Saving Seafood

MAINE: Return of the seals: Once eradicated mammals back in local waters

July 2, 2018 — At any given time, approximately 600 seals splash, bathe and feed around a modest mass of rocks six miles off the coast of Maine, the northernmost of the Isles of Shoals.

These seals, both gray and harbor species, have made a resurgence in local waters over the last two decades following the imperative enaction of federal protections. Prior to the 1970s, the species had essentially been extirpated in Maine and Massachusetts, after being hunted for their pelts, and killed as competition for fish, said Jennifer Seavey, executive director of Shoals Marine Laboratory on Appledore Island, a joint program between the University of New Hampshire and Cornell University.

Since 2011, Seavey and her staff have been monitoring the seal resurgence at Duck Island, an effort led by Andrea Bogomolni, a researcher from Wood’s Hole Oceanographic Institution. The work is conducted with undergraduate interns, and each summer, two students learn the monitoring methods, which are done by boat and with very specific tracking technology and procedures.

The monitoring program runs from May to August, Seavey said, and the interns take to the water approximately 30 times, the boat running a specific transect around the island. Photographs are taken on the same transects each time, where the laboratory uses the unique pattern on the seals’ fur to identify them as individuals.

Read the full story at the Portsmouth Herald

No calves as right whales return to Nova Scotia from Florida

May 30, 2018 — Only 16 whale sightings were reported anywhere south of Virginia this winter. The lack of sightings, coupled with at least 18 whale deaths reported in Canada and the United States between April 2017 and January 2018, leaves those interested in right whales concerned.

Scientists studying the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale logged another depressing statistic this winter.

In the more than 30 years scientists have tracked the movements of the whales between New England and Nova Scotia and the warmer waters off the Florida coast, this was the first time no calves have been sighted. That fact has only added concern to the growing sense of urgency after right whale deaths skyrocketed last year.

“Obviously you can’t tell a right whale it’s time to have a baby,” said Michael Moore, a senior scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and director of its marine mammal section.

But Moore and many other right whale scientists watching the highly endangered population dwindle before their eyes are seeking answers to the deadly perils the animals face, including collisions with the ships that share their space, commercial fishing gear that tangles the whales, and a warming ocean that appears to be wreaking havoc with their food supply and changing their migration patterns.

Read the full story at the Daytona Beach News-Journal

 

Scallop RSA Program: NEFMC and NOAA Announce 15 Awards Selected for 2018-2019 funding

May 16, 2018 — The following was released by New England Fishery Management Council:

 

The New England Fishery Management Council and NOAA Fisheries’ Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) are pleased to announce that 15 projects have been selected for 2018-2019 funding through the Sea Scallop Research Set-Aside (RSA) Program.

“The Scallop RSA Program truly has become one of the flagships of the scallop fishery,” said New England Council Chairman Dr. John Quinn. “The collaborative efforts that take place at sea between fishermen and researchers go a long way toward enhancing our understanding of what’s happening with the resource. The results of this RSA work funnel back to the Council and support stock assessments. Without a doubt, the RSA program helps us better manage our – Virginia Institute of Marine Science photo extremely valuable scallop fishery.”

Projects will address research priorities established by the Council, with a particular focus on resource surveys. The awards are expected to generate more than $12 million: $3 million to fund research; and $9 million to compensate industry partners who harvest set-aside quota

“We are excited to be able to work with the New England Fishery Management Council, industry, and scientists to fund sea scallop science through the Research Set-Aside Program,” said NEFSC Science and Research Director Dr. Jon Hare. “The projects funded support surveys, bycatch mitigation, and biological studies, all with the purpose of improving the information used in the management of the sea scallop resource.”

The New England Council established the Sea Scallop RSA Program to address research questions that support management of the scallop resource. The Council sets the research priorities and researchers compete for funding through a federal grant competition managed by NOAA Fisheries.

No federal funds are provided to support the research. Instead, projects are awarded pounds of scallops, which have been “set aside” from the annual fishery quota for this purpose. Successful applicants partner with the fishing industry to harvest their set-aside award to generate funds for the research. There are active research set-aside programs for Atlantic sea scallops, Atlantic herring, and monkfish.

2018-2019 Scallop RSA Award Summary

The awards fall into three categories: scallop surveys (dredge, drop camera, and HabCam); bycatch mitigation; and sea scallop biology.

Scallop Surveys

The Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) received new awards to conduct dredge surveys in Closed Area I, Closed Area II, and the Nantucket Lightship. Under an existing award from last year, VIMS also will conduct a dredge survey of the Mid-Atlantic Bight. As part of ongoing efforts to better understand scallop survey dredge performance, VIMS investigators received an award to evaluate the hydrodynamic characteristics of both lined and unlined survey dredges in the largest flume tank in the world, located in St. John’s, Newfoundland at Memorial University’s Marine Institute.

The University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth School for Marine Science and Technology (SMAST) received three awards to conduct surveys using a drop-camera array. Through these awards, researchers plan to conduct high-resolution surveys of the Nantucket Lightship, Closed Area I, Great South Channel, and select portions of the Northern Gulf of Maine Scallop Management Area.

The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) will conduct Habitat Camera Mapping System (HabCam) optical surveys throughout the Mid-Atlantic Bight and on the northern flank of Georges Bank. In addition to these surveys, researchers will continue to evaluate dredge effects on habitat and habitat recovery in the Closed Area II Habitat Area of Particular Concern. Coonamessett Farm Foundation will conduct a HabCam survey of the Nantucket Lightship and Southern Flank of Georges Bank.

Bycatch Mitigation

Coonamessett Farm Foundation will continue its seasonal survey on Georges Bank, collecting information on bycatch rates for yellowtail flounder and other species relative to scallop meat yield. These data also will be used to evaluate sea scallop health and meat quality, biological questions about several flounder species, and to examine lobsters for shell disease.

Coonamessett Farm Foundation will continue its loggerhead sea turtle tagging program, receiving funds to tag up to 20 loggerheads with water activated tags. Tag data will be used to evaluate spatial and temporal overlap between loggerhead sea turtles and the scallop fishery.

Coonamessett Farm Foundation also will be testing a dredge twine-top cover net in an attempt to quantify dredge selectivity characteristics.

Sea Scallop Biology

The Virginia Institute of Marine Science will investigate sea scallop density-dependence factors that may be affecting growth, mortality, and reproduction of scallops in the Nantucket Lightship and Elephant Trunk areas. In addition, VIMS will conduct a pilot study to extend the current stock assessment model to better account for sea scallop ages with a particular focus on the Mid-Atlantic Bight and Nantucket Lightship areas.

WHOI will receive support to determine if a gonadosomatic index (GSI) can be calculated from Light Field 3D images of shucked scallops collected during fishing operations. The GSI is used to assess maturity and spawning events in many species of fish and shellfish, including scallops. If successful, this could improve the ability to collect and quantify scallop maturation and spawning data during the course of routine fishery sampling procedures.

The 2018-2019 award listings can be found on the Northeast Fisheries Science Center website at: https://www.nefsc.noaa.gov/coopresearch/news/scallop-rsa-2018-2019/.

RSA award announcements and answers to “frequently asked questions” also are available at https://www.nefsc.noaa.gov/coopresearch/rsa_program.html.

Visit the New England Council’s scallop webpage: https://www.nefmc.org/management-plans/scallops.

View the release in its entirety here.

 

Scientists study how marine mammals survive at great depths

April 30, 2018 — Whales, dolphins and seals have evolved to hunt prey deep in the ocean, an environment that would otherwise prove deadly to animals that depend on breathing air to live. Until recently, scientists believed marine mammals’ known physical adaptations protected them from the effects of such punishing depths.

But scientists were baffled by computer models that showed that, even with the known adaptations, 50 percent of animals studied still should have experienced the bends. Researchers concluded there must be some else going on.

A new study by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the Oceanographic Foundation of the City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia, Spain, may provide an answer. The study, funded by the U.S. Navy, found that deep-diving marine mammals use a physical adaptation — the collapse of one portion of the lungs — to block the flow of nitrogen into the blood and prevents the animals from getting the bends, the crippling release of nitrogen gas that can occurs when surfacing from dives deeper than 130 feet.

“If you get the conditions right, you can get a nice exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide but block the nitrogen,” said Michael Moore, a WHOI senior scientist who specializes in the analysis of marine mammal mortalities. Moore is a co-author of the study, which was published April 25 in the journal “Proceedings of the Royal Society B.”

The mammals have other physical adaptations that help them survive the depths when they exhaust available oxygen in their lungs, including a high amount of proteins in blood and muscle that bind oxygen and a higher ratio of red to white blood cells. Their ribs and lungs can collapse under pressure without breaking and their airways are hardened bunkers that remain partially open to power the signals they use to locate one another and their prey.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

 

Massachusetts: Hoping for a state contract, Bay State Wind offers more than $2 million in environmental research grants

April 11, 2018 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — In what could be the final weeks before Massachusetts awards its first offshore wind contract, Bay State Wind has announced more than $2 million in grants it would provide for fisheries research and whale protection, contingent upon Bay State Wind winning a contract.

The grants include:

• $1 million for a marine science grant program to be administered by Bay State Wind. It would fund research in the Bay State Wind lease area designed to address specific questions and concerns raised by the fishing industry.

• $500,000 to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution for a multi-year grant to develop advanced whale detection systems.

• $250,000 each to the New England Aquarium right whale research project and the Lobster Foundation of Massachusetts to prevent gear entanglement of the North Atlantic right whale.

The deadline for the state and electric companies to announce one or more winners of offshore wind contracts is April 23, but the decision could be delayed, State House News Service reported last week.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

 

Six Coastal Projects Receive Woods Hole Sea Grant Funding

March 7, 2018 — WOODS HOLE, Mass. — Researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and other Massachusetts academic organizations have received grant funding for six new projects.

The Woods Hole Sea Grant program, which is funded through NOAA and other non-federal sources, has awarded about $1.5 million over two years.

The work will contribute to maintain healthy coastal ecosystems, refine management strategies for fisheries and aquaculture, and help communities be more resilient to the effects of climate change.

A team of biologists and marine chemists from WHOI led by Mark Hahn and Chris Reddy will examine thepotential risk to human health posed by halogenated marine natural products (HNPs) in seafood. Some HNPs have been found to be persistent and bioaccumulative and to occur at similar concentrations as their industrial counterparts such as PCBs.

Preliminary research suggests that HNPs could make a substantial contribution to the total “dioxin equivalents” in marine animals, and thus to the total risk of dioxin-like effects from consuming seafood. This research will help inform decisions regarding consumption of seafood by humans, including sensitive subpopulations such as children and pregnant women.

Read the full story at CapeCod.com

 

Future for Right Whales Grows Even More Bleak

March 2, 2018 — After a year of rising concern about North Atlantic right whales, which scientists say could go extinct in the next 20 years, researchers have yet to document a single newborn whale during the calving season that is coming to an end.

Bad news about the calving season follows a year with 17 documented unnatural right whale deaths in the United States and Canada, an alarming number for a species with a population of about 450 animals.

Scientists said this week that it’s too early to say with certainty that no calves were born this year, but things are not looking good. The official number won’t be known until around July, according to biologist Peter Corkeron, who leads the large whale team of the protected species branch at NOAA Northeast Fisheries Science Center.

“I don’t want to downplay how bad this is, but we don’t yet know zero,” he told the Gazette this week. “If there were 20 calves born somewhere else, I think we’d know about. While it’s too early yet to say zero, it’s not too early yet to say — well this isn’t looking very good, is it.”

Mark Baumgartner, a biologist with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and leader of the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium, agreed. “It’s not

looking like this is a boom year, that’s for sure,” he said. “If I were to guess I would think it would just be maybe one or two calves. We’re not looking for a stash of 10 calves.”

North Atlantic right whales generally give birth in the winter in the ocean off northern Florida and southern Georgia. Mr. Baumgartner said whales have had calves in the Gulf of Maine “once in a blue moon.”

Aerial surveys over southern waters during calving months are on the lookout for female whales and their calves. Because the whales are so small, scientists have documented each individual and have a good idea about the number of females who are of calving age and due to give birth. Mr. Baumgartner said historically there has been a three-year interval between when female right whales have calves. As of last year, the average interval was 10 years.

Read the full story at the Vineyard Gazette

 

Are North Atlantic Right Whales Becoming Extinct? Experts Warn About Declining Fertility

February 27, 2018 — The North Atlantic right whales may soon become extinct as no new births have been recorded, experts have warned.

According to a report in the Guardian, the scientists who observed a whale community off the U.S. coast have not recorded any new births in the right whale population. The report also stated that a huge number of right whale deaths were recorded in 2017.

Scientists have, therefore, said that a blend of the rising mortality rate and the declining fertility rate is resulting in the extinction of the right whales. They predicted that at this rate, the whales would become extinct by 2040.

“At the rate, we are killing them off, this 100 females will be gone in 20 years,” Mark Baumgartner, a marine ecologist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts said adding that the North Atlantic right whales will be functionally extinct by 2040 if no action is undertaken to protect them.

Speaking of North Atlantic whales, Baumgartner said the population of these whales was quite healthy about seven years ago. However, it soon began to decline after lobster fishermen began fishing in the waters.

Read the full story at the International Business Times

 

Scientists: New lobster fishing technology could save whales

February 20, 2018 — FALMOUTH, Mass. — Scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution are urging New England lobstermen to begin using new technology to help prevent the deaths of rare right whales.

The Boston Globe reports scientists from the institution recently met with fishermen to push for the use of traps that can be brought to the surface using radio signals that can inflate bags or send lines to the surface, rather than relying on ropes connected to buoys.

Scientists say that over the past year, at least 18 right whales have died, many after becoming entangled in the ropes. They say there are just 450 of the whales left in the world and just 100 breeding females.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at WTOP

 

Right whale death off Virginia coast adds to concern about species’ demise

January 30, 2018 — The death of a right whale, spotted floating off the Virginia Beach coast last week, has drawn wide attention to a species considered one of the most imperiled of marine mammals.

The 10-year-old juvenile female is believed to have become entangled in fishing gear, and its death was the first of 2018 among North Atlantic right whales. The 39-foot whale was buried at Sandbridge’s Little Island Park beach after a necropsy Sunday involving experts from six institutions from Massachusetts to Florida.

Only about 450 of the whales are believed to exist after at least 17 deaths last year, and so far this winter no newborns have been spotted in the calving grounds off Florida and Georgia.

That has added to concern that the species’ demise might be accelerating. Some scientists have predicted that North Atlantic right whales could become extinct this century.

Earlier this month, the Center for Biological Diversity and two animal welfare groups sued the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and its parent agency, claiming that they’re not enforcing laws and regulations meant to protect the whales from entanglement in lines for lobster traps and other fishing gear.

Jennifer Goebel, a spokeswoman for NOAA Fisheries, said the whale found dead near the North Carolina border was wrapped in line in a way that suggested it had been alive when it encountered the gear. She said officials will try to identify the line and who had deployed it.

Read the full story at the Virginian-Pilot