fisheries provides a strong foundation for her work here at DMR,” said DMR’s Lead Lobster Biologist Kathleen Reardon. “She has the strong academic and practical experience in marine science and commercial fishing to help move our monitoring programs forward.”

 

Maine Shrimp Hitting Market Thanks to Spawning Study

PORTLAND, Maine — January 29, 2016 — Despite a moratorium on the northern Maine shrimp fishing season for the third consecutive year, a few wholesale buyers, restaurants, and markets could have some Maine shrimp on their hands — and plates — this winter, due to a scientific study currently underway throughout the state.

Fisheries regulators have closed the northern Gulf of Maine shrimp fishery every year since 2014, saying the shrimp population has dipped to an unsustainable low level.

Northern Maine shrimp is now considered by the regulatory committee to be “collapsed,” and a 2015 report indicated that from 2012 through 2015, the Maine shrimp population was the lowest on record during the 32 years that scientists have collected data.

However, this week, some Maine fishermen have been harvesting Maine shrimp from traps and trawlers as part of a sampling project being conducted by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Northern Shrimp Technical Committee— a regulatory panel that manages the fishery — as well as other agencies including the Maine Department of Marine Resources and the School of Marine Science at the University of Maine in Orono.

Read the full story from Maine Pubilc Broadcasting

After a Century, Shortnose Sturgeon Return to Historic Habitat

November 17, 2015 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

ORONO, Maine – Endangered shortnose sturgeon have rediscovered habitat in the Penobscot River that had been inaccessible to the species for more than 100 years prior to the removal of the Veazie Dam in 2013. University of Maine researchers confirmed evidence that three female shortnose sturgeon were in the area between Veazie (upriver of the dam remnants) and Orono (Basin Mills Rips), Maine in mid-October. Researchers had previously implanted these sturgeon with small sound-emitting devices known as acoustic tags to see if they would use the newly accessible parts of the river.

Among the most primitive fish to inhabit the Penobscot, sturgeon are often called “living fossils” because they remain very similar to their earliest fossil forms. Their long lives (more than 50 years) and bony-plated bodies also make them unique. Historically, shortnose sturgeon and Atlantic sturgeon (a related species also present in the watershed) had spawning populations in the Penobscot River as far upstream as the site of the current Milford dam, and provided an important food and trade source to native peoples and early European settlers. Overharvest and loss of suitable habitat due to dams and pollution led to declines in shortnose sturgeon populations and a listing as endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) in 1967. In 2012, Gulf of Maine populations of Atlantic sturgeon were listed as threatened under the ESA.  

Today, a network of sound receivers, which sit on the river bottom along the lower river from Penobscot Bay up to the Milford Dam, detect movement and location of tagged fish. According to Gayle Zydlewski, an associate professor in the University of Maine School of Marine Sciences, the three individual fish observed were females. These fish have since been tracked joining other individuals in an area identified as wintering habitat near Brewer, Maine. Wintering habitat in other rivers is known to be staging habitat for spawning the following spring.

“We know that shortnose sturgeon use the Penobscot River throughout the year, and habitat models indicate suitable habitat for spawning in the area of recent detection upriver of Veazie, although actual spawning has not yet been observed,” Zydlewski said.

Since 2006, Zydlewski has been working with Michael Kinnison, a professor in UMaine’s School of Biology and Ecology, and multiple graduate students, including Catherine Johnston, to better understand the sturgeon populations of the Penobscot River and Gulf of Maine. Johnston, who has been tagging and tracking sturgeon in the Penobscot for two years to study the implications of newly available habitat to shortnose sturgeon, discovered the detections of sturgeon upstream of the Veazie dam remnants. Each new bit of information adds to the current understanding of behavior and habitat preferences of these incredible fish. 

“We’re very excited to see sturgeon moving upstream of where the Veazie Dam once stood, and into their former habitats,” said Kim Damon-Randall, assistant regional administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries’ Protected Resources Division. “We need to do more research to see how they’re using it, but it’s a tremendous step in the right direction.”

Habitat access is essential for the recovery of these species. The removal of the Veazie Dam is only a portion of the Penobscot River Restoration Project, which, when combined with the removal of Great Works Dam in 2012, restores 100 percent of historic sturgeon habitat in the Penobscot. In addition to dam removals, construction of a nature-like fish bypass at the Howland Dam in 2015 significantly improves habitat access for the remaining nine species of sea-run fish native to the Penobscot, including Atlantic salmon and river herring.   

“Scientific research and monitoring of this monumental restoration effort has been ongoing for the past decade,” said Molly Payne Wynne, Monitoring Coordinator for the Penobscot River Restoration Trust. “The collaborative body of research on this project is among the most comprehensive when compared to other river restoration projects across the country,” Wynne said.

NOAA Fisheries is an active partner and provides funding for this long-term monitoring collaboration that includes The Penobscot River Restoration Trust, The Nature Conservancy and others. These efforts are beginning to shed light on the response of the river to the restoration project. Restoration of the full assemblage of sea-run fish to the Penobscot River will revive not only native fisheries but social, cultural and economic traditions of Maine’s largest river.

After measurement and implantation of a small tagging device, graduate student L. Izzo releases a shortnose sturgeon back into the Penobscot (ESA Permit #16036 compliant, photo courtesy G. Zydlewski).

 

After mass extinctions, the meek (fish) inherit the earth

November 16, 2015 — A new study suggests that being a little shrimpy might come in handy when the going gets tough. A mass extinction called the Hangenberg event, which took place some 359 million years ago, led to a reduction in vertebrate size for around 40 million years afterward. The research, published Thursday in Science, adds support to the so-called Lilliput Effect, which suggests that mass extinctions cause marked shrinkage in the animal population.

To study how fish fared after this devastating extinction, the University of Pennsylvania’s Lauren Sallen (along with Andrew K. Galimberti, now a graduate student at the University of Maine) studied 1,120 fish fossils dating back 419 to 323 million years ago. She found that the ancient fish had been increasing in size over time — which is to be expected — but that body size plummeted after 97 percent of species were wiped out.

Read the full story at The Washington Post

 

Ocean acidification threatens future of aquaculture, shellfish industries

October 29, 2015 — In seawater tanks in a refrigerated room at the Darling Marine Center, the baby mussels are thriving.

Two months ago they were near-invisible larvae, swimming around in the tanks. Now tens of thousands of the tiny mollusks, each just a few millimeters long, have attached themselves to the different kinds of rope scientists have been testing here, and are eating the lab’s stock of algal food at an impressive clip.

Mick Devin, the lab manager at this University of Maine marine research facility, has been overseeing this experiment, part of an effort to master the art of hatching mussels, something mussel farmers – who grow their product on lines hanging in seawater – have never previously needed to do.

“Mussel farmers have been able to just throw their lines out and collect all the larvae they want from nature,” Devin says. “But mussel populations are down drastically in this state, so that may not be working so well now.” Hatcheries, he expects, may have to step up in the not-too-distant future.

Mussels have been vanishing from stretches of coastline where they once were ubiquitous, and scientists remain uncertain as to why. Green crabs, whose population exploded after an “ocean heat wave” in 2012, may have stripped many sections clean. But warmer water and increased rainfall – both problems expected to grow in Maine as a result of global climate change – may be creating a far worse problem: an acid sea.

“We know this affects larval development in bivalves, (and) chances are it will result in decreased numbers, whether it’s a natural population on a bed or one in a farm,” says Paul Rawson of the University of Maine’s School of Marine Sciences, who is in charge of the research. “We need to make sure the technology is in place so the farms will have a reliable source of seed.”

The world’s oceans are turning more acidic. Since the Industrial Revolution, carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have grown by more than 70 percent and now stand at the highest level in at least 800,000 years. As the oceans absorb additional CO2, they’ve become 30 percent more acidic over this period. By 2050, scientists estimate surface pH levels will be lower – that is, more acidic – than at any time in several million years and by 2100 more acidic than any time in the past 300 million years – two or three times more so than today.

Read the full story at Portland Press Herald