Saving Seafood

Trump administration pledges to do more with less for U.S. aquaculture

June 5, 2017 — “Aquaculture is not the future of oyster harvests. It’s the present,” said Mark Luckenbach – Virginia Institute of Marine Science.

Luckenbach, based at the VIMS lab at Wachapreague, told me those words 11 years ago, when I wrote my first story about oyster aquaculture. Since then, I’ve written more than 100 stories on the topic, and someday, I hope, I’ll write a book. One thing is sure: the present has taken a long time to arrive – not just in the Chesapeake Bay, but all over the country.

Eighty to 90 percent of the seafood eaten in the United States is imported, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. In Baltimore, where I live, the crabmeat at my local grocery store is not from the Chesapeake Bay. The salmon is not from this country. And striped bass? Never seen it there, though I live just an hour from where one could catch some of the nicest rockfish you could find anywhere.

NOAA officials want to change what they’re calling a $14 billion seafood trade deficit. At a webinar last week, agency officials said Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who oversees NOAA, is committed to “eliminating barriers” to growing aquaculture here in the United States.

In Maryland, we know well some of these barriers as they relate to growing oysters. Would-be growers have spent years awaiting permission to put oysters in the water, even though the bivalves filter the water, increase biodiversity, and even spur recruitment for the Bay’s long-troubled wild oyster population, which is less than 1 percent of historic levels.

On a conference call during the webinar, federal officials touted Maryland’s permit innovations as a success. (They didn’t mention that oyster farmers have blamed NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service for some of those delays, relating to the possible impact of oyster farming on endangered marine turtles.) Maryland worked with the Baltimore District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to streamline the permit process. State and federal officials, as well as oyster farmers, report it is working more smoothly now. (NOAA officials said they had an “ombudsman” role in the process.)

Read the full story at the Bay Journal

BEN LANDRY: Assertions about menhaden population were a bit fishy

May 1, 2017 — In his recent Bay Journal op-ed, Don’t let menhaden become a case of could have, should have, would have, March 2017, Bill Bartlett claims that menhaden are both scarce and unregulated in the Chesapeake Bay.

Neither assertion is true according to the latest and best science on menhaden. This data instead indicate that this species is being managed sustainably and responsibly.

The late U.S. Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan famously stated that everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts. Because a column appears in the op-ed section does not excuse it from journalistic obligations of fact-checking and accuracy. Let’s look at the facts along with supporting citations.

Bartlett believes “the [Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission] lets people have their say about menhaden and then does nothing or very little” to properly manage the species. This could not be further from the case – the ASMFC bases its very precautionary management decisions on the most up-to-date scientific standards. The evidence points to that management being quite conservative: According to the most recent stock assessment report on Atlantic menhaden, menhaden are not overfished, nor are they experiencing overfishing. The commission deemed the species to be so healthy that the quota was actually increased 10 percent. Analysis from ASMFC experts indicated that the quota could have been increased by as much as 40 percent without the risk of overfishing the stock.

Read the full opinion piece at the Bay Journal

VIMS turns to crowdsourcing to save bay scallops

April 24, 2017 — In the 1920s, the bay scallop fishery in Virginia was booming, hitting a peak harvest in 1929.

Then, in the course of a few short years, the bottom fell out of the fishery — almost literally.

A hemisphere-wide wasting disease began attacking eelgrass, a primary habitat for young scallops growing in high-salinity coastal bays. As a result, Virginia’s scallop harvest dropped in 1930. It dropped even more in 1931and even more in 1932.

Then, calamity struck in 1933 when a Category 1 hurricane slammed the state, wiping out what was left of ailing eelgrass beds in the coastal bays.

That year, Virginia watermen harvested no bay scallops at all. The species was wiped out in the state.

“The bay scallop was extinct locally,” said Mark Luckenbach, ecologist and associate dean of research and advisory services at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science in Gloucester Point. “Not reduced in numbers like oysters or eelgrass — it was extinct. The closest populations were in North Carolina to the south and New Jersey to the north.”

Read the full story at the Daily Press

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 

New England Fishery Management Council Reviews Sea Scallop Survey Findings and FW 28 Status

September 23, 2016 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

Council Reviews Sea Scallop Survey Findings and FW 28 Status

In preparation for developing new specifications for the Atlantic sea scallop fishery, the New England Fishery Management Council today received a broad overview of 2016 scallop survey results. These results will guide the Council, Scallop Committee, Scallop Plan Development Team (PDT), and industry in formulating 2017 fishing year days-at-sea and access area trip allocations for limited access vessels, as well as individual fishing quotas for limited access general category boats. Default specifications for 2018 also will be developed.

In short, here are some of the key survey findings:

  • Total biomass is at a very high level and expected to increase as a result of growth from previous large year classes.
  • Survey results did not show signs of good incoming recruitment on Georges Bank or in the Mid-Atlantic.
  • The vast majority of the current high biomass is located either in closed areas or scallop access areas.

The surveys also came across an unprecedented number of densely concentrated, “slow growing” scallops in the southern portion of the Nantucket Lightship area in deep water. Many of these age-four scallops had only reached a size normally achieved by age two. The PDT said that “growth potential” for these animals may be limited given their depth.

In another development, large concentrations of starfish, a known predator of scallops, were observed in the shallow portion of the Habitat Area of Particular Concern on the Northern Edge. Surveys also found Didemnum, an invasive tunicate, covering the gravel in this shallow area. These tunicates may be interfering with scallop seed settlement.

The following institutions contributed to the 2016 scallop survey:

  • The Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) conducted dredge surveys in the Mid-Atlantic, Nantucket Lightship, and Closed Area II and surrounding bottom;
  • The School for Marine Science and Technology (SMAST) at the University of Massachusetts – Dartmouth conducted intensive Closed Area I and Nantucket Lightship drop camera surveys;
  • The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) with Lund’s Fisheries conducted a HabCam Version 4 survey on the Northern Edge of Georges Bank;
  • Arnie’s Fisheries conducted an intensive Elephant Trunk survey with HabCam 3;
  • The Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) conducted the federal Georges Bank dredge survey plus Mid-Atlantic and Georges Bank HabCam 4 surveys; and
  • The Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) and University of Maine conducted a Northern Gulf of Maine dredge survey (map at right).

The 2017 specifications and 2018 default measures will be part of Framework Adjustment 28 to the Atlantic Sea Scallop Fishery Management Plan, which is still under development and scheduled for final action at the Council’s Nov. 15-17 meeting in Newport, Rhode Island. The full range of specifications will include: (a) acceptable biological catches (ABCs), annual catch limits (ACLs), days-at-sea, and access area allocations for both limited access (LA) and limited access general category (LAGC) vessels; (b) a hard total allowable catch (TAC) for the Northern Gulf of Maine Management Area; (c) a target TAC for the LAGC incidental catch; and (d) set-aside amounts for the scallop observer and research set-aside programs.

The framework also contains: (1) a measure to potentially restrict the possession of shell stock inshore of the days-at-sea demarcation line north of 42° 20’ N; (2) measures to apply spatial management to fisheries specifications (ACL flowchart); and (3) measures to modify the Closed Area I Scallop Access Area boundary to be consistent with potential changes to habitat and groundfish mortality closed areas as outlined in the Omnibus Habitat Amendment, which is under review by the National Marine Fisheries Service’s (NMFS) Greater Atlantic Region Fisheries Office.

See the full release at the NEFMC

NEFMC to Screen Sustaining Sea Scallop Doc on September 21

September 19th, 2016 — The following was released by Coonamessett Farm Foundation: 

On Wednesday, September 21st at 5:30 pm there will be a reception followed by a showing of the short movie “Sustaining Sea Scallops”. The reception will begin at the end of the New England Fishery Management Council’s meeting that day at the DoubleTree Hilton in Danvers, MA and is hosted by the Fisheries Survival Fund. The Fisheries Survival Fund (“FSF”) is an organization whose participants include the bulk of the full-time, limited access scallop fleet located from Virginia to Massachusetts.

The sea scallop fishery is one of the most lucrative wild-harvest fisheries in the United States. But just 15 short years ago this key fishery was facing closures and on the verge of bankruptcy. SUSTAINING SEA SCALLOPS chronicles the dramatic rebound of the Atlantic sea scallop fishery highlighting the unique partnership that supports this sustainable fishery.

This 35-minute documentary follows fishermen and researchers from New Bedford, Massachusetts to Seaford, Virginia, as they collaborate on studies of gear design, deep sea habitats, and threatened sea turtles. Capturing in-depth footage of the offshore and onshore processes involved in the scalloping industry.

Including unprecedented footage of the marine environment using new underwater technologies that provides a breathtaking mosaic of sea scallops on the ocean floor and a close-up of a loggerhead sea turtle feeding on scallops.
With input from researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, Virginia Institute of Marine Science, and Coonamessett Farm Foundation the film explores a new method of fisheries management that focuses on gear innovations and improved survey strategies to maintain a healthy fishery.

A rare tale of renewal, SUSTAINING SEA SCALLOPS, illuminates a message of hope for other beleaguered fisheries offering cooperative research as a new model for sustainable fisheries.

Watch the movie trailer here