Sea Notes

Finding Bluefin Nurseries (and What It Means)

2008-10-02T12:36:10-07:00

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.

From Protectors to Pirates

2008-10-01T17:35:00-07:00

This has to be one of the most bizarre of all the unintended consequences of global overfishing:

Efforts by fishermen in Somalia to protect their tuna-rich waters from plundering by multinational fleets have created a flotilla of pirates who grabbed global headlines this week when they seized a cargo ship carrying more than they bargained for -- a freighter filled with tanks, grenades and other armaments.

According to Jeffrey Gettleman, writing in the New York Times, "The piracy industry started about 10 to 15 years ago, Somali officials said, as a response to illegal fishing (my emphasis). Somalia’s central government imploded in 1991, casting the country into chaos. With no patrols along the shoreline, Somalia’s tuna-rich waters were soon plundered by commercial fishing fleets from around the world. Somali fishermen armed themselves and turned into vigilantes by confronting illegal fishing boats and demanding that they pay a tax.

"'From there, they got greedy,' said Mohamed Osman Aden, a Somali diplomat in Kenya. 'They starting attacking everyone.'"

It's not easy being a tuna these days -- not in the Mediterranean or most other places, for that matter. Steve Palumbi's microdocumentary, Tuna and the Can, makes that abundantly clear.

But it's not so great to be a human whose relies on tuna fishing for food and a livelihood. If we don't get a handle on how we manage tuna fisheries, creating a generation of pirates in Somalia may be the least of our troubles.

River Dolphins Reserves

2008-09-30T08:29:51-07:00

Good news today for two of the world's rarest marine mammals. China has announced an extension to a network of freshwater reserves as additional protection for both the Baiji dolphin (the Yangtze river dolphin) and the finless porpoise.

The new network will connect exisiting reserves for these two rare species, who quite frankly, need all the help they can get. In fact, the Baiji dolphin has been declared functionally extinct. Sightings are occasionally claimed, but not verified.

The finless porpoise is believed to be down to a population of around 1,800 animals. This new network, which will protect their habitat and monitor river health, is a much needed boost. WWF, who is in part funding this effort, note that river dolphins are excellent indicators of water quality in their river homes. If the water is too polluted for them, then it surely cannot support human populations either.

Apart from the Yangtze, river dolphins are found in South America's Amazon, India's Ganges and Pakistan's Indus rivers as well as a few locations in south and south-east Asia.

Friday's Featured Film: Ocean Odyssey

2008-09-26T19:41:00-07:00

Since President Bush was able to find time to see the Smithsonian's new Ocean Hall today, it seemed appropriate to give you a peek inside as well. This is a clip from Ocean Odyssey, a high-definition film of marine life that screens in the hall, created by Feodor Pitcairn. It's designed to "transport you into the realm beneath the waves."

The Sant Ocean Hall (free to the public as are all Smithsonian exhibits) opened to the public today.

Bush's Growing Blue Legacy

2008-09-26T17:36:00-07:00

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...

2008-09-25T11:57:52-07:00

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

2008-09-23T17:23:00-07:00

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)

2008-09-22T18:02:00-07:00

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

2008-09-21T19:44:22-07:00

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.

Film Friday: Great Minds Think Big (like 5,000 pounds)

2008-09-18T20:10:00-07:00

The TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) Conference challenges the best and brightest minds to "give the talk of their lives" in 18 minutes. So many fascinating speakers (Jane Goodall! Malcom Gladwell! Michael Pollan!), so little time.

My new favorite is the talk given by the inspiring Dr. Tierney Thys, a marine biologist, educator and documentary filmmaker dedicated to ocean conservation, and to the fabulously weird and amazing mola (or ocean sunfish). The mola holds some impressive statistics. It is the largest bony fish - the biggest specimen clocked in at almost 5,000 pounds.

The mola mola at the Monterey Bay Aquarium is the "hidden wow" of the Outer Bay exhibit. See if you can catch it swimming by the web cam.