Biodiversity Is commercial fishing altering ocean food webs?

Posted on May 15, 2013 by Bob Berwyn

New study shows how the diet of pelagic birds has changed over time

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Studying isotopes in the bones of pelagic seabirds helped researchers track changes in thePacific ocean food chain. Bob Berwyn photo.

By Summit Voice

FRISCO — Some in-depth biological detective work suggests there have been drastic changes in open-ocean food webs since the onset of industrial fishing, with potentially significant implications for threatened seabirds.

The key to detecting the changes was analyzing the bones of Hawaiian petrels. The crow-sized oceanic birds range widely over the northeast Pacific, and their diets integrate food webs from that vast area. What the petrels have eaten is recorded in the chemistry of their bones. By extracting protein from bones and feathers and studying stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen in the protein, the scientists were able to assess the birds’ diet and how it changed over centuries. (more…)

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Fukushima ocean radiation panel to be live-streamed

Posted on May 3, 2013 by Bob Berwyn

Experts to discuss concerns about radioactive dispersion; viewers can ask questions via Twitter during May 9 session

FRISCO — More than two years have passed since a 9.0 earthquake and a 50-foot tsunami catastrophically damaged the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant on Japan’s northeast coast, but questions still linger about the long-term impacts of radioactive pollution in the ocean.

The quake and tsunami killed about 20,000 people, and some coastal Japanese fisheries are still closed due to concern about the radiation. Next week, an international panel of scientists will discuss the accident and potential impacts to the environment and human health in a web-streamed session at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

The panel will be held on May 9, 2013, from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. EDT and simulcast on the Web (http://www.whoi.edu/fukushima). Online viewers are encouraged to participate and send questions for the panel discussion via Twitter. The event hashtag is #WHOIfukushima. Questions during the discussion can also be sent via email to cmer@whoi.edu. (more…)

Filed under: Environment, ocean conservation | Tagged: , , , | 3 Comments »

Study links whale songs with specific behavior

Posted on May 1, 2013 by Bob Berwyn
Humpback whales in the Northwest Atlantic. Credit: NEFSC/NOAA

Humpback whales breaching in the Northwest Atlantic. Photo courtesy NEFSC/NOAA.

Acoustic research breakthroughs could help inform conservation efforts

By Summit Voice

FRISCO — Breakthrough software is enabling scientists to better analyze humpback whale songs. For the first time, researchers have provided the a detailed description linking humpback whale movements to acoustic behavior on a feeding ground in the Northwest Atlantic.

“We have monitored and acoustically recorded whale sounds for years, and are now able to ‘mine’ these data using new computer software applications and methods, “ said Sofie Van Parijs, who heads the passive acoustics group at the Woods Hole Laboratory of NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center. (more…)

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Ocean protection pays off for green sea turtles

Posted on April 30, 2013 by Bob Berwyn

Study confirms that turtles are using protected areas around Florida

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Green sea turtle. Photo courtesy Andy Bruckner/NOAA.

By Summit Voice

FRISCO — U.S. Geological Survey scientists say they’ve tracked endangered green sea turtles in Dry Tortugas National Park and the Florida Keys Marine National Sanctuary, showing that efforts to protect marine habitat are paying off.

The researchers confirmed the turtles’ use of the protected areas by tracking nesting turtles with satellite tags and analyzing their movement patterns after they left beaches. Until now, it was not clear whether the turtles made use of existing protected areas, and few details were available as to whether they were suited for supporting the green sea turtle’s survival.

“Our goal was to better understand what types of habitats they used at sea and whether they were in fact putting these designated areas to use. This study not only shows managers that these designated protected areas are already being used by turtles, but provides insight into the types of habitats they use most,” said the study’s lead author, USGS research ecologist Kristen Hart. (more…)

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Climate: Parts of western Atlantic reach record-high temps

Posted on April 27, 2013 by Bob Berwyn

NOAA documenting shift in marine species as water warms

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Looking down the East Coast from Cape Cod toward Long Island from the International Space Station. Visit this NASA Earth Observatory page for more information.

By Summit Voice

FRISCO — With sea surface temperatures at a 150-year high off off the mid-Atlantic and New England coastlines, scientists are document significant shifts in the distribution of commercially important marine species, with as-yet uncertain consequences for the entire ecosystem.

Those temperatures reached a record high of 57.2 degrees in 2012, exceeding the record high set in 1951. The average sea surface temperatures in the region — extending from the Gulf of Maine to Cape Hatteras, North Carolina — has typically been lower than 54.3 degrees during the past three decades, according to a NOAA advisory. (more…)

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California gillnet fishery eyed as threat to whales

Posted on April 25, 2013 by Bob Berwyn
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Spem whale photo by Tim Cole, National Marine Fisheries Service.

Endangered whales perishing in mile-long nets

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — California’s drift gillnet fishery may be classified as one of the most deadly to marine mammals, the National Marine Fisheries Service said this week, announcing its proposed list of fisheries classifications in the Federal Register as required by the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

According to federal biologists, more than three sperm whales die inadvertently each year after being entangled in the drifting nets along with other non-target species like sharks, turtles, dolphins and sea lions. The loss of sperm whales isn’t sustainable considering the small overall population, according to the proposed listing. (more…)

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Global warming threatens Atlantic cod stocks

Posted on April 23, 2013 by Bob Berwyn
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Atlantic cod are facing climate change pressure.

New study to take close look at climate impacts to commercially important cod fishery

By Summit Voice

FRISCO — With Atlantic cod already moving into waters around Spitsbergen — into Arctic cod territory — fisheries biologists are keeping a close eye the commercially important species to determine the consequences of climate-related migrations. Specifically, researchers want to how how the fish are responding to warmer and more acidic water, and at which stages of life the changes are most dangerous to them.

In the next two and a half years, biologists from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, together with scientists from Kiel, Bremen, Düsseldorf and Münster, will study all life stages of the fish and their genetic patterns: from spawn and the development of the larvae, through the juvenile fish and their favorite food, the copepod, to the mature parent fish. (more…)

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Oceans: USGS study helps inform rigs-to-reef plans

Posted on April 22, 2013 by Bob Berwyn
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A school of fish gather around the base of an offshore drill rig. Photo courtesy BSEE.

Few contaminants found in fish living around offshore drilling rigs

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — The idea of turning old offshore drilling rigs into artificial reefs has been floating around for a while, and USGS scientists recently reported that there’s no sign that fish living near the rigs are contaminated by oil from the drilling operations.

To help provide some baseline data for “rigs-to-reef” proposals in California, the agency compared contaminant levels in fish living around oil platforms with fish from nearby natural sites off the coast of California in the Santa Barbara Channel and the San Pedro Basin. The new and recent USGS reports are available online.

“As part of this study, we developed methods capable of detecting the extremely low levels of contaminants that we anticipated in these ocean fishes, especially since they avoid natural oil seeps,” said USGS scientist Robert Gale. “These results will assist decision-makers in helping to protect the environment off the coast of California.” (more…)

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Study: comprehensive ocean monitoring network needed

Posted on April 16, 2013 by Bob Berwyn
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Scientists say managing ocean resources requires better monitoring. Bob Berwyn photo.

‘To date, there have been few attempts to track biodiversity broadly in the ocean’

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — With the world’s oceans facing serious global warming threats, U.S. researchers say it’s high time to establish a national effort to monitor marine biodiversity.

Humans depend on the ocean for food, medicine, transportation and recreation, yet little is known about how these vast ecosystems spanning 70 percent of the Earth’s surface are functioning and changing. (more…)

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Circle of life: Marauding deep-sea monkfish prey on shallow-diving dovekies when the timing is right

Posted on April 11, 2013 by Bob Berwyn
Shallow-diving dovekies are opportunistically eaten by deep-sea dwelling monkfish.

Shallow-diving dovekies are opportunistically eaten by deep-sea dwelling monkfish. Photo courtesy Chris Melrose, NEFSC/NOAA.

Research aims to learn more about bird-eating fish

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — Everybody knows it’s a dog-eat-dog world out there, but when cute little seabirds start showing up in the stomachs of bottom-dwelling, deep-sea fish, biologists get curious.

So when USGS biologist Matthew Perry heard that New England fishermen were finding tiny dovekies inside monkfish, he decided to investigate how this previously unknown link in the ocean foodchain works.

“I was studying long-tailed ducks and thought, to avoid being eaten, these birds fly 30 to 50 miles to Nantucket Sound each night and return to the ocean in the morning,” said Perry, a research wildlife biologist at the USGS Patuxtent Wildlife Research Center in Maryland. “People ask why don’t dovekies fly to Nantucket Sound at night like the long-tailed ducks to avoid goosefish?  My explanation is that dovekies have small wings and can’t make the routine flight.” (more…)

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