Tag Archives: “scientists”

Ottawa’s hiring wave to bolster federal science at sea

hunter-tootooThe federal government is about to do something it hasn’t done much of for years: hire scientists – a lot of them. At an event scheduled for Wednesday morning in Ottawa, Hunter Tootoo, the Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, is expected to announce that his department is looking to add 135 science-related personnel. The new hires would boost science staff at the department by about 15 per cent, its largest increase since the seventies and early eighties, when international agreements expanded Canada’s exclusive control of its ocean resources out to the 200-nautical-mile limit. “This level of hiring will almost certainly strengthen the capacity of ministry staff to provide high-quality science advice to decision-makers,” Jeff Hutchings, a fisheries scientist and professor at Dalhousie University in Halifax, said.Hang on Fishermen!  Read the rest here 14:16

Thursday: Challenges facing New England’s commercial fishing industry topic of public forum at RI College

A panel of government regulators, scientists, environmental advocates and fishermen will try to answer questions about the future of one of New England’s most iconic and important industries at a forum this Thursday. The event, which is free and open to the public, runs from 6 to 8 p.m. at Sapinsley Hall in the Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts at Rhode Island College. The panel will include: John Bullard, regional administrator with NOAA’s Northeast Regional Office; Graham Forrester, professor in the Department of Natural Resources Science at the University of Rhode Island; Erica Fuller, senior associate attorney with Earth Justice; Matt Tinning, senior director, U.S. Oceans Program, Environmental Defense Fund; David Goethel, captain and owner of the Ellen Diane; Mark Phillips, captain and owner of FV Illusion; and Daniel Georgianna, Chancellor professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Read the rest here 12:40

Scientists, lobstermen disagree on state of fishery

dt.common.streams.StreamServer.cls norbert stampsMark Sweitzer has a degree in chemistry, but he began fishing for lobster back in the 1970s and is still at it today. Sweitzer fishes out of the Port of Galilee on the F/V Erika Knight. “I like being outside,” he said. “I always thought about going back to school for geology or forestry or something like that, that would enable me to be outside. I love being outside and I love being around the ocean, so that was a big part of it, and I like having my own business.” Rhode Island’s lobster fishery may never see another boom time like the period in the ’80s and ’90s when there were plenty of lobsters and lots of money to be made. There are fewer lobsters and fewer lobster fishermen today, but explanations for the stock fluctuation vary widely. Read the rest here 08:19

Scientists have routinely exaggerated the “evil twin of climate change” aka ocean acidification

ocean-acidification-alarmA 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

New Study: Scientists unravel whale entanglement damage

Scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution have released a new study documenting how much damage entanglements in fishing gear does to North Atlantic right whales — one of the most endangered of all the large whale species. Their migratory routes take them through some of the busiest commercial fishing areas along the East Coast of the United States — including the Gulf of Maine — and into . According to the institution scientists, entanglements with fishing gear represent the leading cause of death for endangered whales. Read the article here, 18:32

Scientists, Fishing Fleet Team Up To Save Cod — By Listening

In the ocean off of Massachusetts, an unlikely alliance of scientists and fishermen is on a quest. They’re looking for mating codfish. The goal is not only to revive a depleted fish population, but to save an endangered fishing community as well. Frank Mirarchi, a fisherman in the area for 52 years, was one of those who came forward. “We know the fish are spawning somewhere in this fairly large area of several hundred square miles,” he told the scientists. “Help us find out where.” “We’re trying to fish but not catch cod,” says Mirarchi. “That’s the new strategy.” Read the rest here 08:20

“One Square Mile.” Narragansett Bay: Trawling bay becoming more dire, say fishermen, scientists

To begin the discussion, Espinoza posed a series of questions to the panelists, seeking input on what it was like fishing in the bay in previous decades. She also wanted to know how commercial fishermen are adapting in order to stay in business. Captain Denny Ingram is a commercial lobsterman from Warren who has been fishing for 35 years. He recalled his childhood in the upper bay, collecting rockweed to sell for a dollar a bag in the late 1960s. Read the rest here 19:25

WEST BOOTHBAY HARBOR – Scientists worry lobster conservation is faltering

Marine scientists and lobster harvesters in Maine’s largest fishery say some fishermen may be abandoning a key conservation method practiced for nearly 100 years at a time of growing fears that a run of record hauls is coming to an end. <Read more here> 09:48 The full AP story here  15:37

Summer winds are intensifying along the Marin Coast and climate change is a likely cause, a new study says.

msAt this point “we don’t know what the implications are,” said William Sydeman, president of the Farallon Institute for Advanced Ecosystem Research in Petaluma, who led the study by seven scientists in the U.S. and Australia. “On the one hand it could be good. On the other hand, it could be really bad.” Sounds about right! They don’t know,,,Read more here 06:55

Asian carp invasion a growing problem

No one really dreams anymore of completely ridding the Wabash River of invasive, destructive — and, let’s be honest, ugly-looking — Asian carp, a voracious breed of fish that grows quickly, reproduces rapidly and vacuums up so much microscopic plankton that it can starve out native species higher up the food chain. Read more here 11:26

Where are the fishermen/fishers/fisherfolk in all this?

With the working title, “Discard ban can benefit fish and fishers, but sustainability must come first” here are the opening lines of an article written by Bryce Stewart – and you wonder why fishermen get a tad upset when they read this kind of thing! Read more here  22:29

Satellite Observations Show El Nino Coming — And It Could Be The Worst In Decades

Data from ocean-observing satellites and other ocean sensors indicate that El Niño conditions appear to be developing in the equatorial Pacific Ocean. Conditions in May 2014 Read more here  16:07

Scientists sucking up, tallying baby lobster to predict future numbers

Divers wielding underwater vacuum cleaners are sucking up selected areas of Lobster Bay’s bottom this week, hoping to capture lots of baby lobsters. The team of federal scientists is counting all the hatchlings they drag up from the Yarmouth County bay. This research is being done from Newfoundland to New Hampshire and findings are shared with others in the field. more@chronicleherald 14:21

Watermen,scientists in Maryland – worst crab season in recent memory,blaming weather patterns, an abundance of predators and cannibalism.

It’s definitely an off season,” John “Willy” Dean of Scotland, a crabber who is the president of the St. Mary’s Watermen’s Association, said this week. He said last year he saw lots of very small crabs as he hauled in his pots, evidence supported by the results of an annual survey conducted by Maryland Department of Natural Resources. “We never caught those crabs. Nobody did,” he said. more@somdnews 08:48

 

Scientists, Industry Leaders Question Validity of Yellowtail Flounder Assessments

logoAs the Transboundary Resources Assessment Committee (TRAC) publicizes its recommendations for drastically reduced catch limits for Georges Bank yellowtail flounder, a diverse group of industry stakeholders and marine scientists are raising questions about the reliability of the TRAC’s advice and the underlying science behind it. This includes one of the largest industry associations, the Fisheries Survival Fund, and the current President of the American Institute of Fishery Research Biologists (AIFRB), Dr. Steve Cadrin. more@savingseafood  12:29
Scallop Industry: There has been “no progress” in Yellowtail Flounder Assessments  Links

Editorial: NOAA ‘Camelot’ confab cries out for accountability

It’s hard not to laugh at NOAA law enforcement’s role-playing workshop in which highly-paid and supposedly adult lawyers imagined themselves as “knights,” “merchants,” or “dreamer-minstrels” in the days of Camelot. Read more here