3 Ways Chefs are Advocating for Sustainable Seafood

Chefs know food—better stated, chefs know good food. And now, more and more chefs are helping lead the charge for sustainable food.

Restaurants support millions of jobs and billions of dollars in economic impact in communities across America. They are integral to connecting consumers with diverse and delicious food options—including seafood. As demand for environmentally conscious food grows across the nation, chefs from coast to coast are emerging as new and powerful advocates for sustainably caught and harvested seafood in the United States. So what are chefs up to? Check out just three examples below.

1. Minnesota chefs demonstrate you don’t have to live near the ocean to be an ocean champion

In honor of National Seafood Month last October, more than 140 restaurants and chefs from Minneapolis, St. Paul and the surrounding area featured sustainable seafood options on their menus to demonstrate that prioritizing sustainably harvested seafood doesn’t have to be so daunting. Led by star chef Tim McKee and with guidance and support from both Ocean Conservancy and the James Beard Foundation (JBF), these chefs sent a strong message that the culinary community (even those who live hundreds of miles from the nearest ocean) is well positioned to have a big impact on where our seafood comes from. Check out the video below to hear more from Minnesota chefs who participated.

2. Chefs across the country are calling on Congress to support strong federal fishery policy.

In Portland, Oregon, a collection of culinary professionals came together last November to enshrine their support for sustainably managed fisheries that support culinary businesses as well as the health of our oceans—and thus, the Portland Pact for Sustainable Seafood was born. The Pact highlights a commitment to strive for environmentally sustainable food and to incorporate this principle into sourcing practices whenever possible. It also voices the chefs’ support for the core conservation principles of the Magnuson Stevens Act, the primary law governing fishing in United States waters. Since the Pact’s inception, more than 170 chefs representing 37 states have added their names and the list continues to grow. You can read more about the pact and its signatories here.

3. The James Beard Foundation is helping train the next class of chef advocates with Smart Catch.

Founded by the “Dean of American cookery”, the James Beard Foundation has been at the center of United States culinary culture for more than 30 years. The organization’s mission is “to celebrate, nurture, and honor chefs and other leaders making America’s food culture more delicious, diverse, and sustainable for everyone”. Through its Impact programs and Chefs Boot Camps for Policy and Change, JBF is helping chefs become not just community staples, but community leaders for change. One such program is Smart Catch, an educational program created by chefs for chefs to spread knowledge and inform decisions about where restaurants get their seafood. Through Smart Catch, chefs are giving themselves a seat at the proverbial table and using their influence to expand the sustainable food movement beyond our shorelines to ensure delicious seafood is available to enjoy for generations to come.

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Where are the Zooplankton?

Ever wonder how researchers combine observations of organisms in the water to what we can see from satellites? Read on for a summary of newly published research by Dr. Jean-Hoel and co-authors.

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Trump Aims to Slash NOAA…Again

Is our plastic dependence accelerating climate change?

With our over-consumption of single-use plastics and lack of adequate recycling programs it is more important than ever to understand the impacts of these actions. For the first time, scientists find a link between plastic pollution and climate change!

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Mysterious Orca Could Be a New Species

Minke Boings: A 50-year mystery and the science of listening in the ocean

The study of whale and dolphin communication has evolved from recordings of mysterious sounds, like the minke “boing,” which were recorded by sonar and antisubmarine warfare researchers. Now we can use sound to study elusive marine creatures, like the minke whale.

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What is Gestation Like for Ocean Animals?

Oc Overview for the Week of March 25 2019

Scientists rise up against statistical significance

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-00857-9

Duke Whistleblower Gets More Than $33 Million In Research Fraud Settlement

https://www.npr.org/2019/03/25/706604033/duke-whistleblower-gets-more-th...

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My first few months as Reef Restoration Project Officer

 

Our Reef Restoration Project here in Petite Anse, Mahé, Seychelles celebrates its 4th anniversary on 26th March 2019! So I thought I’d talk about what it is like to be the Reef Restoration Project officer, overseeing the day to day care of our corals and giving them the best helping hand possible.

The first thing that was clear to me when beginning this role was how far this project has already come. So far, our Reef Restoration Project has put up with incredible storms, a crown of thorns outbreak and a global bleaching event- just to name a few. So whilst I have only been on this project for two months, I am always able to look back and use the wealth of knowledge accumulated by my predecessors and use this to make the best decisions for the project’s future. With this in mind, we have recently formulated our first annual Reef Restoration Report.

The day-to-day tasks of the Reef Restoration Project officer are continuous and varied – there’s always something to do. Many mornings are either spent in the nursery doing maintenance, on the reef transplanting or on the computer –keeping up with the most current coral restoration news or much less glamorously, managing the spreadsheets.

Then, of course, there is the wonderful ability we have to use our Reef Restoration Project as a tool for education and engagement. Every day I am able to share what we do with others and then there’s no telling where the conversation will take you. It’s really interesting to see the different environmental perspectives of each person that we chat too and aid in their understanding of the importance of coral reefs. More often than not I end up learning something new as well.

 

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Tracing the Process of Nitrous Oxide Formation in the Ocean

First hydroxylamine measurements in the open ocean conducted by GEOMAR teamNitrogen is an essential element for both the life on land and in the oceans. Moreover, it affects the climate of Earth. However, many factors in the nitrogen cycle are not yet known or sufficiently understood. Marine chemists at the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel have now for the first time been able to measure a direct indicator of a key process of the nitrogen cycle in the ocean. The results have been published in the international journal Geophysical Research Letters.

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Progress in Ocean Observations in the Atlantic

EU-Horizon 2020 Project AtlantOS presents plans an for international All-Atlantic Ocean Observing SystemDuring a four-day long symposium at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris (France), the EU-Horizon 2020 Project on "Optimizing and Enhancing the Integrated Atlantic Ocean Observing System" (AtlantOS) will celebrate the success of four years of work involving 62 partners from 18 countries and 20 million Euros in funding. During the symposium a plan and ambition for the next decade of ocean observing in the Atlantic Ocean Basin will be presented. The international meeting will be attended by scientists, policy makers, users, funders, the private sector and NGOs. AtlantOS is coordinated by GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Germany.

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Improving the Safety of At-Sea Fuel Transfer

Alaska’s remote coastal communities aren’t on the road system, so when they need fuel—like diesel, home heating fuel, gasoline or jet fuel—it is delivered by ship. The coastal waters in western and Arctic Alaska are shallow and deep-draft boats can’t deliver fuel to shore. Instead, fuel is transferred—on the ocean—from large, deep-draft ships to smaller vessels. This process is known as “lightering” or “ship-to-ship transfer.”

“Lightering…is the process of transferring petroleum cargo from one vessel to another.” [p.1]

While fuel delivery is vital to remote communities, the process of at-sea transfer presents an obvious risk: the oil could spill and contaminate the water. In the Arctic, a major marine oil spill could have disastrous consequences for the region’s abundant birds, fish and marine mammals. It could also have severe impacts on indigenous residents who rely on those animals as important sources of food and as a cornerstone of traditional cultural practices.

There is So Much at Stake

Ocean Conservancy commissioned consultants at Nuka Research and Planning, LLC, to research and write a report that described how the process works, how it is regulated, what risks are involved and how those risks might be minimized.

The report revealed that at-sea transfer of fuel in western and Arctic Alaska has changed in recent years. In the past, barges delivered the most fuel in the region. But starting around 2012, companies began to rely on larger oil tankers capable of carrying higher volumes of fuel. These tankers may spend weeks or months at a time off the coast of Alaska, transferring their cargo onto barges for delivery to towns and villages. While the overall amount of fuel delivered hasn’t increased, larger volumes are located in one place.

“Potential environmental impacts associated with lightering operations . . . may include oil spills resulting from the transfer operation, a grounding, or collision involving the tanker, tug, or barge.” [p.19]

At-sea transfer of fuel is subject to federal regulations and international norms. When the transfers happen in Alaskan waters—generally within three nautical miles of shore—they are subject to the state’s spill prevention and response planning requirements. At times, vessels engaged in fuel transfers may be required to have a state-licensed marine pilot on board. In addition, operators who carry out fuel transfers apply their own safety standards, expertise and experience. So far, this system has worked well: there have been no recorded spills from ship-to-ship transfers of fuel in the region.

Close Calls

But there have been close calls. In 2016, a nearly 600-foot Norwegian-flagged tanker ran aground near Nunivak Island with 24 people and 11.5 million gallons of petroleum products on board. Fortunately, the ship’s crew was able to refloat the vessel and move it to deeper water, and the accident caused no injuries or spill. Outside of Alaska, a tanker refueling operation went awry in San Francisco Bay in 2009 and spilled 400 gallons of fuel into the water.

Improving Safety

The companies that conduct at-sea fuel transfers in western and Arctic Alaska have excellent safety records. At the same time, Nuka’s report identified mitigation measures that could strengthen the system. Some of the recommendations include:

• Considering remote monitoring of at-sea transfer operations using onboard cameras to facilitate oversight and enforcement.
• Continuing to update nautical charting in the region, with a priority on charts in areas that are used for at-sea transfers. Alternatively, in some cases, operators could consider conducting at-sea fuel transfers in areas already been charted to modern standards.
• Identifying preferred locations for ship-to-ship transfers, or areas where these transfers should not take place. This should be done in conjunction with local waterway users, including subsistence hunters and fishermen and commercial fishermen.
• Identifying best practices with respect to the weather and sea conditions under which ship-to-ship transfer operations should or should not take place.
• Considering pre-placement of boom before fuel-transfer operations take place so that containment equipment is in place in the event of a spill.
• Considering enhancements to spill response equipment carried on barges so that it is better suited to respond to an oil spill in rough offshore environments.
• Conducting drills, exercises and planning exercises to promote a rapid and effective response to oil spills and test preparedness for a major event, such as a tanker grounding in remote waters.

Looking Toward the Future

At-sea transfers make it possible to deliver fuel that is critical to remote communities in this region. To date, these fuel transfer operations have not had any reported spills, and the companies involved deserve credit for their good work.

“While there have been no recorded spills from [Alaska lightering] operations to date, there may still be opportunities for operators and communities to explore risk mitigation measure that may be achievable without adding undue costs to . . . fuel deliveries.” [p.39]

At the same time, there are significant risks from the transfer of fuel at sea. Nuka’s report suggests opportunities for additional mitigation measures to further protect against oil spills that could harm wildlife and habitat, or adversely affect subsistence users or commercial fishing operations. We look forward to discussing these measures with other waterway users and exploring the potential to implement even stronger best practices or standards of care for Alaska’s remote waters.

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Can Firefighting Strategies Save the Corals?

Coral reefs provide many ecosystem services, but are dying at an alarming rate due to stressors such as disease. Find out how scientists are beta-testing disease mitigation techniques derived from firefighting.

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Sailing the Seven Seas with Argo

Article:  S. C. Riser, H. J. Freeland, D. Roemmich, S. Wijffels, A. Troisi, M. Belbéoch, D. Gilbert, J. Xu, S. Pouliquen, A. Thresher, P.-Y. Le Traon, G. Maze, B. Klein, M. Ravichandran, F. Grant, P.-M. Poulain, T. Suga, B. Lim, A. Sterl, P. Sutton, K.-A. Mork, P. J. Velez-Belchi, I. Ansorge, B. King, J. Turton, M. […]

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Davidson Seamount: A Deep-Sea Oasis

How many species are in the deep sea?

How Can We Help Beluga Whales?

The first whale I ever saw was a beluga whale. I was perhaps four years old, visiting an aquarium, and stood fascinated by a creature so large, graceful and beautiful. Little did I know I would someday see hundreds of beluga whales in the wild, migrating through the sea ice off the coast of northern Alaska. Nor did I know that I would interview Alaska Native hunters to document their knowledge about the habits and habitats of these animals, thus finding my way into the community of beluga researchers that spans field biologists, aquarium researchers and Indigenous hunters.

Learning More About Beluga Whales

I was privileged to join all these groups as we took part in the second International Workshop on Beluga Whale Conservation and Research. With participants from a half dozen countries, presenting results from many more types of studies, it’s fair to say that everyone learned a great deal. Did you know that belugas can mimic human voices? And, they have complex social lives.

I enjoyed learning more about hunter-led sampling and satellite tagging projects. They have expanded our knowledge of beluga health and migratory patterns. In Svalbard, belugas hug the shoreline and stay very quiet, belying their reputation everywhere else as the “canary of the sea.” The presence of orcas is the most likely explanation—belugas try to remain quiet, to avoid being the orcas next meal.

In terms of conservation, many stories and lessons were shared, too. In the St. Lawrence Estuary of Canada, a small beluga population has survived pollution-related cancers and infectious disease, illnesses that have declined in recent years thanks to efforts to clean the region’s waters. Unfortunately, new pollutants are suspected in a sharp rise in the death rate of belugas giving birth in this region. And increasing ship and boat traffic may create an environment far noisier than the hearing-dependent whales would like.

Belugas in Alaska

In Alaska, only a few hundred belugas remain in Cook Inlet, the waters near Anchorage. Overhunting was blamed for the decline in belugas in the 1990s, but no one knows why the population has failed to grow since hunting stopped. Pollution, excessive noise, reduction in prey, disease and other culprits have been suggested. A combination of all these factors (and more) is most likely to blame. Identifying conservation actions, however, remains difficult in the face of uncertainty in our knowledge and high economic stakes for human uses of the Inlet’s waters.

Beluga Population Sizes Fluctuate

Despite these problem areas, belugas globally are a species of “least concern” according to the IUCN, with a total population of some 200,000 and most stocks in good shape. But climate change and increasing industrial activity leave beluga hunters and researchers uneasy. Small populations of belugas have a hard time increasing in number, perhaps due to some aspects of their highly social behavior. Medium-sized populations could quickly decline from overhunting, large ice entrapments, new diseases, major declines in available prey or other causes. Even large beluga populations can suffer from similar disruptions.

The Future of Beluga Whale Conservation

Continued research is one response to these concerns and to protecting the populations in imminent peril such as Cook Inlet and the St. Lawrence Estuary. There is indeed much to be learned about the whales, their ecosystems and their interactions with humans and human activities.

But we need more than research. We already know a great deal about beluga whales, and we need to put that knowledge into action. Doing so will likely require that everyone involved—hunters, scientists, conservationists, managers—move beyond what is comfortable and familiar, working with both our allies and those who may see things differently. The alternative is for us to stay within our comfort zones while belugas are pushed farther and farther outside theirs.

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A call for clouds in climate models

A new study suggests that clouds might play a bigger role regulating our climate than previously believed, and that they may disappear if carbon emissions continue to rise.

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Release the Robots! How researchers are studying stressed sharks

Have you ever wondered what happens to a fish after you catch and release it? Does its behavior change? Does it survive after it’s been taken out of the water? Researchers are now using remote controlled robots to answer these very questions!

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Can Coral Reefs Strangled by Algae Recover?

When a coral reef suffers from bad environmental conditions like warmer water, sometimes the coral can recover—but sometimes algae will grow over the ecosystem instead. Scientists in French Polynesia tested what makes a reef either rebound or convert to undersea algae fields after a disturbance.

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Five Ways Our Ocean Contributes to Freshwater Access, Or Lack Thereof

Access to clean water was one of the primary reasons why I became an environmentalist. During my senior year of high school, I learned about inequitable access to safe drinking water. Still, it was not until learning of the water crisis in Flint a few years ago that access to safe water has become something I think about every time I open a faucet to get water. I spent this past summer in Flint, co-leading a youth water testing and education program. Through my experience in Flint, I learned about the different structural barriers and problems that create inequitable access to safe water.

Many of us take water for granted. We don’t think too much about where our water comes from, whether water will come out when we open the faucet or whether the water we consume is safe. Yet, there are billions living without clean, safe drinking water, and this is not limited to people in other countries. Today, there are communities in the United States who don’t have access to freshwater, including rural communities in Appalachia and California, Navajo Nation families in the Southwest, and residents in Flint and Detroit.

This year the focus for World Water Day is addressing the reasons why people don’t have access to safe water for drinking, bathing, farming and other uses. While we cannot use saltwater from the ocean, the ocean still plays a huge role in the water cycle and ultimately, in our access to freshwater. Here are five ways our ocean contributes to freshwater access, or lack thereof:

1. Increased pumping of groundwater can cause saltwater intrusion, where saltwater flows into these freshwater aquifers

Saltwater intrusion is a major concern for coastal aquifers. A common source of drinking water for more than one billion people living in coastal regions is pumped groundwater. Under natural conditions, freshwater flows seaward via streams and rivers above ground as well as underground aquifers. There is some mixing near the coast, however, over-pumping of groundwater can reduce freshwater flow toward the coasts and cause saltwater to infiltrate the freshwater zones of the aquifer, making it unsafe for human consumption.

2. Sea level rise also contributes to saltwater intrusion

As sea level rises, this may increase saltwater intrusion in coastal aquifers, and reduce the availability of freshwater for people living in coastal regions. Sea level rise also affects surface water sources of drinking water because as sea levels rise, the salt front (where freshwater meets saltwater) may progress further upstream. Saltwater intrusion could lead to the relocation of water intakes, development of alternative sources of freshwaters and increased treatment costs.

3. Desalination plants are used to address freshwater shortages through reverse osmosis, but this can be hindered by biofouling, which is increased by ocean warming

Where challenges to freshwater access are increasing, desalination has been a solution for some. However, biofouling (the buildup of algae and bacteria on the filtration membranes of desalination plants) impacts the efficiency and sustainability of the treatment process. Additionally, ocean warming and ocean acidification due to carbon emissions in the atmosphere are both factors that affect biofouling development. Biofilm growth is faster at higher water temperatures, and ocean acidification alters the makeup of biofouling communities, making it harder for some to grow and encouraging others to grow more. Therefore, these ocean changes will need to be taken into consideration when developing ways to address the biofouling problem in desalination plants.

4. Warmer ocean waters alter precipitation and storm patterns

Warmer waters contribute to increased rainfall. Increased rainfall may result in more frequent and more intense flooding events, which could disrupt water infrastructure. One study has shown that increased temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean have been primarily responsible for the increasing rainfall in the Amazon rainforest. The Amazon provides about 20 percent of the world’s freshwater through the hydrological/water cycle, the process of evaporation and precipitation. Ocean warming also fuels hurricanes which can also lead to disruptions in water and sanitation infrastructure for communities.

5. Lastly, the ocean is part of the water cycle, which is how we get fresh water

Evaporated ocean water will eventually fall back to land as freshwater via precipitation. As I mentioned earlier, changes in the ocean due to carbon dioxide emissions, specifically—ocean acidification, ocean warming, and sea level rise as a result of ocean warming and melting of land-based ice—impact the water cycle by altering rainfall, flooding and storm events. Impacts on the water cycle have the potential to affect our access to safe water.

Water is life. On this World Water Day, we are exploring the linkages between access to safe water as well as healthy ocean waters.

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Throwback Thursday: Looking at a modern lake to study ancient ocean chemistry

How do you study ancient oceans, where so much of life on Earth evolved? Until we develop time machines, we often use modern day environments that in some way mimic these oceans. Here, we describe how scientists look at iron chemistry and mineralogy at chemical interfaces using a spring in Switzerland as a modern day […]

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Preventing Another Exxon Valdez Disaster

Rainwater floods an ecosystem of productivity

Phytoplankton fuel the productivity of the marine ecosystem. They need nutrients to carry out their cellular functions and, in most estuaries, nutrients can come from riverine outflow. However, how do phytoplankton receive nutrients in regions where freshwater river inflow does not exist? Scientists observed the influence of rainfall on phytoplankton community composition in Sydney Harbor, […]

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Denizens of the Deep: Are Brittle Stars the Best House Guests?

OC Overview for the Week of March 18 2019

Most recreational fishers in Australia support marine sanctuaries

https://theconversation.com/most-recreational-fishers-in-australia-suppo...

Fish in Tubes

https://www.hakaimagazine.com/article-short/fish-in-tubes/

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All things to all people: What different groups mean when they talk about the Blue Economy

Editor’s note: The term on everyone’s lips (and documents) these days is Blue Economy. In this issue, The Skimmer takes a look at what various groups mean when they use this term, how it came about, what it looks like in practice or could look like in practice, and why it has some people worried. We’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences about the Blue Economy in the Comments section below.

So what in the world is the ‘Blue Economy’?

• It really depends on whom you ask. The term Blue Economy means a lot of different things to a lot of different groups. For example, the World Bank defines the Blue Economy as the “sustainable use of ocean resources for economic growth, improved livelihoods, and jobs while preserving the health of ocean ecosystem.” In contrast, a recent European Commission document defines it as “all economic activities related to oceans, seas and coasts.”
   
• A 2015 article by Silver et al. analyzed preparatory documents for and discussions of the Blue Economy at the 2012 UN conference on Sustainable Development (aka Rio+20) and described four general ways that groups were conceptualizing what the Blue Economy is. Voyer et al. 2018 reviewed newer documents and updated those initial conceptualizations of the Blue Economy to the following:
   
  • Oceans as natural capital: This use of Blue Economy is used to express the importance and value of marine ecosystem services. It is used primarily by environmental organizations and is used to promote the societal and economic benefits (e.g., ecotourism opportunities, carbon markets, payments for ecosystem services) of environmental protection and restoration activities. Such activities include the creation of marine protected areas, decarbonization, and climate change mitigation. This conceptualization promotes protection of species and ecosystems as a driver of economic development rather than a competing priority and is the least common conceptualization of Blue Economy of the four.

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If a country is not very dependent on the ocean, can it have a Blue Economy? A brief interview with Joanna Smith of Nature United

Editor’s note: Joanna Smith is director of ocean planning and mapping with Nature United, the Canadian affiliate of The Nature Conservancy. In this capacity, she is the Seychelles marine spatial planning (MSP) process and science lead. She splits her time between Canada, Seychelles, and other travels.

The Skimmer: How have you seen Blue Economy develop over recent years?

Smith: In 2012, the European Union introduced its “Blue Growth” platform. This platform was heavily focused on employment and creating jobs in new and emerging ocean sectors. It was a diversification of sorts to make up for shrinkage in other markets. Initially it did not have a sustainability focus per se, but in the following years, the word “sustainable” became more prominent.

To me, the “Blue Economy” was launched in 2014 by small island developing states (SIDS). It is a fundamentally different concept from Blue Growth in that it highlights the significance of the oceans for these nations in the context of ocean conservation, sustainable livelihoods, economic diversification, and maritime security. For many SIDS, a high percentage of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) comes from marine sources – their economies truly are “blue”. For these nations, Blue Economy is not just about diversifying their ocean economies (the parts of their national economies dependent on the ocean). It is also about increasing the resilience of their ocean economies, increasing maritime safety and security (from piracy and IUU), improving ocean management and food security, protecting the environment, and adapting to climate change.

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Latest News and Resources for Ocean Planners and Managers

• Marine social sciences network launched
• New IUU Fishing Index maps global exposure and response to IUU fishing (read the report)
• Guatemala conducts marine spatial planning exercises
• New report describes changes and variations in the ocean over past decades
• Ocean acidification dissolving seafloor calcite in hotspots around globe
• Climate change changing ocean colors
• UN estimates improved coral reef health could generate over US$70 billion
• US National Academy of Sciences releases report on interventions to increase the persistence and resilience of coral reefs
• Report describes national single-use plastic policies worldwide
• Successful models for reducing marine pollution (wastewater, agricultural runoff, and marine litter) reviewed
• Measures to reduce plastic pollution in Latin America and the Caribbean summarized
• Report recommends ways to strengthen European marine ecosystem modeling to better inform management
• Open access book provides first comprehensive overview of marine spatial planning
• IOC launches Ocean Data and Information System (ODIS) catalog of ocean-related data, information, products, and services
• New guide helps marine scientists tweet more effectively

And check out new training opportunities on The Skimmer’s Marine Planning and Management Training page!

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Looking for marine planning and management tools?

The Skimmer’s new Tools page is now fully operational, and you can use it to find information on tools that deal with:

• Ecosystem service assessment
• Climate change assessment and planning
• Fisheries management
• Marine spatial planning
• Monitoring
• Stakeholder engagement
• And more.

The new Tools page pulls together journal articles, reports, MEAM/Skimmer articles, and other resources that provide information about a range of tools for these and other marine management and conservation tasks. Please let us know what you think!

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Bottom trawling may irreparably damage seamount habitats

Oceanic habitats are damaged by many sources. A type of fishing, known as bottom trawling, is especially destructive to the seafloor habitats. Scientists investigated how long it might take fragile deep-sea ecosystems on seamounts to recover from bottom drawling damage. Their results are not promising.

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What does it mean when scientists disagree?

In 2015, Senator James Inhofe brought a snowball onto the floor of the US Senate to demonstrate his skepticism of the widely held belief that the Earth’s climate is warming. While the stunt was lauded as ridiculous by the scientifically-literate community and generated a number of lasting cartoons and memes calling out the Senator’s obvious […]

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Interview with the Founder of #TrashTag, Steven Reinhold

Join Oceanbites on Twitter for a Climate Chat this Friday, 3/22!

Climate change? Let’s chat. Join us for the next three Fridays to discuss the global impacts of climate change, potential solutions, and the call for political action by youth around the world.

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The Dynamic Duo: Application of Complementary BRUVs and eDNA to Marine Fish Assemblages

Innovations in waterproofing cameras and DNA analysis have led marine scientists to apply these methods in unique ways in recent decades. Through the use of BRUVs and eDNA this article looks at fish assemblages in Jurien Bay Marine Park in Western Australia to compare these methods individually and combined. When BRUVs and eDNA were both […]

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Green Marine Species to Celebrate this (Almost) Spring

New ocean monitoring indicators: ocean acidification (video)

Ocean Monitoring Indicators (OMIs) are free downloadable trends and data sets covering the past quarter of a century. These are key variables used to track the vital health signs of the ocean and changes in line with climate change. Knowing how much heat is stored in the ocean, the pH of the ocean, how fast […]

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Marine National Monuments: Protecting Aquatic Life From Coast to Coast

Tags: 

MPAs

Via Bella Coastal Decor

"To protect bodies of water from contamination, assault and harm from other uses that put natural systems at risk, marine monuments and national marine sanctuaries are established. The major distinction between the two lies in the ways they are chosen and the laws that govern their establishment and maintenance."

Click here to read the full article from its source (note: external link)

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Devastating Heavy Fuel Oil Spill in Solomon Islands Highlights Risks of World’s Dirtiest Fuel

A change in ocean circulation makes for long glacial periods through the Mid-Pleistocene Transition

Isotope records from the Southern Ocean imply that prolonged epochs of time between glacial and interglacial periods through the Mid-Pleistocene Transition were caused by a reduction in deep waters mixing with the surface and the positive feedback it created with the salinity gradient.

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Why is an Orca Not a Whale?

How is the deep sea so diverse? The struggle is real for late 1900s ecologists

5 Deepest Parts of the Ocean

OC Overview for the Week of March 11 2019

Something smells fishy: Scientists uncover illegal fishing using shark tracking devices

https://news.mongabay.com/2019/03/something-smells-fishy-scientists-disc...

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Exploring Types of Invertebrates

How Jaws Could Cure Cancer: The White Shark Genome and Its Influence on Human Health

When you hear the words “great white shark” what thoughts come to mind?  Awe, reverence, maybe even fear? I’m sure you don’t think of how great white sharks can impact the future of human medicine. However, a new study by the Save Our Seas Shark Research Center recently found links between great white sharks and […]

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Ain’t No Party Like a Yeti Party

What Exactly IS a Narwhal Tusk?

You better repeat it: serial ocean acidification experiments on fish early life stages

To detect potential effects of acidification on marine organisms, experimenters most commonly use within-experiment replication, but repeating the experiments themselves is rarely done. While the first approach suffices to detect major CO2 effects, other potentially important responses may get detected and robustly quantified only via serial experimentation. A study by Baumann et al. in Biology […]

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Far-Flung Relatives: A seabird’s story of population fragmentation

The Peruvian diving petrel was once abundant along the Pacific coast of South America. These days, though, only seven breeding colonies dot the coastline, separated by dozens of miles. Conservation efforts were initially aimed at the species as a whole, but a recent study has uncovered evidence that calls into question how effective those efforts […]

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Where is the Ice?

Sub-surface Automated Sampler (SAS)

The sub-surface automated dual water sampler (SAS) was designed by researchers at NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML) and the University of Miami to help scientists study water chemistry on shallow reef habitats. It was also created to minimize some of the financial hurdles in marine research by serving as a low-cost open-source alternative […]

from Web sites and blogs – Ocean acidification https://news-oceanacidification-icc.org/2019/03/07/sub-surface-automated-sampler-sas/ https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Salmon may fuel a sky full of songbirds

Imagine: you are walking along a stream in the woods. As you look at the stream, you see bright pink fish-salmon-swimming upstream, and a diverse symphony of bird songs calls your attention to the nearby trees and shrubs that are full of life. Could it be that the ocean is linked to these woodland birds […]

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Corals, Lobsters and Oysters—Oh My!

Marine Education Milestones

We have just reached two milestones in marine education and outreach in Seychelles, the first being the successful closing of the second edition of the Blue Economy Youth Programme and the other is reaching 100 Marine Education lesson been delivered as part of WiseOceans School Marine Education Programme, so what better time for a blog!

The Blue Economy Youth Programme is an immersive five-day education programme created in partnership with the Department of Blue Economy and the Environmental Education Unit from the Ministry of Education and Human Resource Development, which was sponsored by the British High Commission Victoria, the Department of Blue Economy, the Les Laurier Eco Hotel Praslin, the Four Seasons Resort Seychelles and the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development. The programme is designed to provide 24 young Seychellois aged 11-16 years old with the theoretical marine knowledge and practical skills that will ignite their passion for further education, raise their awareness of threats to the marine environment and aid them in obtaining future careers in the Blue Economy.

Each day of the programme consisted of a selection of marine biology, environmental science, Blue Economy and career development classes. The afternoons were dedicated to practical training, including conducting scientific and social surveys, marine identification, presentation skills and field trips. To raise awareness of the Blue economic opportunities we had numerous guest talks from key organisations working in the Seychelles marine sector.

As the Blue Economy Youth Programme ended, it is with great pride that I have been reflecting on the second edition of the programme and I really feel that this year was a complete success. The 2017 programme was a great foundation and the students enjoyed it, but this year the second edition, it really felt like the programme went to the next level, not only did the students enjoy the programme, but they also really understood the message of Blue Economy, what it is, why it is important and how everything in Seychelles is linked to the marine environment. We added new activities such as fish dissections and taught the students how to work out how the fish swim and feed which the students loved.

We also included more student-led activities, one involved the students being in role play as the government, the public and local businesses where they had to work out what the Blue Economic value of certain areas are and then how they should best manage these areas. With minimal input from the staff, the students were having discussions on such a level that they would be more fitting in an official government stakeholder setting. Showing that if you give the students the freedom to express their ideas in the right environment and structure through constructive discussions, the students can really thrive and excel.

The programme received great feedback from participants and the parents, however, it was not until I spoke to a friend here in Seychelles I understood the great importance of programmes such as the Blue Economy Youth Programme. The friend who was not previously aware that WiseOceans ran this programme and said that “my friends child participated in the Blue Economy Youth Programme and before this the student was struggling and a bit lost at school, and after the programme the student is so motivated and has their mind set on working in the marine environment. The programme really galvanised their passion for the marine world”.
The person went onto say that the student’s parent was so thankful and happy that their child participated in the programme, as it has given them a real direction for life after school. When you hear something like this, for me it is so powerful and motivating, it shows me that all the hard work, all the silly background tasks and obstacles were all for a good cause, more importantly, something that really made a difference in a young individual’s life.

Anyone who has ever spoken to me knows that the reason that I am marine biologist today, being able to share my passion, is that when I was 16-17 years old still studying and a bit lost myself, one teacher created a spark of passion for the marine world and inspired me to go on the journey to become a marine biologist and educator that I am today.

It is also with great pleasure and pride that we have reached a milestone in the School Marine Education Programme, where we delivered the 100th marine education lesson. These lessons equate 155 hours of teaching for students across 17 Seychellois primary and secondary schools. Where we have engaged with 2935 students and 356 teachers over the past year, with the most common lessons delivered so far being marine food webs and invertebrates.

The programme which is funded by the GEF Small Grants Programme and the Four Seasons Resort Seychelles and was created by WiseOceans in partnership with the Ministry of Education and Human Resource Development with the aim to spread marine education in Seychelles’ schools and also build capacity amongst teachers so that they can also teach marine lessons.

Away from the students, we have also delivered 8 teacher training sessions, focusing on giving the teachers not only the knowledge but also all the resources they need to give marine-themed lessons themselves to their students. Through the sessions we have engaged with 284 teachers including a session for trainee science teachers at the Seychelles Institute of Teacher Education as well as an “International Year of the Reef” themed teacher training session to approximately 50 international teachers from all over the world at the Trust for Sustainable Living international conference in 2018, which was delivered in cooperation with the University of Seychelles.

Through this project we have delivered over 60 hours of community engagement, from talks at the museum to attending public outreach events, it has been a great opportunity to interact and share information about the oceans.

To think back two years ago when I first started to where we are now, implementing two editions of Blue Economy Youth Programme and finishing our first year of School Marine Education Programme as well as the other smaller projects we have implemented it has been a great success so far and I look forward to seeing what we can achieve in the future.

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Global Ocean Refuge Partner Spotlight: MARE

Are they here or not: Severely reduced fish species can be hard to protect

New laws trying to protect the red steenbras have been put in place every few years since 1984, and yet the red steenbras is more elusive than ever in South Africa. With so much effort going in to saving the fish, why is it so hard to make a difference?

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Animals You Didn’t Know Were Related to Sharks

OC Overview for the Week of March 04 2019

Launch of the IUU Fishing Index

https://globalinitiative.net/launch-of-the-iuu-fishing-index/

Scientists Shocked By Rare, Giant Sunfish Washed Up On California Beach

https://www.npr.org/2019/02/28/699004730/scientists-shocked-by-rare-gian...

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Partnering with NOAA to Ensure Safe Drinking Water

Cleveland Water is the lead public water system in the Lake Erie Hypoxia Forecasting Project which began in March 2017. This 5-year grant project brings together inter-agency and university scientists to produce a forecasting system that will predict the location and movement of hypoxic water in Lake Erie.

Partnerships between federal agencies like NOAA and local utilities like Cleveland Water are the key to ensuring clean and safe drinking water for communities across the country.

Each day Cleveland Water’s four treatment plants bring water from offshore in Lake Erie, treat it and then pump clean drinking water through the 5,300 miles of water mains that serve Cuyahoga County and parts of four surrounding counties. As the ninth largest public water system in the United States, Cleveland Water ensures that 1.5 million people and thousands of businesses have reliable access to safe drinking water. NOAA’s tracking of real-time water quality conditions in Lake Erie is crucial because it allows us to adjust our water treatment process and guarantee that our customers never notice a difference at the tap.

Like other public water systems, Cleveland Water depends on data and support from local, state and federal partners. Collectively, our partners have access to billions of dollars’ worth of satellite systems, ships, buoys, aircraft, research facilities, high-performance computing and information management and distribution systems.

Water quality data collected by our partners helps us develop models (like the Lake Erie Hypoxia Forecast Model) that send advance warnings when sub-standard water could enter our system. Being able to adapt quickly to potentially harmful water changes is important to local communities and economies. Ocean Conservancy and Great Lakes Outreach Media captured our problem-solving efforts in the video below, where we show how we work with our stakeholders to monitor the Great Lakes and continue improving our water treatment system.

Cleveland Water is addressing issues head-on with advanced planning and programs. We are implementing a system-wide corrosion control program, removing all lead service lines when disturbed, researching and improving our water treatment process and educating customers about actions they need to take when it comes to water.

Moving forward, we are excited to work with our partners to invent buoys that can be deployed year-round and create sensors that can provide real-time monitoring. These collaborative partnerships—along with innovative technology and tools—are what ensure we can continue delivering safe and clean drinking water to our customers for years to come.

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The geographic bias in the media reporting of predator-human interactions around the world and its impact on conservation actions

Lions, and tigers, and bears, oh my! Read on to read about how reporting influences our perception of human-predator interactions, and resulting conservation efforts.

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Let Communities Decide How to Keep Their Beaches Trash-Free

Florida’s cultural and ecological diversity is her pride and the keystone of the Floridian identity, and Floridians in their diverse and individual local communities know what’s best for their local coasts and waters. It’s those people that are out on the beaches and out on the water every day, working, living and playing on the coasts and waterways that are their backyards that know what kinds of conservation measures are needed to fix the unique environmental problems their communities face. And so, when Floridians turn to their local governments, to their mayors and city councils, to address coastal problems such as plastic pollution on the beach and in the ocean, the Florida legislature should heed to the will of the local citizens and yield to home rule.

Unfortunately, the Florida legislature is considering some regressive restrictions that would undermine the freedom of local communities to execute their home rule powers on key environmental issues, and worse, that would contravene the desire of Floridians to keep things like single-use plastic bags and plastic straws out of our waterways and off of our beaches.

To the rest of the world, Florida seems like the land of endless summer—a tropical medley of beautiful beaches, giant reptiles, palm trees and colorful characters. Everyone wears flip-flops, goes fishing on the weekends and eats conch fritters for lunch every day while jamming out to Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville.

Ok, we’ll admit that a lot of that is true. But the deeper reality is that there are many different Floridas within the state’s borders. As the third largest state, Florida is extremely diverse with more than 20 million people living in different communities ranging from the tranquil southern-accented Panhandle to the fast-paced urban cosmopolitanism of South Florida to the sprawling clash of South-meets-North-meets-Latin-America of the I-4 corridor. Florida also has a tremendous amount of ecological diversity across her 1,300 miles of coastline. The spartina grass salt marshes of Northeast Florida give way to mangroves in the South; the coral reef laced islets of the Keys transition to the Everglades and more mangroves up the Gulf Coast; the Nature Coast’s vast cypress hammocks give way to the rolling dunes of the panhandle.

We know from the International Coastal Cleanup that Florida volunteers have picked up hundreds of thousands of these unnecessary plastic products over the past three decades. In 2017 alone, Florida volunteers picked up more than 14,000 plastic bags and 26,500 plastic straws—each of these items could have otherwise injured or killed an endangered sea turtle nesting on the beach or foraging in waters just offshore. Florida Senate Bill 588 has been introduced and would limit the ability of local governments to pass laws that restrict or reduce the use of plastic in their communities. Even worse, the bill would invalidate regulations already passed by local governments that have been successful in restricting single-use plastics that end up in local waterways.

We believe that locals should retain the freedom to decide what’s best for their communities, especially when it comes to smart policy that keeps harmful plastic pollution and other waste off of Florida’s beautiful beaches and ocean environments. As we’ve said before, Florida’s ocean and coastal environments are at a crossroads, and we are facing an “all hands on deck” moment. Solving Florida’s ocean challenges will require all of us to work together, from Congress to city hall to the actions of individuals—our friends and our neighbors. It just doesn’t make sense for the state legislature to sideline local governments and legally prohibit mayors and city councils from being part of the solution.

Because at the end of the day, we should all be able to sit under a palm on the Florida coast sipping a margarita…sans straw, of course!

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Is the Deep Pacific Cooling?

Observations from the past several decades show that the ocean is currently warming in response to increased atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations. A recent study suggests that the deep Pacific may actually be cooling however. This is because of ocean transport pathways, which dictate that the waters in the deep Pacific have not been at the […]

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A Sea of Many Colors

The effects of climate change can range from prosaic to pernicious, from scary to surprising. A recent paper in Nature Communications spurred the imagination of readers and reporters by discussing how ocean color may change due to a changing climate, and what this can tell us about how and where ecosystems are responding. This inspired me to reflect on the different ways our actions affect our environment. My thoughts expanded beyond photosynthesis and phytoplankton to shifting perceptions as well as ecosystem changes. These are likely adverse—for me, they came out in verse:

Our view of the world is colored

by reflection and radiance

and responds as we change—

yellow, orange, red, indigo, violet.

Blue. Green.

Blue-green ocean and our

ocean view; we thought it was

vast, wide, unencumbered,

colored by our memories alone.

We change and we change

its colors.

Still imperceptible, slight shifts

light shifts

swinging greener,

green tides of new communities.

Uncontrolled growth leading to

uncontrolled growth but also,

diving deeper, blue and

less productive.

Changing colors as we change

Our climate; and we ask,

“How does the color of the ocean change?”

(why)

“When will these changes be unambiguous relative to natural interannual variability?”

(what)

Uncomprehending, we don’t see changes,

but we answer as we model

shifting patterns of sea changes,

our world responding to our weight.

We show true colors, blue colors,

green colors, reflections of

our effects, affected by our actions

our sea.

A shimmering chimera

That reflects us.

Review our acts and

re-view our future

colored by reflection undimmed,

uncertain, by chance…

Seize time, change change,

and paint a vision where

we shine.

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Ocean Conservancy expert testifies on coastal & ocean impacts of climate, acidification

WASHINGTON, DC – Rising carbon pollution is not only warming the world’s ocean – it’s also changing its very chemistry, marine scientist Sarah Cooley, Ph.D., told members U.S. House Committee on Science, Space & Technology Subcommittee on Environment today. “Our ocean and the people who depend on it are facing unprecedented challenges,” Dr. Cooley warned. […]

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