Sea Notes

Finding Bluefin Nurseries (and What It Means)

New confirmation today that Atlantic bluefin tunas get together on their feeding grounds but are born in nursery areas on opposite sides of the ocean. And a new chance for you to take action to protect these threatened fishes.

In an article published today in Science, researchers used the chemical composition of otoliths -- the bones in the ears of tunas -- to identify precisely where young fish spent the first year of their life. Turns out there are distinct nurseries in the Gulf of Mexico and the Eastern Mediterranean to which parent fish return to give birth.

This is further confirmation of data gathered  in more than a decade of field tagging of adult tunas by Dr. Barbara Block and other scientists at the Tuna Research and Conservation Center, a collaboration between the Monterey Bay Aquarium and Stanford University.

And it lends new urgency to calls for better management of these critical habitats -- and better protection of tunas while they're in those waters.

Action is happening on two fronts. First, the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas meets next month in Morocco to discuss declining tuna stocks and ways to better manage species.  To date, the commission has failed to incorporate the new scientific findings into its management practices as it presides over the collapse of bluefin tuna populations in the North Atlantic and Mediterranean. (Remember what happened to North Atlantic cod?)

Second, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) proposes that bluefin spawning grounds and juvenile bluefin feeding groups be given additional protection in the Gulf of Mexico and along the Atlantic coast. It is taking public comment on policies that would define "essential fish habitat" for bluefins and other highly migratory Atlantic species, including several kinds of sharks and other tunas.

It recommends that key waters be designated as a federal "Habitat Area of Particular Concern" (HAPC) that would "highlight the importance of the area for bluefin tuna spawning and provide added conservation benefits."

The aquarium, and other ocean conservation organizations, called three years ago for just such a designation in the Gulf of Mexico. It could happen now -- with your help. Through November 18, you can weigh in with comments on the NMFS proposal. Here's how.

Bush's Growing Blue Legacy

President George W. Bush, who earlier this year indicated interest in creating or expanding marine protected areas in U.S. waters, took action in that direction during grand-opening ceremonies for the Smithsonian's new Sant Ocean Hall today.

He announced that the Davidson Seamount, a pristine undersea mountain off the Big Sur coast in California, will become part of a 565-square-nautical-mile addition to the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. The proposal has been under consideration for the past couple of years, and is strongly supported by marine scientists and environmentalists.

The sanctuary--the largest in the continental United States--was designated by Bush's father in 1992.

In his remarks at the dedication ceremonies today, Bush also singled out and praised Pietro Parravano, a commercial fisherman from Half Moon Bay, California who was a member of the Pew Oceans Commission and who is a current member of the Monterey Bay Aquarium board of trustees and the Joint Ocean Commission Initiative that's working to put reform of ocean management into action.

Pietro's been honored in the past as an Environmental Hero by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric administration, and was quoted by Bush as saying: "[Conservation] needs to be everyone's priority, because the oceans belong to all Americans."

If You Knew Sushi...

Great news for sushi lovers. Three leading ocean conservation organizations -- the Seafood Watch program here at Monterey Bay Aquarium, as well as Blue Ocean Institute and Environmental Defense Fund -- will release consumer guides for choosing sustainable sushi on October 22.

While the consumer guides –- in print, online and mobile device versions -– differ in appearance, all are based on similar data, and offer one consistent message: Our sushi choices have an impact on the future of the ocean.

"The reality is quite simple," says Sheila Bowman, outreach manager for Seafood Watch. "If you care about the future of the oceans, you'll avoid red-listed sushi."

For sushi aficionados, that means both pleasant surprises, and some disappointments. The "red" list includes items like bluefin tuna (hon maguro/kuro maguro) and freshwater eel (unagi), along with farmed salmon (sake). These species are either overfished, farmed with aquaculture methods that pollute the ocean, or caught using methods that destroy ocean habitats or kill large amounts of other sea life.

Green-listed "Best Choices" include wild-caught Alaska salmon (sake), farmed scallops (hotate) and Pacific halibut (hirame), in part because they come from abundant, well-managed fisheries or -– in the case of scallops -– are raised using sustainable aquaculture methods.

Pocket guides will be available on our Seafood Watch website on October 22 -- a day when we hope you'll take part in a Sustainable Sushi Party at home or your local sushi restaurant. The good news is that every sushi restaurant offers some sustainable items.

(If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, check out Tataki, currently the only 100% sustainable sushi restaurant we've found in North America. Casson Trenor, one of the folks behind Tataki, will publish a book about sustainable sushi in January 2009.)

In addition to our new Sushi Pocket Guide, we'll have other fun items for sustainable sushi advocates. I'll have more details in the next two weeks.

A Super Twofer: Green Energy, Healthy Oceans

What do cattails have to do with clean oceans and energy independence? Ask David Blume of the International Institute for Ecological Agriculture.

Blume believes that by growing cattails on floodplains and wetlands, we can create a supply of alcohol to fuel cars and generate energy -- and purify the flow of floodwaters that carry fertilizer runoff into coastal waters, creating dead zones in their wake.

Blume is sharing the concept widely. I caught a moment or two of his interview on NPR's Science Friday, but you can here the entire program here. And his Permaculture.com website is a great source of information on ways to use many fast-growing plants (including kelp, mesquite and prickly-pear cactus) as the raw material for an alcohol energy economy.

All of these native or naturalized plants, he notes, can produce more alcohol fuel per acre than corn, or can do so without the labor of planting and the cost of irrigation water and fertilizer.

Expanding the habitat for cattails means restoring wetlands that provide a vital role in flood control, groundwater recharge and as wildlife habitat. (If his concept catches on, maybe he can convince farmers in North Dakota to start growing cattails instead of killing them off in order to destroy nesting cover for blackbirds that are gobbling up their sunflower crop.)

There's more detail in Blume's best-selling book, Alcohol Can Be a Gas!. Check it out and let us know what you think.

A Future for Fish (and Birds)

Two good pieces of news coming out this week and last -- and both involve positive developments for ocean wildlife as a result of new approaches to commercial fishing.

First, the United Nations' Food & Agriculture Organization reports a dramatic decline in the number of albatross killed by longline fishing crews in Chile as a result of new methods adopted to protect the endangered seabirds. FAO fisheries experts are calling for wider adoption of the new methods by industrial fishing fleets worldwide.

It's another step in a direction that many fishing nations are already taking. And, as in Chile, there's a huge payoff for albatross worldwide -- including Laysan albatross like Makana, a rescued bird, pictured here, who resides at the aquarium.

On the fisheries management front, economists and ecologists published a study in the journal Science documenting that when fishing crews or cooperatives are given exclusive rights to a share of the catch from a fishery they are less likely to overfish.

Instead of a race to catch as many fish as possible, with no thoughts for what happens in future years, there's an economic incentive to sustain the fishery for the long term.

The keys to success in the 121 fisheries the researchers studied? Realistic quotas for the entire fishery along with individual "catch shares" that divvy up the quota.

It's a beautiful illustraion of how to reverse the "tragedy of the commons" -- one embraced by commercial fishermen.

Sounds like cause for hope.

(Of course, you can do your part by carrying and using a Seafood Watch pocket guide, or accessing the latest information with your mobile device at SeafoodWatch.org.)

Monday's Inspirational Photo - Cleanup for Coastal Critters

Saturday was International Coastal Cleanup Day, when thousands of volunteers picked up trash along beaches and rivers around the world.

I decided to join a cleanup along scenic Highway 1 in Big Sur, sponsored by Ventana Wildlife Society. Not only does trash drift down the cliffside into the Pacific and become a danger to marine life, it also poses a hazard to a local and endangered resident, the California condor.

We have featured the Laysan albatross a number of times in our blog, as we are fortunate to have one of these magnificent birds in our care at the Aquarium. Condors, like Laysan albatross, also fall victim to our litter. Laysan albatross mistake floating plastic trash for favorite prey items, such as squid. Condors search for bone fragments as a source of calcium and shiny plastic and metal objects are frequently mistaken for this supplement. Adult condors may also feed this micro-trash to their chicks -  a deadly diet.

Our trash collecting concentrated in turnouts and the connecting highway, where the population of 41 Central California condors are most frequently seen. We collected over 161 pounds of trash on Saturday morning, between about a dozen people. Without question, cigarette butts were the most abundant form of trash. Last year, over 5 million cigarette butts were collected. My aching back thinks I collected most of that this year! However, we were frequently rewarded with the fly-by antics of one of the planet's coolest critters, and I was happy to know I was working to help them, and all their cousins in the sparkling Pacific blue below.

Freshwater Fish in Danger

The most comprehensive study on North American freshwater fish in 20 years brings some discouraging news this week. Many fish are in decline – 700 species representing 40 percent of all fishes in streams, lakes and rivers in the United States, Canada and Mexico. The study was conducted by a team of scientists from all three countries, led by the U.S. Geological Survey, and was reported in Fisheries.

The last study of this magnitude was published in 1989. Since that report, a whopping 92 percent more species are now listed as in jeopardy, growing from 364 to the current list of 700 species.

Some regions are harder hit than others, with the most vanishing fishes listed in the Southeastern U.S., the mid-Pacific coast, and the lower Rio Grande in Mexico.

"Freshwater fish have continued to decline since the late 1970s, with the primary causes being habitat loss, dwindling range and introduction of non-native species," said Mark Myers, director of the USGS. "In addition, climate change may further affect these fish."

The upside for seafood lovers is that some freshwater fish can be raised effectively without allowing non-native species to invade habitats. Try U.S. farmed barramundi, catfish and tilapia. And use regional pocket guides for sustainable seafood recommendations tailored to your home turf.

Another way to help is to support efforts that respect our fishy friends, both marine and freshwater species, and the aquatic national treasures they live in.

An endangered holiday darter (Amicalola population). Darters are among the most threatened Southeastern fish; they have been likened to aquatic canaries. Photo by Noel Burkhead, USGS

Cleaning the Seas

Beach cleanups are nothing new. Teams of scuba divers even help with the effort underwater.

But this is something innovative: A multi-year effort in California to clean up lost fishing gear that's killing marine life in offshore waters.

Last week, California's Wildlife Conservation Board awarded $400,000 to the University of California, Davis for its lost fishing gear recovery program. The program has been in operation for two years already, and has recovered 11 tons of abandoned gear from waters around the Channel islands National Park and other areas of the state.

Now it has more money for its work -- enough to cover two years of operations.

There's more good news: The project is modeled after similar efforts in Florida, Hawaii and Washington state. With luck, more states -- and nations -- will join the effort.

You can do your part by reporting any lost gear you see. And those beach cleanups? They're coming up later this month. It's a great time to join in, if you haven't participated before.

Seawater Synergy

Now here's a brilliant idea:

Pipe seawater into the Sahara Desert, use solar energy to create freshwater via evaporation, then use the water to grow greenhouse crops that will feed a hungry world. And, as a bonus, build enough solar capacity to ship surplus energy from the Sahara to Europe.

It's still a dream, but there are demonstration projects in Tenerife, Oman and the United Arab Emirates -- and a lot of buzz today about the Sahara Forest Project, Check it out.....

As if that weren't enough, the Japanese are dreaming big, too. The Times of London reports on a vision for offshore "eco-rigs" that would generate energy from the sun and waves, and use some of the energy for aquaculture farms to raise seaweed, fish and plankton.

Picturing Excess - part II

Friday's film showed human excesses in a pictorial format. Today, I'd like to share this outrageous video with you, courtesy of the Norwegian Coast Guard. It shows a British trawler ship caught in the act of dumping over 5 tonnes of freshly-caught fish overboard, on its way back to the UK port. Although European Union fishing regulations restrict the amount of catch that can be returned by a vessel, they do not restrict the catch - resulting in this truly shocking footage.

I wish I could say this is an isolated incident, but sadly, many believe that scenes like this take place in oceans around the world on a very regular basis, but are seldom caught on tape for all to see.

Here in the U.S., the latest report from the government's fisheries management agency shows that over 40 fisheries are currently experiencing overfishing and a further 40 fisheries have been overfished in the past, which is affecting the species ability to recover.

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has been targeted with ending overfishing in the U.S. by 2011. Many scientists think this could be too late for some species, like Atlantic bluefin tuna.

Take Action on our website today, and ask NMFS to end overfishing now!

(Image courtesy of Mike Markovina 2007/Marine Photobank. This trawler is illegally fishing in a no-trawl zone Mayumba Bay, Gabon.)