10 unexpected foods on TIME’s 50 Healthiest Foods’ list
Sardines on TIME's 'healthiest foods' list? iStockphoto
Read the original post: Philly.com | by Tracey Romero
Bottom trawling gets a bum rap, CSUMB study finds.
Nic CouryLocal petrale sole, like this dish at the former Alvarado Fish & Steakhouse, may be a more sustainable fish than we thought.
Bottom trawling—dragging nets along the sea floor to catch species like halibut and sanddabs—isn't always the destructive fishing method it's made out to be, according to a collaborative study by fishermen, The Nature Conservancy and CSU Monterey Bay.The study, published in National Marine Fisheries Service's Fishery Bulletin, found that not all sea floors are created equal. The "soft" sea floor (mostly mud and sand) that comprises up to 85 percent of the continental shelf off the California coast may be able to recover quickly from small footrope trawl gear, the study concludes. Yet most of the state waters and much of the federal waters are closed to bottom trawling."Our study adds to a growing body of literature from around the world showing trawling impacts are context dependent—they depend on the type of gear used, the types of habitats trawled and how often trawling occurs," a press release states. "Trawling in rocky areas with long-lived corals will likely have more long-lasting impacts than trawling in soft-bottom habitats that may be less vulnerable and can recover more quickly."Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch guide, which has long shunned much of Monterey Bay's own local catch because it viewed bottom trawling as environmentally unfriendly, is now picking up on that more nuanced approach. The updated Seafood Watch guide upgraded 21 species of West Coast groundfish from red (avoid) to yellow (good alternative) or green (best choice) rankings, as the Weekly reported last fall.Also promising: next-generation light-trawl gear that floats just above the sea floor instead of dragging. Environmental Defense Fund consultants Huff McGonigal and David Crabbe developed the technology to allow fishermen to "fish a wider area, travel faster, reduce fuel costs by a quarter and preserve bottom-dwelling fauna," as the Weekly reported in 2013.
Read the original post: MontereyCountyWeekly.com | by Kera Abraham
California drought likely a fixture, says Stanford study
Two piers lay on the shoreline at Shadow Cliffs Regional Recreation Area in Pleasanton, Calif., on Friday, Jan. 9, 2015. The man-made lake's water level remains at historically low levels, about 10 feet below normal for the winter season. (Doug Duran)
Human-caused climate change is increasing drought risk in California -- boosting the odds that our current crisis will become a fixture of the future, according to a major report Stanford scientists released Monday.The finding comes as cities across the Bay Area wrap up the warmest three-month stretch of winter on record.The new study looked at data from the past and simulations foretelling the future to understand the influence of greenhouse gases on California."What has happened in California has been a clear warming trend over the historical record ... that probably would not have happened without humans," said Stanford climate scientist Noah Diffenbaugh.The continuation of global warming "will result in more frequent occurrences of high temperatures and low precipitation that will lead to increased severe drought conditions," said Diffenbaugh. The research was published in the March 2 issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.Low precipitation, alone, doesn't cause a drought -- what matters is whether it happens in a warm year, according to members of the Stanford team. They don't offer specific recommendations but say their findings could help California plan for the future.The news comes on the eve of this winter's third manual snow survey, taken atop the Sierra on Highway 50. Other readings reveal that statewide, the snowpack water content is just 19 percent of the historical average for the date.AdvertisementReinforcing the drought's threat, one weather agency is reporting that many Bay Area cities have broken records for the warmest winter in history. Average temperatures for December through February were 54.44 degrees in San Jose, up from the 54.42 degree record of 1996; 52.62 degrees in Livermore, up from the 51.72 degree record of 1996; and 57 degrees in San Francisco, up from the 55.70 degree record of 1970, according to Jan Null of Golden Gate Weather Services.The Stanford study supports the growing recognition that warming temperatures can worsen a drought that is driven by declining precipitation, noted Richard Seager of Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, who was not involved in the research."This is happening all over the world -- there is nothing unusual in terms of California," said Seager.The Stanford team previously reported that the conditions behind our current drought -- a high pressure system parked over the Pacific Ocean, diverting storms away from California -- are much more likely to occur amid concentrations of greenhouse gases.The new study goes further. Using a recently released trove of 120 years of historical data, the researchers found more than a doubling of the frequency of drought years. There were six droughts in past 20 years (1995-2014), compared to 14 in the previous 98 years (1896-1994.)What's happening? Imagine flipping two coins, one for precipitation and one for temperature, said Diffenbaugh, associate professor of Environmental Earth System Science at Stanford.Until recently, precipitation and temperature occurred independently.But climate change means that the temperature coin is landing on warm weather most of the time. So even as precipitation varies, the combination of both warm and dry is more common. We see little rain, snow melts earlier, and soil and plants lose more water."Low precipitation isn't enough to create a drought. The key difference is temperature," said Diffenbaugh. And that's what is changing.Seager agrees that climate change will produce warmer weather, although he contends that our recent extreme heat is due to natural variations in sea surface temperatures, "far in excess of what you would expect from background greenhouse gases," based on his National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration-sponsored research.He agrees that California "will also face tremendous water problems as the climate changes, because of warmer temperatures, less snow, shorter and sharper winters, and warming that takes moisture out of the soil."The Stanford team doesn't have data for the future, of course, and it's impossible to run a real-world experiment. So they created climate simulations to peer into the future.Their models show that the warming trend is likely to continue, boosting the odds that a heads-tails coin toss -- co-occurring warm and dry years, creating drought -- will climb in the coming decades.Droughts have occurred throughout California's pre-human history, just as the coin toss example would predict, they say. And nature creates its own variability, with volcanic eruptions and solar fluctuations.But steadily rising temperatures -- caused by burning fossil fuels and clearing forests -- increases the probability of such conditions, they found."Continued global warming will result in more frequent occurrences of high temperatures and low precipitation," said Diffenbaugh, "leading to more of the severe drought conditions that we've been experiencing."
Read the original post: MercuryNews.com | By Lisa M. Krieger
California salmon dodge drought bullet for another year
A fall-run salmon jumps at the Coleman National Fish Hatchery near Anderson, Calif., on Oct. 2, 1996. (Rollin Banderbob / Associated Press)
Apparently the California salmon has dodged the drought bullet for another year: The annual forecast for the fishery predicts that the population this year will be slightly bigger than last.The initial results of the 2015 National Marine Fisheries Service survey forecasts an adult ocean population of California salmon that’s about 2.7% higher than last year.
That translates to about 650,000 fish -- up from about 630,000 last year but substantially less than 2013 total of more than 800,000. Still, that’s far healthier than 2008 and 2009, when the fishery was closed completely.The most recent figures are much better than many observers had predicted, given the devastating four-year drought the state is still enduring. With reduced water flow in the Sacramento River, some observers had feared a collapse in the population of young salmon heading out to sea.“There’s a pretty good chance we’ll see that in the future, maybe as early as next year,” says Michael O’Farrell, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research fisheries biologist specializing in salmon.“But we make abundance forecasts based on 2-year-old fish, and while California was certainly dry two years ago, it certainly wasn’t like it is now.”In January, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service began a huge release of stocked juvenile salmon after warm temperatures and shallow waters killed an estimated 95% of the eggs laid in some tributaries. “But we make abundance forecasts based on 2-year-old fish, and while California was certainly dry two years ago, it certainly wasn’t like it is now.”In January, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service began a huge release of stocked juvenile salmon after warm temperatures and shallow waters killed an estimated 95% of the eggs laid in some tributaries.The salmon forecast is a preliminary report that will be used to set catch limits and seasons for fishermen, both commercial and recreational.The Pacific Fisheries Management Council is scheduled to meet to make a final decision on those in April, but predictions are that the commercial season will likely begin around May 1, and that the fish will start showing up in markets shortly after.“There have been various indicators about poor survival of fish in [the Sacramento River basin] that could indicate down the road we could have trouble,” O’Farrell said. “But we make these forecasts on a year-to-year basis, and this year our science is telling what the right thing to do is. Next year we’ll take another look and we’ll do the whole thing again.”
Read original post: LATimes.com
Sardines swim into northern waters to keep cool
Sardines, mackerel, anchovies and other staples of the Mediterranean diet are moving north – to as far as the Baltic Sea – to escape warming ocean temperatures. The commercial fishery is suffering. Above, a purse seiner off the coast of Italy hauls in a net full of fish. Photo courtesy Prigalla/flickr.
A staple of the Mediterranean diet is migrating north to escape warming seas – leaving fishermen with empty nets.LONDON – Several important fish species that for centuries have been a staple of the Mediterranean diet are abandoning sub-tropical seas because the water is too warm.Sardines, for generations have been the most abundant commercial fish species in Portugal, are moving North. They are now established in the North Sea and are being caught in the Baltic – a sea that until recently was normally frozen over in the winter.Sardines, anchovies and mackerel – three important species in the diet of many southern European and North African countries – have been studied by scientists trying to discover how climate change and warming seas are affecting their distribution.Crucial for the food chainAs well as the affect on the fishing industry, the abundance or disappearance of these species is crucial for many other marine species that rely on them for food.A pioneering study, published in Global Change Biology, analyzed 57,000 fish censuses conducted over 40 years and has tracked the movement of these fish during this period.It confirms that the continued increase in water temperature has altered the structure and functioning of marine ecosystems across the world. But it also shows that the effect has been greater in the North Atlantic, with increases of up to 1.3 degrees Celsius in the average temperature over the last 30 years.This variation in temperature directly affects the frequency and range of pelagic fish, which live in the middle of the water column and are directly influenced by temperature rather than habitat. It includes the sardine (Sardina pilchardus), anchovy (Engraulis encrasicolus), horse mackerel (Trachurus trachurus) and mackerel (Scomber scombrus), among others.They feed off phytoplankton and zooplankton and are themselves the staple diet of large predators, such as cetaceans, large fish and marine birds. These fish occur off the shores of many coastal countries in the world and are important sources of protein.Response to changing temperaturesScientists have known that fish were moving to new areas, but they did not know whether it was in response to their main food supply plankton moving first or whether it was a simple response to changing temperatures.The new study has developed statistical models for the North Sea area, and confirms the great importance of sea temperatures."Time series of zooplankton and sea surface temperature data have been included to determine the factor causing these patterns," Ignasi Montero-Serra, lead author of the study and researcher in the department of Ecology at the University of Barcelona, explains to the Scientific Information and News Service.To demonstrate the consequences of the warming of the seas, the research team analyzed fish censuses from commercial fishing performed independently along the European continental shelf between 1965 and 2012, extracted from data provided by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea.Rapid ocean warmingThe study, the first to be carried out on such a large timescale and area, allows for the dynamics of this species to be understood in relation to the rapid warming of the oceans observed since the 1980s.The results reveal that sardines and other fish with fast life cycles, planktonic larval stage and low habitat dependence are highly vulnerable to changes in ocean temperature, and therefore represent, Montero-Serra says, "an exceptional bio-indicator to measure the direction and speed of climate change expected in the near future."Montero-Serra says that accelerated increase in temperature of the continental seas has resulted in sardines and anchovies – with a typically subtropical distribution – increasing their presence in the North Sea and "even venturing into the Baltic Sea." And the presence of species with a more northern distribution, such as the herring and the sprat, has decreased.A clear signThe analysis is therefore a clear sign that species in the North Sea and Baltic Sea are "becoming subtropical."This is due to the pelagic fish being highly dependent on environmental temperatures at different stages of their life cycle – from reproductive migrations and egg-laying, to development and survival of larvae.According to the researchers, the changes in such an important ecological group "will have an effect on the structure and functioning of the whole ecosystem," although they still do not know the scale of the socio-economic and ecological repercussions.
Read the original post: DailyClimate.org
How Long Does Fresh Fish Last In The Fridge After You Buy It?
It's a simple question, but one many people don't know how to answer: How long does fresh fish last in the refrigerator after you buy it?Equally passionate about good seafood as we are afraid of fish that's gone bad, we at HuffPost Taste reached out to the experts to confirm the answer once and for all. After speaking with some fishmongers from around New York City, we found the consensus: Fresh fish lasts in the fridge for two to three days, at most.The folks over at Brooklyn's Fish Tales say that fish will keep for three days maximum. Of course, they buy fresh fish every morning and urge anyone to buy fish the same day they're going to cook it. If that's impossible, you should keep it on ice in the refrigerator. Never keep it in the freezer, they say.According to the fishmongers at The Lobster Place, which also buys fresh seafood every day and suggests you do your shopping as close to the time that you're planning to eat as possible, a whole fish will keep slightly longer than fillets. When you buy a whole fish, less of the area that you're planning to eat is exposed to oxygen. This means it will keep a little longer. They estimate a whole fish will last a maximum of three days, while fillets will last closer to two days.Certain fish will dry out faster than others, the folks at The Lobster Place say, and some will change color slightly as they age. Discoloration doesn't necessarily indicate that the fish has spoiled, however. Your best method of deciphering whether or not your fish is still fresh is "by giving it the old smell test," the fishmongers say. If it smells off, it probably is.To prolong the lifespan of seafood, you need to store it correctly. Village Fishmonger has a detailed list of instructions for the proper way to store various kinds of seafood. (The website also has great instructions for prepping and cooking different kinds of seafood.) Village Fishmonger recommends storing fish two ways. The first is to keep the fish in its packaging or to seal it in a bag and rest it on top of ice. The second is to unwrap the fish and place it on top of a layer of plastic that is set over the ice. Either way, the fish should not come in direct contact with the ice.Storing shellfish requires a different technique. Village Fishmonger suggests keeping clams and oysters covered with a damp paper towel in a container that will allow for drainage in case there's any excess moisture. Fish Tales confirms: store shellfish in a bowl, covered with a paper towel, in the fridge.The bottom line is that seafood is best eaten when it's as fresh as possible -- but with proper storage, it will last up to three days. Now that you know how long your fish will keep, check out the easy seafood recipes below. Just make sure to use the smell test before you get started.
Original article: The Huffington Post | By Alison Spiegel
Sardines move north due to ocean warming
Original post: Phys.org
Sardines, anchovies and mackerels play a crucial role in marine ecosystems, as well as having a high commercial value. However, the warming of waters makes them vanish from their usual seas and migrate north, as confirmed by a pioneering study analysing 57,000 fish censuses from 40 years. The researchers warn that coastal towns dependent on these fishery resources must adapt their economies.
The continued increase in water temperature has altered the structure and functioning of marine ecosystems across the world. The effect has been greater in the North Atlantic, with increases of up to 1.3 ºC in the average temperature over the last 30 years.
This variation directly affects the frequency and biogeography of a group of pelagic fish, which includes the sardine (Sardina pilchardus), anchovy (Engraulis encrasicolus), horse mackerel (Trachurus trachurus) and mackerel (Scomber scombrus), among others, which feed off phytoplankton and zooplankton and that are the staple diet of large predators such as cetaceans, large fish and marine birds. These fish also represent a significant source of income for the majority of coastal countries in the world.
Until now, scientists had not managed to prove whether the changes observed in the physiology of the pelagic fish were the direct result of the water temperature or if they were due to changes in plankton communities, their main food source, which have also been affected by global warming and have changed their distribution and abundance.
The new study, published in Global Change Biology and that has developed statistical models for the North Sea area, confirms the great importance of sea temperatures. "Time series of zooplankton and sea surface temperature data have been included to determine the factor causing these patterns", Ignasi Montero-Serra, lead author of the study and researcher in the department of Ecology at the University of Barcelona, explains to SINC.
Bioindicators of the health of the sea
To demonstrate the consequences of the warming of the seas, the research team analysed 57,000 fish censuses from commercial fishing performed independently along the European continental shelf between 1965 and 2012, extracted from data provided by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES).
The study, the first to be carried out on such a large time scale and area, allows for the dynamics of this species to be understood in relation to the rapid warming of the oceans that has been happening since the eighties.
The results reveal that sardines and other fish (with fast life cycles, planktonic larval stage and low habitat dependence) are highly vulnerable to changes in ocean temperature, and therefore represent "an exceptional bioindicator to measure the direction and speed of climate change expected in the near future", points out Montero-Serra.
Subtropicalization of North Sea species
Due to the accelerated increase in temperature of the continental seas, sardines and anchovies (with a typically subtropical distribution) have increased their presence in the North Sea "even venturing into the Baltic Sea", confirms Montero-Serra, who adds that the species with a more northern distribution (like the herring and the sprat) have decreased their presence.
The analysis is therefore a clear sign that species in the North Sea and Baltic Sea are "becoming subtropical [...] where sardines, anchovies, mackerel and horse mackerel, more related to higher temperatures, have increased their presence", says the researcher.
This is due to the pelagic fish being highly dependent on environmental temperatures at different stages of their life cycle: from reproductive migrations and egg-laying, to development and survival of larvae.
According to researchers, the changes in such an important ecological group "will have an effect on the structure and functioning of the whole ecosystem". The expert warns that coastal towns that are highly dependent on these fishery resources "must adapt to the new ecological contexts and the possible consequences of these changes", although they still do not know the scale of the socio-economic and ecological repercussions.
Scientists: Warm waters, scarce prey likely cause of California sea lion strandings
California sea lions swim at the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, Tuesday, February 3, 2015. (Crista Jeremiason / The Press Democrat)
An intensifying spate of sea lion strandings on the California coast is likely caused by a shift in winds that has warmed coastal waters, making prey scarce for sea lion mothers and interfering with their ability to feed their pups, federal scientists said Wednesday.The announcement marked the clearest answer yet to what might be affecting the sea lions, hundreds of which have come ashore malnourished and severely underweight in recent months.With more than 940 animals, mostly pups, already admitted to rehabilitative care over the past several weeks, the state’s marine mammal centers are nearing capacity and running through resources, said Justin Viezbicke, California Stranding Network Coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association.Many sea lions won’t be saved.Yet NOAA scientists said the situation is less alarming than would appear and doesn’t look to be tied to a disease or new malady. Instead, it likely reflects the sea lion’s acute sensitivity to a change in ocean circulation patterns. The altered winds have bathed the coast in warm water — 2 to 5 degrees warmer than usual — and made foraging for redistributed fish species more of a challenge.“It’s unlikely to have any really critical drop in the total population,” said Sharon Melin, a wildlife biologist with NOAA’s National Marine Mammal Laboratory at the Alaska Fisheries Science Center in Seattle.There remain many unknowns, however, including how bad the situation will get before it starts getting better. Experts said they do not expect the situation to turn around for at least a few months.Sea lions serve as an indicator species, Melin said, and are sometimes among the first and most visible marine creatures to reflect something amiss in the ocean environment. Their recent plight is one in a series of die-offs and stranding events beginning in 2009 on the heels of a rapid ocean warming. The population of their core prey has been somewhat diminished over the same time period, she said, so scientists will be looking for longer term implications.January strandings were more than five times the historic average and more than twice the rate observed in 2013, when NOAA declared an Unusual Mortality Event, or UME. More than 1,100 sea lion strandings were recorded that year.This year has not been declared a UME yet, though observations so far suggest it may be an even worse year, with data collected from sea lion rookeries in the Channel Islands during September and February showing that pups born last summer were already severely underweight, and in many cases, continued to lose weight over the winter, Melin said.Most turning up on the coastline now are around 8 months old and should still be with their mothers, but appear to have weaned early, leaving the Southern California colonies in search of food, she said. Many are starving, too young to have developed the necessary skills to survive.Scientists believe the root problem is the inability of their mothers to find sufficient food to nourish their young, most likely because the large area of warm water off the coast has driven fish and other marine life to other areas.Yet satellite tags on some of the female sea lions who bore pups last year indicate they are staying within their usual foraging grounds, suggesting they may be having to dive deeper and work harder to feed, and thus are leaving their pups for longer periods, Melin said.Pups left long enough will be so hungry they go off on their own to seek food, she said.If so, this year’s event is similar to 2013, in which unavailability of prey was determined at least partly responsible. Though sea lions are opportunistic feeders, their core diet includes species rich in fatty acids like Pacific sardines, northern anchovies, rockfish, Pacific hake and market squid, some or all of which may be in short supply, Melin said.Many pups coming ashore have secondary infections, like pneumonia, but testing on those that have not survived has not revealed evidence of an infectious disease outbreak or harmful algae blooms, which also are potential risks, scientists said.Nate Mantua, a NOAA climatologist, said a period of strong southerly winds and weak northerly winds has spread warm water north and depressed the upwelling of cold water from deep ocean levels toward the surface.He said the shift reflects the vagaries of weather — not more permanent climate change.The warmer off-shore currents have coincided with a variety of shifting marine populations, causing some species to turn up in areas that are not part of their traditional habitats, Mantua said.“There’s just a whole suite of different animals — some are really good swimmers and some are really weak swimmers — that have changed their distribution,” he said.Sea lions, which are protected under the 1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act, generally have thrived in recent decades but had a rough time of it since 2009. It may be that the population has reached the carrying capacity of the coast, meaning that the current problems finding sufficient food are nature’s way of restoring balance, Melin said.Most sea lions are born in June and are totally dependent on their mothers for the first six months of their lives, experts say. They generally remain with their mothers until about 11 months of age, when they are weaned.Where some pup strandings occur every year, it’s usually around May and June, when pups are just beginning to forage on their own, with varying degrees of success, scientists said.This year’s strandings began months earlier, in December and January, and have accelerated in recent weeks, resulting in reports like one out of San Francisco, where last week a pup strayed onto Skyline Boulevard, about 1,000 feet and up a hill from the water. Another report this week described an emaciated young sea lion wandering into a Marina del Rey apartment complex.Though most of the strandings have occurred in Southern California and, to a lesser degree, on the Central Coast, the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, the world’s largest, has been at the forefront of providing care.It is now responding to up to 15 ailing sea lions daily, and has more than 130 sea lions in rehab at its Marin Headlands facility, spokeswoman Sarah van Schagen said.About 550 total are in the care of a half-dozen marine mammal centers up and down the coast.Though the Sausalito center still has room, the growing number of strandings is making it harder and more time-consuming for rescue personnel to respond to reports. Mantua pleaded with the public to be patient with those doing their best to tend to the animals that can be saved.Anyone who sees a stranded sea lion should report it by calling the Marine Mammal Center’s 24-hour rescue hotline at 415-289-SEAL (7325) and then leave the animal alone, avoiding human or pet contact that may contribute to its stress.Mantua encouraged anyone interested in aiding the cause to donate time, supplies and money to facilities like the Marine Mammal Center.
View original article: The Press Democrat.com