Point of View: Seafood’s future hinges on reducing carbon pollution
By Bruce SteeleJune 01, 2014
Bruce Steele has spent more than 40 years as a commercial diver and fisherman in Oregon and California. He is a longstanding leader in resource management and industry associations.
A decade ago, Japanese researchers showed that seawater soured by carbon pollution would hamper sea urchins’ reproductive capabilities. I read their report and saw trouble on the horizon. As a commercial urchin diver in California, I hoped this trouble would stay far away. Now it’s here.Christina Frieder at UC-Davis has demonstrated that waters acidified to pH 7.8 — a level already detected along the West Coast — can reduce fertilization success by 20 percent in red sea urchins, which are harvested from California to Alaska. Frieder states that 60 percent reductions in fertilization success may occur in the decades ahead as pollution pushes seawater pH down to 7.5. This means that red sea urchins will have a harder time recruiting into the fishery, and they will be less abundant. Surface waters had an average pH of 8.2 in pre-Industrial times; acid from carbon emissions has reduced that to about 8.1 in today’s ocean, and it’s heading south fast.Now ocean acidification is my problem. If you work in seafood, it’s yours too.Red king crab suffers 100 percent mortality of larvae after 90 days in seawater at a pH of 7.5. Oysters, mussels, clams, abalone and some scallops are vulnerable, which shellfish farmers are learning the hard way. Corals that shelter vulnerable fish populations in much of the world are at risk. Shells of pteropods, common zooplankton that are a key food source for salmon, are already dissolving in Pacific Northwest waters. Two recent studies found that modest levels of acidification can impair growth in American lobsters. Direct impacts on fish are also becoming clear: Some fish lose their ability to smell and evade predators or distinguish them from their own prey. The catalog of harm includes damage to organ tissues, neurological functions, growth and reproduction.For the seafood industry, some consequences are now inevitable. But there is no place to hide, so we had better defend ourselves. Both the causes and the consequences of acidification can be reduced.How to curb the causes? Strong policies to reduce carbon emissions would be a good start. Without those, everything else we do will amount to an epitaph.This industry can and should push Congress and the Obama administration to protect fisheries from carbon pollution. California and nine Atlantic states from Maine to Maryland have embraced market-based systems — akin to individual fishing quotas — to cut emissions. This hasn’t broken their economies. Now even China is trying a market system to cut emissions in five cities. India has launched the world’s first nationwide cap-and-trade regime to curtail carbon pollution.Protecting seafood supplies will require especially deep cuts in carbon pollution. A recent paper published in Nature by Steinacher, et al., illuminates the geochemical vulnerability of productive fisheries: If CO2 emissions push atmospheric concentration beyond 550 parts per million, more than 90 percent of waters where coral reefs grow are likely to become chemically hostile to many corals and other calcifiers.How to reduce harm? We are learning tools for adaptation. To save collapsing “seed” supplies for Pacific Northwest shellfish farms, hatcheries have found effective but costly ways to measure and manipulate seawater chemistry in their tanks. That’s how they protect larvae that were dying by the billions in corrosive waters during their most vulnerable first days of life. In coastal bays, researchers along the West Coast are investigating whether photosynthesis by sea grass can soak up enough CO2 to protect neighboring calcifiers from acidifying waters, a research priority identified by Washington’s Blue Ribbon Panel on Ocean Acidification.Can we protect fish stocks in open waters? Maybe. No-fishing areas, which I fought for many years, do increase density and size of formerly fished stocks. That might help protect reproductive capacity of broadcast spawners like red sea urchins: Acidification makes their sperm swim slower and survival time of urchin sperm limits successful fertilization. Another approach is increasing the size limit of sea urchins that can be harvested, to increase sea urchin densities and spawning success.Working with researchers from two University of California campuses, the sea urchin industry has funded and facilitated a long-term study of larval sea urchin recruitment. Our one-of-a-kind data set shows trends in sea urchin survival at 15 sites. If decreased red sea urchin recruitment does show up, we will see it in the data. Keeping track of recruitment has helped us manage our fishery in the past and it will help us recognize when we need to protect spawning capacity. But that’s only treating the symptom.Frieder’s findings on red sea urchins are a harbinger of trouble for the whole ocean. To stay in business, seafood producers of all kinds will need to belly up to some tough new management practices. We will also need to become effective champions for pollution controls that most of us have ignored until now.Bruce Steele has spent more than 40 years as a commercial diver and fisherman in Oregon and California. He is a longstanding leader in resource management and industry associations.
Read the original article here.
Unusual Fish Catches Off San Diego Signal Large-Scale El Niño, Researcher Says
Wednesday, June 11, 2014 | By Susan Murphy | Aired 6/11/14 on KPBS News.
Wikimedia Commons
El Niño currents and warming water are drawing semi-tropical fish, such as yellowfin, to San Diego's coast several months earlier than usual.
One telltale sign that this year's coming El Niño could be a big one is what’s been reeled in off San Diego's coast.Above-average sea surface temperatures are developing in the tropical Pacific Ocean. The weather phenomenon, called El Niño, changes the heating pattern of the atmosphere and pulls the Pacific jet stream farther south. It has the potential to play havoc on weather systems across the globe, causing heavy rain and mudslides in some areas, drought in others, and disrupting the marine food chain.Previous strong El Niños caused above-average rainfall and coastal erosion in San Diego. In 1997-1998, the event was credited with dumping 17 inches of rain at Lindbergh Field.“This looks really a lot like the ’97-’98 El Niño event, which was one of the biggest ones ever recorded,” said Tim Barnett, marine research physicist emeritus with Scripps Institution of Oceanography.“We’ll just have to wait and see how things develop in the summer,” he added.Barnett said the ’97-’98 event caused a northward shift of the whole fishery population, drawing an abundance of albacore and Bluefin tuna to San Diego’s unusually warm waters.“We’ve already started to see very unusual fish catches here,” Barnett said. “The first yellowfin tuna was caught in May — that has never happened before to anybody’s recollection.”“And the other thing too is the first dorado Mahi Mahi — first of June," Barnett added, “that has never happened before. They really like the warm water and you normally don’t see them here until September.”Barnett said both catches could be signatures of a coming large-scale El Niño. He said the tropical fish get caught up in currents caused by El Niño trade winds.“They get entrapped in the current and they just swim along happily North,” Barnett said. “Unfortunately, it’s a one-way trip for most of them, it appears.”In 1997-98, there were a lot of strange biological goings-on, Barnett added, like yellowtail being caught off Kodiak Island in Alaska. The tropical fish usually stops much farther south at Point Conception near Santa Barbara, California.“And nobody could identify them, it’s really funny, they had never seen a yellowtail in Kodiak Island, and they had to send the fish out to be identified."Barnett said it’s still too early to project this year’s El Niño strength, but the unusual fish sightings are a good early indication.
SUSAN MURPHY, Reporter
Monterey Bay: Squid fishermen having boom year
(Vern Fisher - Monterey Herald)
Squid fishermen are enjoying an outstanding season so far on Monterey Bay, where the water was crowded Thursday with 28 boats. The season opened on April 1. "It's a 12-month season, but it's limited by what's called a max cap, meaning there's a maximum amount of tonnage that can be taken," said Monterey Harbormaster Stephen Scheiblauer. "Sometimes they'll fish all year and never reach that max cap, but the last couple of years have been boom years for squid, and they've reached it fairly early. And this year, so far, has been dynamite, which is why we have all of those boats out there right now."
Original post: Monterey Herald
FDA and EPA Issue Updated Draft Advice for Fish Consumption
Advice encourages pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers to eat more fish that are lower in mercury
- Draft advice on fish consumption, and supplemental questions and answers about the draft advice: Fish: What Pregnant Women and Parents Should Know
- Federal Register Notice of Availability: Advice About Eating Fish; Draft Update
- FDA Consumer Update: New Advice: Some Women and Children Should Eat More Fish
- Read the draft advice.
- Starting Wednesday, June 11, 2014, submit comments through the Federal Register docket at FederalRegister.gov.
NOAA vessel to conduct research with Scripps, UCSD
Jun 06, 2014 | SDNEWS.COMFisheries survey vessel Reuben Lasker, the newest member of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) research fleet, was commissioned May 2 in San Diego, tasked with conducting research cruises in the California Current, the ocean region where Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UCSD, and NOAA operate the California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations program.“NOAA will once again be prominent in San Diego Bay,” said U.S. 53rd District Rep. Susan Davis, who helped secure American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding for the construction of the $75-million Lasker. “The ship brings an important legacy to our research mission and to the blue economy.”The vessel, which will dock at the 10th Avenue Terminal, will be the first NOAA ship home-ported in San Diego since David Starr Jordan was retired in 2009 after having logged 1.5 million miles in its 44-year tenure.The Lasker's duties will routinely conduct research cruises in the California Current for the state fisheries investigations program with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Since 1949, the fisheries program has conducted regular cruises with the goal of managing living resources in an ocean region that supports a $250 million fishery.The 208-foot vessel is named for the late Reuben Lasker, NOAA coastal fisheries division director, who served as an adjunct professor at Scripps. Lasker is noted in fisheries management for his advances in understanding the transition period of commercially important fish species from juveniles to adults.San Diego Port Commissioner Bob Nelson noted that the ship brings 24 jobs and an estimated $27 million to the local economy.The ship's first cruise will center on a July cetacean and ecosystem survey. It will employ perhaps its most distinctive feature, an ability to operate so quietly that the vessel will be able to make close-range observations of marine life without disturbing animal behavior or compromising extremely sensitive acoustic equipment.
In related news:As the probability of an El Niño winter increases, Scripps Institution of Oceanography researchers are following the climate phenomenon as it develops off Southern California and finding that local readings closely hew to El Niño monitoring taking place at the equator.El Niño is a phenomenon characterized by warmer sea surface water in the equatorial Eastern Pacific Ocean. It is often associated with greater rainfall on much of the U.S. West Coast and frequently enhances the encroachment of storm surges by raising regional sea levels for several months at a time. An El Niño is defined by a seasonal sea surface temperature anomaly in the eastern-central equatorial Pacific greater than 0.9 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than historical average temperature. The opposite phenomenon, La Niña, is defined as a seasonal sea surface temperature colder than the historical average.The researchers' data are distributed by the Southern California Coastal Ocean Observing System (SCCOOS), a region of the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System. SCCOOS uses the data to make model forecasts in support of U.S. national security.
View the original post: http://sdnews.com/bookmark/25253275
Seafood industry under threat from climate change
By April Forristall, SeafoodSource.com assistant editorPublished on 28 May, 2014
A report released on Wednesday reveals the growing threat of climate change and acidification to marine resources.The report contains findings from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fifth Assessment Report and was published jointly by Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP) and the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership and Judge Business School and supported by the European Climate Foundation.Findings include:
- The total loss of landings to global fisheries by 2050 due to climate change range from USD 17 billion (EUR 12.5 billion) to USD 41 billion (EUR 30.1 billion) based on a global warming scenario of 2 degrees.
- Fishery yields will increase 30 – 70 percent in high latitudes but fall by 40 – 60 percent in the Tropics and Antarctica based on 2 degrees of warming. Large species like tuna in the Pacific and Indian oceans are likely to move eastwards.
- 400 hundred million people depend critically on fish for their food and face reduced access to marine protein because of climate change and acidification. Artisanal fishermen in the Tropics are most at risk.
- Changes in the distribution of particular marine species may lead to conflict between fishing nations and significant increases in illegal fishing.
- The impacts of climate change and ocean acidification are generally exacerbated by other factors like pollution, habitat loss and over-fishing
“This report is a wake up call for the seafood industry to recognize the scale of the threat to ocean resources from climate change and acidification,” said Blake Lee-Harwood of SFP. “We need to see urgent action in trying to mitigate the likely impacts while adapting wherever that’s practically possible.”“This briefing highlights the business-critical implications of climate change for the fisheries sector, representing tens of billions of dollars in future costs and damages for the industry. Companies in this sector will have to take the implications of climate science into account as they plan for the future. We hope that this briefing, developed with experts from both business and science, will help them do so,” said Eliot Whittington of the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership. The report cites areas where action can be taken to lessen the impact of climate change:
- Adapt where possible — for instance, some shellfish hatcheries in the north west USA have learned to avoid taking in seawater during periods of high acidity
- Undertake vulnerability assessments of fisheries and aquaculture operations
- Strengthen coastal zone management to reduce land-sourced pollution, over-harvesting and physical damage to resources
- Create new habitats such as artificial reefs to act as fish nurseries in areas where coral reef destruction occurs
Sardine recovery drives Q1 Chile pelagic catches up 28%, offsetting drop in jack mackerel
May 23, 2014, 2:17 pmAlicia Villegas
Sardines. Photo by Juuyoh Tanaka.
Chile’s pelagic landings rose by 27.8% to 522,600 metric tons in the first three months of the year compared to the same period in 2013.This was driven by good sardine catches, which more than doubled year-on-year.By the end of March, 197,000t or 52.8% of the quota set for Chile’s sardine fishery in 2014 had been caught, according to Chile’s undersecretariat for fisheries and aquaculture Subpesca.All of these landings were from the area between the V and X regions.This means that during the next nine months of the year, catches cannot exceed 176,000t, as the sardine fishery saw the steepest drop in absolute volume of total allowed catches (TAC) for 2014, slashed by 38.3% to 373,000t.The cut was in response to the steep drop in Chile’s sardine catches last year, which drove pelagic landings down by nearly 650,000t in the first nine months of 2013.Anchovy catches also nudged up in Q1 this year, but only slightly, by 1.8% to 168,600t year-on-year.Regions XV and II accounted for most landings (148,000t), which is also 11.2% up from last year’s 165,600t.Jack mackerel, poor landings
Jack mackerel, the third main pelagic species caught by the Chilean fleet, had poor landings in comparison to sardine and anchovy.chile_pelagics_q12014Chile’s pelagic landings in 2014 first three months: jack mackerel (red), anchovy (green) and sardine (purple).Vessels landed 107,000t of jack mackerel in the three month period, which is 13.9% down as the same time last year, said Subpesca.Regions V and X were the main jack mackerel’s landings areas, totaling 95,100t, involving a fall of 19% year-on-year.Cuttlefish catches doubleCuttlefish catches were also up in the first three months of 2014 when compared with the same time a year ago.“The cuttlefish resource increases strongly, doubling its catches,” Subpesca said.Cuttlefish landings totaled 37,400t by the end of March, mainly in the V and X regions.Hake down 47%On the other hand, hake catches were down 47.3% to 5,000t year-on-year.Industrial vessels contributed to 37.8% or 1,900t of hake landings, while the artisanal fleet increased its catches by 10.9% to 3,100t.According to media reports, however, illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing of hake in Chile could have totaled 19,000t so far this year.That would if so represent 83.3% of the total allowable catch for the artisanal fisheries, set at 7,600t.Landings for mackerel, for its part, also decreased by 33.7% to 9,200t year-on-year.
FAO Releases State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture Report
United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization: 70% of global fish stocks fished within sustainable limits; seafood production up 10 million tonsWASHINGTON (SeafoodNews.com) May 20, 2014 -- FAO has released its latest "State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture" report, covering 2012, and there are a number of positive news items. First and foremost, 70% of wild capture fisheries are now being fished within biologically sustainable limits.This is a "reversal in trend observed during the past few years, a positive sign in the right direction," says the FAO. Global capture fisheries remained stable at 80 million tons.Secondly, the aquaculture production continues to surge. Global aquaculture production marked a record high of more than 90 million tonnes in 2012, including almost 24 million tonnes of aquatic plants. China accounted for over 60 percent of the total share.Other positive trends were the increase in employment in fisheries and aquaculture, the greater share o trade coming from developing countries, and the fact that seafood now accounts for 17% of global protein consumption.The report also emphasizes the importance and positive role of the FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries which, since its adoption almost two decades ago, remains key to achieving sustainable fisheries and aquaculture.More people than ever before rely on fisheries and aquaculture for food and as a source of income says the new FAO report published today.According to the latest edition of FAO's The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture, global fisheries and aquaculture production totaled 158 million tonnes in 2012 - around 10 million tonnes more than 2010.The rapid expansion of aquaculture, including the activities of small-scale farmers, is driving this growth in production.Fish farming holds tremendous promise in responding to surging demand for food which is taking place due to global population growth, the report says.At the same time, the planet's oceans - if sustainably managed - have an important role to play in providing jobs and feeding the world, according to FAO's report."The health of our planet as well as our own health and future food security all hinge on how we treat the blue world," FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva said."We need to ensure that environmental well-being is compatible with human well-being in order to make long-term sustainable prosperity a reality for all. For this reason, FAO is committed to promoting 'Blue Growth,' which is based on the sustainable and responsible management of our aquatic resources."The renewed focus on the so-called "blue world" comes as the share of fisheries production used by humans for food has increased from about 70 percent in the 1980s to a record high of more than 85 percent (136 million tonnes) in 2012.At the same time per capita fish consumption has soared from 10 kg in the 1960s to more than 19 kg in 2012.The new report also says fish now accounts for almost 17 percent of the global population's intake of protein -- in some coastal and island countries it can top 70 percent.FAO estimates that fisheries and aquaculture support the livelihoods of 10-12 percent of the world's population.Since 1990 employment in the sector has grown at a faster rate than the world's population and in 2012 provided jobs for some 60 million people engaged in capture fisheries and aquaculture. Of these, 84 percent were employed in Asia, followed by Africa with about 10 percent.Global marine capture fishery production was stable at about 80 million tonnes in 2012, the new report indicates.Currently, under 30 percent of the wild fish stocks regularly monitored by FAO are overfished - a reversal in trend observed during the past few years, a positive sign in the right direction.Just over 70 percent are being fished within biologically sustainable levels. Of these, fully fished stocks - meaning those at or very close to their maximum sustainable production - account for over 60 percent and underfished stocks about 10 percent.Global aquaculture production marked a record high of more than 90 million tonnes in 2012, including almost 24 million tonnes of aquatic plants. China accounted for over 60 percent of the total share.Aquaculture's expansion helps improve the diets of many people, especially in poor rural areas where the presence of essential nutrients in food is often scarce.However, the report warns that to continue to grow sustainably, aquaculture needs to become less dependent on wild fish for feeds and introduce greater diversity in farmed culture species and practices.For example, small-sized species can be an excellent source of essential minerals when consumed whole. However, consumer preferences and other factors have seen a switch towards larger farmed species whose bones and heads are often discarded.The role of fish is set to feature prominently at the Second International Conference on Nutrition jointly organized by FAO and the World Health Organization (WHO) for 19-21 November 2014 in Rome.Fish remains among the most traded food commodities worldwide, worth almost $130 billion in 2012 - a figure which likely will continue to increase.An important trend sees developing countries boosting their share in the fishery trade - 54 percent of total fishery exports by value in 2012 and more than 60 percent by quantity (live weight).This means fisheries and fish farming are playing an increasingly critical role for many local economies. Some 90 percent of fishers are small scale and it is estimated that, overall, 15 percent are women. In secondary activities such as processing, this figure can be as high as 90 percent.FAO, through the 2014 International Year of Family Farming, is raising the profile of smallholder activities - including fisheries and aquaculture - with an emphasis on improving access to finance and markets, securing tenure rights and protecting the environment.An estimated 1.3 billion tonnes of food are lost per year - to about one-third of all food produced. This figure includes post-harvest fish losses, which tend to be greater in small-scale fisheries.In small-scale fisheries, quality losses are often far more significant than physical losses. Improved handling, processing and value-addition methods could address the technical aspects of this issue, but it is also vital to extend good practices, build partnerships, raise awareness, and develop capacity and relevant policies and strategies.The report also notes that illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing remains a major threat to marine ecosystems and also impacts negatively on livelihoods, local economies and food supplies.Food chain traceability is increasingly a requirement in major fish markets, especially in the wake of recent scandals involving the mislabeling of food products.FAO provides technical guidelines on certification and ecolabeling which can help producers demonstrate that fish has been caught legally from a sustainably managed fishery or produced in properly run aquaculture facility.In particular, the report stresses the importance of the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries which, since its adoption almost two decades ago, remains key to achieving sustainable fisheries and aquaculture.The Code promotes the responsible use of aquatic resources and habitat conservation to help boost the sector's contribution to food security, poverty alleviation and human well-being.FAO is also promoting "Blue Growth" as a framework for ensuring sustainable and socioeconomically-sensitive management of oceans and wetlands.At the Global Oceans Action Summit on Food Security and Blue Growth held last month in The Hague, Netherlands, governments and other participants committed to actions focused on tackling climate change, overfishing, habitat loss and pollution in a bid to restore productive, resilient oceans.
This story originally appeared on Seafood.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.