Category Archives: Marine Science
Can Hag Fish gloop be useful to humans?
The carrion-eating hagfish has been described as the “vacuum cleaner of the ocean”. But it also has another claim to fame: it can see off its attackers in a puff of slime. Zurich scientists are researching how this fast-forming hydrogel could be harnessed for human use. Jawless and boneless, the hagfish is a rather ugly-looking marine creature that has been around for more than 300 million years. So why are the hagfish of interest to researchers at the lab? The answer is in the creature’s slime. When the hagfish is attacked or stressed it secretes vast amounts of the substance as a defence mechanism – as this shark finds out in this clip. It has to back off or face suffocation. “Hagfish slime is special in many ways,” doctoral student Böni told swissinfo.ch. “It’s the most dilute hydrogel known today. It consists of 99.996% water which is a world record.” Read the article here 13:46
SMAST founding dean, chancellor medal recipient Brian Rothschild, reflects on state of fisheries science
Dr. Brian Rothschild already had a stellar career in fisheries and marine science when he came to the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth 20 years ago to head the fledgling Center for Marine Science, now known as the School for Marine Science and Technology. He built that institution from the ground up, recruiting top talent and developing a strong reputation in the field of fisheries, ocean science, and industry regulations. At 81, he is officially retired, but continues his scientific work unburdened, he says, by the demands of management. Read the interview here 12:06
Ray Hilborn Responds to the opportunistic attack of Greenpeace
I would like to thank Greenpeace for offering this opportunity to advertise our research and its results. Greenpeace is unable to attack the science I and my collaborators do; science that threatens their repeated assertions that overfishing is universal and that the oceans are being emptied. On the contrary it is clear that where effective fisheries management is applied, stocks are increasing not declining, and this is true in North American and Europe as well as a number of other places. Overfishing certainly continues to be a problem in the Mediterranean, much of Asia and Africa. The timing of Greenpeace’s attack is not random. In two weeks I will receive the International Fisheries Science Prize at the World Fisheries Congress. http://international.fisheries.org/requestfor-nominations-for-the-2016-international-fisheries-science-prize/ This prize is awarded every four years by fisheries science organizations from a number of countries including the U.S., Australia and Japan. In my plenary address I will be showing where overfishing is declining or largely eliminated, as well as where it remains a problem. This is a message Greenpeace seeks to discredit. Instead of focusing on the science, Greenpeace has alleged that I failed to disclose “large amounts of money from the fishing industry and other corporate interests.” Read the rest here 12:43
Bigelow Breakdown – Fish Survey at Risk of Skewed Data?
Even before mechanics found deeply pitted bearings near crankshafts in its generators, problems that could have led to catastrophic engine failure, the Henry B. Bigelow was running more than a month behind. Now, the government research vessel is embarking on its annual spring voyage later than ever before, a delay that could have serious consequences for scientists’ ability to assess the health of some of the 52 fish stocks they survey, from the waters off North Carolina to the eastern reaches of the Gulf of Maine. The Bigelow typically leaves Newport in March for the spring survey, but this year was delayed by routine maintenance for more than a month. When it finally left its shipyard in Brooklyn, N.Y., last month, it had to return to port to ride out a nor’easter. Then the mechanics discovered the problem in its generators, and the ship didn’t depart until last Friday. Read the rest here 11:28
Greenpeace attacks University of Washington fishery scientist Ray Hilborn
Ray Hilborn, a prominent University of Washington fishery scientist, is under attack from Greenpeace for sometimes leaving out mention of industry funding he receives in articles published in academic journals and elsewhere.In a letter sent Wednesday to university President Ana Mari Cauce, Greenpeace filed a complaint against Hilborn’s research practices, and asked for an investigation. Hilborn, over the years, has been a critic of Greenpeace as well as other environmental groups and researchers he accuses of overstating the impacts of fishing on marine resources. In the letter to Cauce, Greenpeace unleashed a broadside against the scientist. Greenpeace is attempting to label Hilborn an “overfishing denier,” comparing the professor to so-called climate-change deniers who are a minority in a scientific community that overwhelmingly accepts that fossil-fuel combustion contributes to global warming. Read the rest here 07:45
Ocean acidification: yet another wobbly pillar of climate alarmism
Last year, no fewer than 600 academic papers were published on the subject, so it must be serious, right? First referenced in a peer-reviewed study in Nature in 2003, it has since been endorsed by scientists from numerous learned institutions including the Royal Society, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the IPCC. Even the great David Attenborough — presenter of the Great Barrier Reef series — has vouched for its authenticity,,, Howard Browman, a marine scientist for 35 years, has published a review in the ICES Journal of Marine Science of all the papers published on the subject. His verdict could hardly be more damning. Read the article here 09:51
As Canada probes Haida Gwaii ocean fertilizing, new project proposed in Chile
The federal government is still investigating an experiment off the West Coast almost four years ago aimed at boosting salmon stocks that sparked an international outcry. Now a former director and operations officer of Haida Salmon Restoration Corp. says he wants to carry out another ocean-fertilizing exercise, this time off South America. Jason McNamee says the company Oceaneos, where he serves as chief operations officer, has been in talks about fertilizing the ocean with iron with the Chilean government, which could not be reached for comment. In July 2012, the now-inactive Haida Salmon Restoration travelled to international waters near the islands of Haida Gwaii where it dumped 100 tonnes of iron sulphate into the water in an effort to restore waning salmon stocks. Read the rest here 08:26
Live 3D data streaming – new Simrad visualisation SW unveiled in Vigo
Kongsberg Maritime has unveiled an advanced new technology platform at the ICES Working Group on Fisheries Acoustics, Science and Technology (WGFAST) in Vigo today (19th April), which enables live streaming of 3D data generated by scientific multibeam systems. The unique, new Simrad TD50 data visualisation software is currently operational with the Simrad ME70 scientific multibeam echo sounder, with plans to enable 3D data streaming from a wider range of Simrad acoustic systems in the future. Accurate 3D visualisation gives users a better understanding of the marine ecosystem by i.e. enabling precise measurement of schools of fish rather than estimating size and shapes based on models.Video, read the rest here 12:33
What the fish in Alaska’s oceans are eating — and what that can tell us
Ever wonder what eats the salmon that don’t make it back to Bristol Bay? Or what fish are cannibals? A new database released online in late March by the National Marine Fisheries Service offers a glimpse into fish diets, based on decades of study of their stomach contents. It ranges from commonly known species like halibut, Pacific cod and pollock, to lesser-known fish, like sculpins, snailfish and even alligatorfish. Herring and salmon also make an appearance, although they aren’t the focus. Kerim Aydin, a supervisory fisheries biologist at the in Seattle, said the database includes collections that have been in the works since the 1980s, and is largely focused on commercial groundfish species. Read the rest here 10:55
Scientists find a crab party deep in the ocean
A year ago, researchers in two small submarines were exploring a seamount — an underwater, flat-topped mountain — off the Pacific coast of Panama when they noticed a dense cloud of sediment extending 4 to 10 meters above the seafloor. One of the submarines approached closer, and the scientists could soon see what was kicking up the cloud: thousands of small, red crabs that were swarming together like insects. At the densest points in the swarm, there were more than 70 crabs in a square meter of ocean bottom, and this occurred consistently in a water depth of 350 to 390 meters. The crabs, all 2.3 centimeters in carapace length and larger, were moving together in the same general direction. Some would jump and swim for about 10 centimeters or so before landing back in the pack. Video, Read the rest here 09:41
The Impacts of Trawling in the North Sea are Overrated
A new study by Ferdinand Oberle, Curt Storlazzi, and Till Hanebuth attempted to quantify the global impact of bottom trawling on continental shelf. It presents a high-resolution, one-year, spatial record of ground-penetrating fishing activities, namely otter trawling (referred to as bottom-trawling in the paper) on the NW-Iberian shelf, and calculates the resuspended sediment load caused by the operations of this fleet. The authors also challenge conclusions from papers like Kaiser et al 2006 that suggest trawling affected seabed hotspots are rare. To this end the authors found NW Iberian shelf areas to be experiencing trawling on average 5.9 times per annum compared to less than 1 in previous studies. Read the rest here 21:18
Independent scientists need not apply – NMFS denies SMAST Industry paid RSA Funding
For almost 20 years now, SMAST has worked diligently alongside our fishermen to improve fishery science. Kevin’s research has earned him their respect, earned them a ton of money and earned New Bedford its position as the nation’s top fishing port. The drop camera survey he pioneered to count sea scallops on Georges Bank in 1999 was a game changer that helped to rescue an ailing industry. Anyone on the waterfront can attest to that. He did it by providing independent evidence that what fishermen had been saying was correct. There were plenty of scallops out there waiting to be harvested in spite of what the government survey would have everyone believe. Barney Frank took those survey pictures to Bill Daley, who was Secretary of Commerce at the time. Daley listened and New Bedford’s ship came in. It may now be departing. Read the op-ed here 07:27
THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS! SMAST scallop researcher rejected for NOAA funding for first time since 1999
For the first time since 1999, internationally known SMAST scientist Kevin Stokesbury has been denied federally administered funding for annual scallop surveys, as government officials questioned the cost and design of his latest proposal. Many local fishermen credit Stokesbury’s work with reviving the scallop industry over more than a decade, and a prominent scalloper said Tuesday that it was hard to make sense of the funding denial this year. “We as an industry are very upset about this — it’s very disturbing,” said Dan Eilertsen, who owns six scallopers based on Fish Island. “Our fishery has been managed based on the published work that (Stokesbury) does.” The National Marine Fisheries Service, under the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), told Stokesbury on March 29 that his proposal for a $2.65 million scallop survey project had been denied for the 2016-17 grant cycle. Read the rest here 20:14
Zombie-generating crab parasites pose intriguing mysteries
Nobody knows how the parasitic barnacles create zombie crabs. King crabs, already otherworldly-looking creatures, grow even stranger when barnacles invade them. The insides of infected crabs become filled with green, branching tendrils that resemble plant roots more than anything. Barnacles are marine animals with outer shells, related to crabs and lobsters. Typically, they live on rocks or the sides of boats, filtering food out of the water. However, Briarosaccus barnacles infect king crabs, turning them into “zombie” crabs that raise and nurture the parasite’s eggs. The mechanisms behind this control are unknown. SitNews Read the article, Click here 15:06
Green light stops sea turtle deaths in gillnets
Illuminating fishing nets is a cost-effective means of dramatically reducing the number of sea turtles getting caught and dying unnecessarily, conservation biologists at the University of Exeter have found. Dr Jeffrey Mangel, a Darwin Initiative research fellow based in Peru, and Professor Brendan Godley, from the Centre for Ecology and Conservation at the University’s Penryn Campus, were part of a team of researchers who found that attaching green battery-powered light-emitting diodes (LEDs) to gillnets used by a small-scale fishery reduced the number of green turtle deaths by 64 per cent, without reducing the intended catch of fish. It is the first time that lighting technology has been trialled in a working fishery. At a cost of £1.40 ($2) for each LED light, the research showed that the cost of saving one turtle was £24 ($34) – a sum which would be reduced if the method was rolled out at larger scale. Read the rest here 08:57
Comment by John Sibert, University of Hawaii: Environmental Bullies – Conservationists or Agenda-pushers?
Dr. Molly Lutcavage wrote a piece last week on Medium titled, Environmental Bullies, how conservation ideologues attack scientists who don’t agree with them. Though a summary follows, we encourage you all to read the article here. Dr. Lutcavage felt Carl Safina and other ENGOs like Pew Oceans have maligned her and her peers for their research because it would, “get in the way of fund-raising campaigns, messages to the media, book sales, rich donors, and perhaps the most insidious – attempts to influence US fisheries and ocean policies.” I, like many other scientists, practice my profession with the expectation that my work will be used to improve management policies. However, scientists who choose to work on subjects that intersect with management of natural resources sometimes become targets of special interest pressures. Pressure to change or “spin” research results occurs more often than it should. Read the comment here 14:23
Dr. Molly Lutcavage – Environmental Bullies: How Conservation Ideologues Attack Scientists Who Don’t Agree With Them.
In science, there’s always disagreement among experts and well-respected, conscientious non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working on tough questions. We are used to that. And we work things out as a team using objective scientific methods and evidence. A good scientist should be ready to make mistakes, to be wrong sometimes, to be called out, or to miss something obvious that someone else runs with and gets credit for. Or to get lucky with research, to be in the right place at the right time – we experience it all. And woman scientists that make it all the way to professional positions most likely have already been hit on or harassed or received unfair treatment, because there are fewer of us. Women scientists know plenty of these stories. We receive training for that too, even though it rarely helps. Read the rest here 11:55
How In Trouble Are Bluefin Tuna, Really? Controversial Study Makes Waves with Enviro’s
A group of scientists is now making the case that Atlantic bluefin may be more resilient to fishing than commonly thought — and perhaps better able to rebound from the species’ depleted state. But the study is controversial. Several tuna researchers we spoke with warned that the results are preliminary, and it’s much too soon to use them to guide how fisheries are managed. In an email exchange with The Salt, Safina writes, “[T]heir main concern is not recovery, not conservation, but how their findings can allow additional exploitation and more stress to be inflicted on a very beleaguered creature.” Read the article here 08:10
What’s eating at Dr. Ray Hilborn today?!! Dr. Geoff Shester from Oceana
Last week Dr. Geoff Shester, California campaign director for the nonprofit advocacy group Oceana criticized the Pacific Fishery Management Council for the persistence of low numbers of California Sardines. The lack of a population recovery may cause the commercial moratorium to last until 2017. The author explained this sardine population decline as being 93 percent less than it was in 2007. Dr. Shester does not believe this is because of environmental causes like climate change, El Nino, or natural fluctuations in forage fish species however – instead he blames the management body. “They warned of a population collapse and the fishery management body basically turned a blind eye and continued moving forward with business as usual.” Response Comment by Ray Hilborn, University of Washington, Read the rest here 11:49
Scientists have routinely exaggerated the “evil twin of climate change” aka ocean acidification
A new paper published in the ICES Journal of Marine Science puts the issue of “ocean acidification” to the test, and finds that there has been significant exaggeration in the issue. The paper is: Applying organized scepticism to ocean acidification research “Ocean acidification” (OA), a change in seawater chemistry driven by increased uptake of atmospheric CO2 by the oceans, has probably been the most-studied single topic in marine science in recent times. The majority of the literature on OA report negative effects of CO2 on organisms and conclude that OA will be detrimental to marine ecosystems. As is true across all of science, studies that report no effect of OA are typically more difficult to publish. Read the rest here 11:12
Myths that won’t go away – Stories about fisheries sustainability that are simply wrong
The scientific literature, print and e-media are full of stories on fisheries sustainability that are simply wrong – yet keep getting repeated and are widely accepted. This page highlights the most ubiquitous of these myths, and provides a summary of the true situation with respect to the issue addressed. – All Fish Stocks will be Collapsed by 2048 – 70% of the World’s Fish stocks are Overfished – Large Fish of the Ocean were 90% Depleted by 1980 – We are Fishing Down the Food Chain Have you seen one of these fishery myths in recent media? Reach out via email or twitter and let us know! Click here 14:41
California: Thousands of sea lions starving to death as population boom drives food shortage
Booming sea lion populations have depleted their traditional food stocks and are now turning to unhealthy squid and rockfish as their main source of meals. Researchers discovered that this has triggered huge drops in their weight, leading to thousands of sea lion pups starving. In California alone, sea lion populations have increased from 50,000 to 340,000 since 1975. Research published in Royal Society Open Science suggests this population boom has resulted in a massive depletion of sardines and anchovies – the primary food source of sea lions. Read the rest here 08:18
Killing to Conserve – Is it effective, or ethical, to cull one protected species to help another?
From a population reduced to about 10,000 in the 1950s, California sea lion numbers have grown to nearly 390,000 since they were protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972, which made it illegal to kill, or “take,” them without a permit. While most of the animals wintering on the Oregon coast stick to offshore habitat, bays, and estuaries, since 2000 a small number of sea lions, 100 or so, have been swimming 145 miles up the Columbia River, from its mouth at Astoria to Bonneville Dam, to eat upstream migrating salmon that stack up at the base of the dam and fish ladders. Some of the fish they devour are upriver spring Chinook salmon, which are listed as endangered under the Read the article here 11:25
Sudden ban on fish discards could harm ecosystems – researchers
Sea birds, dolphins, crabs and sharks are among the species that could suffer if commercial fishers abruptly stopped discarding their unwanted catches, research shows. An international study led by The University of Queensland has found that a gradual reduction – over two decades or more – in the practice is the best way to allow a marine ecosystem to recover its natural balance. Esther Fondo, a PhD student and the study’s lead author, said a range of predator species were reliant on discarded fish – dead and alive – as a food source. Read the rest here 10:33
A UMaine grad student’s picture of a colorful tiny larval lobster wins National Science Foundation award
This photo made in summer 2015 and provided by Jesica Waller shows a three-week-old baby lobster at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in East Boothbay, Maine. Her photograph won a National Science Foundation visual media award and also appears in the March/April 2016 edition of Popular Science. Waller, who’s in her second year of a master’s program in marine biology at the University of Maine, is studying the effect of climate change scenarios on larval lobsters. Read the rest here 10:07
Nils Stolpe – Are you getting the idea that if you’re a fisherman Daniel Pauly isn’t on your side?
FishNet-USA/February 22, 2016 – “… The crisis in the world’s fisheries is less about scientific proof than about attitude and political will. And the world’s fish need a dynamic, high-profile political champion like a Bono or Mandela to give finned creatures the public profile of cute and furry ones.” (Daniel Pauly in “Hooked on fishing, and we’re heading for the bottom, says scientist”,,, This quote by the Pew Charitable Trusts’ premier fisheries researcher says just about all that needs to be said about the ongoing anti-fishing campaign that they have been financing, along with a handful of other mega-foundations, to convince anyone who is willing to listen that, in spite of a dearth of compelling scientific evidence supporting this strum und drang , the world’s oceans are – and have been – facing a crisis brought about because of the depredations of commercial fishermen. Where are the Kardashian’s when Pauly really needs them? Read the rest here 19:23
Species groups follow patterns reacting to climate change on US northeast shelf
Researchers studying marine fishery species grouped by similar depth and temperature distribution have found that those groups have similar responses to the effects of climate change. Interactions between individual species in those groups, however, may be affected by the amount of available habitat, predator-prey relationships, and competition for food resulting from shifts in range and distribution, the study says. Gets interesting. The study was conducted through a joint partnership between NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center and The Nature Conservancy, and was funded by a grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation! Read it here 17:12
Another “blob” of warm ocean water discovered, this one ancient
While the Pacific “blob” seems to have died, this new research say they can find blobs lost in time. What is most interesting is that they say Greenland went through temperature shifts of 10-15 degrees C in just 50 years, all without any man-made influence. New research published in Scientific Reports in February indicates that a warm ocean surface water prevailed during the last ice age, sandwiched between two major ice sheets just south of Greenland. Read the rest here 09:51
Oregon State University study finds salmon hatcheries produce genetically different fish
New research from Oregon State University suggests hatchery-raised salmon, which are bred to help bolster wild stocks in B.C. and elsewhere, are genetically different from the populations they’re introduced into. Researcher Michael Blouin says scientists have known for some time the offspring of wild and hatchery-raised salmon are less adept at surviving in the wild, negatively affecting the health of wild populations. The question is, what is it about hatcheries that create fish believed to be inferior at surviving in the wild? Read the rest here 09:27
Dick Grachek responds to “Cod stocks on south coast of Newfoundland ‘OK but not great’
From the above linked article posted on Fishery Nation.com: “The spawning stock is now between the ages for four and seven years, which [lead researcher Rick] Rideout called a ‘pretty restricted’ age.” Click here to read the article “Basically, fish are not surviving to those older ages, they’re coming into the stock … but they’re not surviving to older age, and again, that’s a big concern.” Then abandon MSY management! A majority of younger fish comprising the spawning stock is a function of Maximum Sustainable Yield management (MSY). This MSY management balances the numbers of larger spawning fish taken out of a stock against the numbers of individuals of smaller younger fish entering the stock or “recruitment”—guess what, this yields a highly unstable stock of smaller younger fish. Read the rest here 19:47
