Saving Seafood

VIRGINIA: Proposed federal cuts could have severe local impact

April 6, 2017 — Proposed federal budget cuts now before Congress could have a severe impact on the local region.

Lewis Lawrence, executive director of the Middle Peninsula Planning District Commission, reported to the commission during a meeting on March 22 in Saluda that his staff had done research and contacted a number of agencies to grasp how federal budget cuts might hurt the Middle Peninsula. They learned proposed budget reduction would affect many residents and might have a drastic effect on the commission.

The commission did not take a vote on the matter during the meeting at the MPPDC boardroom in Saluda.

One of the biggest losses in the region in terms of employment might be the Virginia Institute of Marine Science at Gloucester Point, which Lawrence stands to lose 45-55 highly-trained technical staff members, or 13-16 percent of its total workforce. “The rural coastal economy has no diversification to replace these lost jobs,” the MPPDC report said.

VIMS research might be affected in many areas, including oyster and clam aquaculture, an early flood warning system, the Chesapeake Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve and water quality monitoring, the report said.

Cuts to Virginia Sea Grant would lead to loss of public-private partnerships, loss of mobilizing university capacity to partner with community clients, and decrease capacity for support of Virginia’s shellfish aquaculture industry and the recreational and commercial boating industry. Elsewhere in the report it indicates that more than 11,500 commercial and recreational fishing licenses are held within the Middle Peninsula alone.

Read the full story at the Gloucester-Mathews Gazette-Journal

VIMS coastal shark study shows species recovering from overfishing

March 6, 2017 — The 1975 horror movie “Jaws,” featuring a giant, man-eating shark, turned the ocean into a scary place for swimmers.

It got even scarier for sharks.

In large part because of that blockbuster and its many sequels, sharks were hunted increasingly by recreational and commercial anglers in the ’70s and ’80s, to the point that some species nearly disappeared.

Now, a new analysis of seven coastal shark populations led by the Virginia Institute of Marine Science in Gloucester Point indicates that federal protections enacted in the 1990s have brought most of those species back from the brink.

Read the full story at the Daily Press

How Many Sharks Are Left? The Number Of Sharks Is Growing, Decades After ‘Jaws’ Caused Overfishing In The Atlantic Ocean

March 2, 2017 — Sharks took a huge publicity hit when “Jaws” was released in movie theaters, but it looks like the marine animals are finally bouncing back: Six species that had dwindled in number due to Atlantic Ocean overfishing have made population gains, says a new report.

A study in Fish and Fisheries  zoned in on seven types of sharks that inhabit waters along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean in North America, and analyzed their numbers between 1975 and 2014. All of the large species “showed similar decreasing patterns into the early 1990s, periods of sustained low index values thereafter and recent indications of recovery.” Although the smaller species did not have as simple a pattern, they are increasing in numbers as well, “suggestive of initial recovery from past exploitation.”

Of all the species investigated, only the blacknose shark from the Gulf of Mexico, a species that grows to about 4.5 feet, did not show a population increase.

The other small species included in the study were the Atlantic sharpnose and the bonnethead sharks. The larger species were the sandbar shark, blacktip shark, spinner shark and tiger shark, which can grow up to 18 feet.

According to the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, overfishing which heavily depleted shark numbers “began in earnest following the release of Jaws in 1975 and continued through the 1980s.”

Read the full story at the International Business Times 

Study finds preliminary recovery of coastal sharks in southeast U.S.

February 28, 2017 — The following was released by the Virginia Institute of Marine Science:

A new analysis of population trends among coastal sharks of the southeast U.S. shows that all but one of the 7 species studied are increasing in abundance. The gains follow enactment of fishing regulations in the early 1990s after decades of declining shark numbers.

Scientists estimate that over-fishing of sharks along the southeast U.S. coast—which began in earnest following the release of Jaws in 1975 and continued through the 1980s—had reduced populations by 60-99% compared to un-fished levels. In response, NOAA’s National Marine Fishery Service in 1993 enacted a management plan for shark fisheries that limited both commercial and recreational landings.

Now, says lead scientist Cassidy Peterson, a graduate student at William & Mary’s Virginia Institute of Marine Science, “We’ve shown that after over two decades of management measures, coastal shark populations are finally starting to recover and reclaim their position as top predators, or regulators of their ecosystem. Our research suggests we can begin to shift away from the era of  ‘doom and gloom’ regarding shark status in the United States.”

Joining Peterson in the study, published in the latest issue of Fish and Fisheries, were VIMS professor Rob Latour, Carolyn Belcher of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Dana Bethea and William Driggers III of NOAA’s Southeast Fisheries Science Center, and Bryan Frazier of the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources.

he researchers say their study based on modeling of combined data from 6 different scientific surveys conducted along the US East Coast and in the Gulf of Mexico between 1975 and 2014 provides a more accurate and optimistic outlook than previous studies based on commercial fishery landings or surveys in a single location.

“Data from shark long-lining operations or shark bycatch can be suspect,” says Peterson, “because what looks like a change in abundance might instead be due to changes in fishing gear, target species, market forces, or other factors.”

Research surveys are scientifically designed to remove these biases. Survey crews purposefully sample a random grid rather than visiting known shark hot spots, and strive to use the exact same gear and methods year after year to ensure consistency in their results.

But even with these safeguards, data from a single survey often aren’t enough to capture population trends for an entire shark species, whose members may occupy diverse habitats and migrate to different and far-flung areas depending on age and sex.

Read the full report at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science

VIMS professor inducted into Fishing Hall of Fame

October 24th, 2016 — A Virginia Institute of Marine Science professor just joined Zane Grey, Ernest Hemingway and Izaak Walton as an inductee in the Fishing Hall of Fame of the International Game Fish Association.

John Graves is chancellor professor and chairman of fisheries science at VIMS in Gloucester Point. His induction this month is based largely on his billfish research, which has been “instrumental in the ongoing efforts to conserve game fish populations worldwide,” IGFA president Rob Kramer said in a statement.

“Anglers today owe him a great deal of gratitude,” Kramer said.

Billfish are large predatory fish notable for their prominent bills. Graves’ research led to the use of circle hooks for billfish, which VIMS says sharply increased the survival rate of marlin, swordfish and sailfish in the catch-and-release fishery.

His genetic research also enabled federal fisheries officials to distinguish between legally fished Pacific blue marlin and illegally fished Atlantic blue marlin.

Graves called his selection a “tribute to all fisheries scientists and fisheries managers.”

Read the full story at the Daily Press 

Virginia Institute of Marine Science deploys ‘Frankenturtles’ in effort to boost species survival

June 14, 2016 — A part of David Kaplan recognizes that his new research into sea turtle mortality is pushing the envelope.

The assistant professor and his graduate student Bianca Santos are doing something never before attempted: repurposing the carcasses of two dead loggerheads, outfitting them with GPS devices and setting them adrift in the Chesapeake Bay, all in the name of science.

“Most people have not had the reaction that this is disgusting,” Kaplan said Monday morning from the boat basin at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) in Gloucester Point.

“It’d be interesting to see what the public thinks, because I think of it as a really great thing. I mean, it’s pretty gruesome, but it’s taking animals that died tragically and reusing them for the (greater) good. A better purpose.”

Read the full story at the Daily Press

Removal of derelict fishing gear has major economic impact

January 22, 2016— A new study by researchers at William & Mary’s Virginia Institute of Marine Science shows that removal of derelict fishing gear could generate millions of dollars in extra harvest value for commercial fisheries worldwide.

The study focused on a 6-year, collaborative program to remove derelict crab pots from Chesapeake Bay, showing that the effort generated more than $20 million in harvest value for area watermen.

Extending their methodology to estimate the economic benefits of removing derelict crab pots and lobster traps on a global basis, the researchers showed that removal of even 10% of derelict pots and traps from major crustacean fisheries—the percentage of the Bay’s derelict pots they estimate were removed by the VIMS program—could increase landings by 293,929 metric tons, at a value of $831 million annually.

Read the full story at Phys.org