Saving Seafood

‘Great whale conveyor belt’ nourishes the ocean

March 20, 2025 — Whales are the bees of the ocean.

That’s a conclusion of new research showing that whales undertake the longest journeys to transport nutrients of any mammal or large animal on Earth, much like bees collect and distribute pollen.

Researchers from the University of Vermont, who published their findings in Nature Communications, found that humpback, gray and right whales transport more than 3,700 tons of nitrogen each year while migrating along what’s been dubbed the “great whale conveyor belt.”

“Humpback whales and gray whales make the longest-distance migrations of any mammal on the planet, thousands of miles every year,” said study author Joe Roman. “So this study is the first one that I’m aware of that tries to quantify that movement.”

Read the full article at wbur

International study shows alternative seafood networks provided resiliency during pandemic

April 1, 2021 — Local alternative seafood networks (ASNs) in the United States and Canada, often considered niche segments, experienced unprecedented growth in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic while the broader seafood system faltered, highlighting the need for greater functional diversity in supply chains, according to a new international study led by the University of Maine.

The spike in demand reflected a temporary relocalization phenomenon that can occur during periods of systemic shock—an inverse yet complementary relationship between global and local seafood systems that contributes to the resilience of regional food systems, according to the research team, which published its findings in Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems.

The globalization of seafood has made food systems more vulnerable to systemic shocks, which can impact those dependent on seafood for sustenance and employment, according to the research team, led by Joshua Stoll, assistant professor of marine policy at the University of Maine.

Policy changes and greater investments in data collection and infrastructure are needed to support ASN development, increase functional diversity in supply chains, and bolster the resilience and sustainability of regional food systems and the global seafood trade, according to the researchers.

Read the full story at PHYS.org

COVID-19 Took A Bite Out of US Seafood Industry

December 1, 2020 — The US seafood industry faced massive declines in the months following the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, and will need targeted federal assistance to recover, a new study shows.

“Seafood is part of the narrative that I would say doesn’t get as much attention as something like agriculture,” says Halley Froehlich, aquaculture and fisheries professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara and an author of the study in the journal Fish and Fisheries.

“And that certainly appears to be the case when we’re looking at something like the CARES Act, the federal funding source specifically passed to provide economic relief in the US,” she says.

That is, in large part, due to the fact that policymakers lack sufficient real-time data to see how the seafood industry has fared in the time of lockdowns and social distancing, says lead author Easton White, an ecologist at the University of Vermont.

“One difficulty is that a lot of this data isn’t released until months and years later,” White says. From the boat to the table, data is generated that must be gathered and processed before it gets released, he says.

The pandemic is a rapidly evolving situation and the seafood industry can’t afford to wait. So, to get a big-picture look at the early effects of COVID-19 on US fisheries and seafood consumption, the researchers synthesized multiple sources from across the seafood supply chain, including some unconventional real-time data sets.

Read the full story at Futurity

Pandemic has taken a bite out of seafood trade, consumption

November 24, 2020 — The coronavirus pandemic has hurt the U.S. seafood industry due to a precipitous fall in imports and exports and a drop in catch of some species.

Those are the findings of a group of scientists who sought to quantify the damage of the pandemic on America’s seafood business, which has also suffered in part because of its reliance on restaurant sales. Consumer demand for seafood at restaurants dropped by more than 70% during the early months of the pandemic, according to the scientists, who published their findings recently in the scientific journal Fish and Fisheries.

Imports fell about 37% and exports about 43% over the first nine months of the year compared to 2019, the study said. The economic impact has been felt most severely in states that rely heavily on the seafood sector, such as Maine, Alaska and Louisiana, said Easton White, a University of Vermont biologist and the study’s lead author.

It hasn’t all been doom and gloom for the industry, as seafood delivery and home cooking have helped businesses weather the pandemic, White said. The industry will be in a better position to rebound after the pandemic if domestic consumers take more of an interest in fresh seafood, he said.

Read the full story at the Associated Press

US seafood industry flounders due to COVID-19

November 24, 2020 — The global pandemic is hurting the seafood industry, and American fishmongers may flounder without more government aid, according to the largest study of COVID-19’s impacts on U.S. fisheries.

The new study, published Nov. 23 in the journal Fish and Fisheries, found that monthly fresh seafood exports declined up to 43% compared to last year, while monthly imports fell up to 37%, and catches dropped 40% in some months.

Additionally, over the first six months of 2020, total U.S. seafood exports were down 20% and imports were down 6%, compared to the same period last year. Further losses are likely as restrictions increase to address COVID-19.

“Seafood has been hit harder than many other industries because many fisheries rely heavily on restaurant buyers, which dried up when the necessary health protocols kicked in,” said lead author Easton White of the University of Vermont. “Restaurants represent about 65% of U.S. seafood spending, normally.”

For context, over one million U.S. seafood workers regularly produce more than $4 billion in annual exports, much of which is processed overseas and imported back to the U.S.

While seafood data often takes several months — or longer — to compile, the research team, including Trevor Branch of the University of Washington, used pioneering methods to quickly determine the pandemic’s impacts on fisheries. U.S. Congress received preliminary data from the study in September.

Read the full story at University of Washington News

U.S., Cuban marine biologists put an end to ‘academic embargo’

October 22, 2018 — There are no borders that separate the water, reefs and marine life off the coasts of Cuba and Florida, and that’s why scientists in both countries say they need to get along and collaborate.

During the recent MarCuba conference in Havana, U.S. scientific institutions were well represented and researchers also used the conference to highlight research collaborations and a milestone edition of the Bulletin of Marine Science, a respected marine science journal published by the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science.

The Bulletin devoted its entire spring issue to marine science research in Cuba, carried out by both U.S. and Cuban scientists.

“Science plays an excellent role in diplomacy,” said Joe Roman, a conservation biologist at the University of Vermont and the guest editor of the special Cuba edition. What better area for collaboration than one with shared ocean systems, fisheries and conservation efforts, he said.

In a Bulletin editorial, Roman wrote that the Cuba edition “celebrates Cuban marine science and conservation efforts, while recognizing that improved relations and increased tourism and trade could put some natural areas at risk. Joint research shows promise that Cuba, the U.S., and other countries can work together on regional conservation efforts.”

“It’s time for Cuban researchers to reach a wider audience,” Roman said.

Read the full story at the Miami Herald

 

How Whale Poop Could Counter Calls to Resume Commercial Hunting

August 29, 2018 — Before whales dive into the darkness of the deep ocean they often come to the surface and release a huge plume of fecal matter—which can be the color of over-steeped green tea or a bright orange sunset. When Joe Roman, a conservation biologist at the University of Vermont, saw one of these spectacular dumps in the mid-1990s, he got to wondering: “Is it ecologically important? Or is it a fart in a hurricane?”

Roman and other researchers have since shown whale excrement provides key nutrients that fuel the marine food chain, and that it also contributes to the ocean carbon cycle. These important roles are now influencing scientific and economic arguments for protecting whales, at a time when calls for a resumption of whaling are growing. “The scientific community is coming to understand a new value of whales: their role in maintaining healthy and productive oceans,” says Sue Fisher, a marine wildlife consultant at the nonprofit Animal Welfare Institute. “We are beginning to see governments use this rationale to justify measures to protect whales.” But as the International Whaling Commission (IWC) prepares for its biennial meeting next month, the ecological services whales provide are set to split the gathered countries—with an unknown outcome for the whales.

Whale poop’s importance is nothing to sniff at. In a 2010 study Roman’s team found whale defecation brings 23,000 metric tons of nitrogen to the surface each year in the Gulf of Maine—more than all the rivers that empty into the gulf combined. This nitrogen fertilizes the sea by sustaining microscopic plants that feed animal plankton, which in turn feeds fish and other animals including the whales themselves. Studies have found similar effects elsewhere, and with other nutrients found in whale feces. And when they migrate, whales also redistribute nutrients around the globe. By moving them from higher latitudes, Roman says, the giant mammals could be increasing productivity in some tropical waters by 15 percent.

By stimulating the growth of microscopic plants called phytoplankton, whale scat may also help limit climate change. These tiny aquatic plants remove carbon from the atmosphere and carry it deep into the ocean when they die. Research in the Southern Ocean showed the iron defecated each year by some 12,000 resident sperm whales feeds phytoplankton that store 240,000 more metric tons of carbon in the deep ocean than the whales exhale. This means that, on balance, whales help lock carbon away.

Read the full story at the Scientific American