Sea Notes

Two Tales of Bluefin Tuna

Following up on yesterday's post about the fishermen's strike in Japan:

Russ Parsons of the L.A. Times blogs about how strikes and high fuel costs are affecting the availability of tuna and other fresh seafood in the U.S. He also quotes Jesse Marsh of our Seafood Watch fisheries research team on the possible long-term impacts if fuel prices remain high.

Our Stanford University colleagues in Barbara Block's research lab are also blogging, this time about their success in placing electronic data tags on Pacific bluefin tuna during last week's expedition out of San Diego. They put 112 new tags on bluefin, for a total of nearly 550 tagged bluefin in the Pacific since their Tag-A-Giant program began. (Monterey Bay Aquarium partners with Stanford on the program.)

As data come back documenting the migrations of these Pacific fish, we'll begin to get a better picture about their migrations across the ocean. Similar work by the Block lab in the Atlantic has resulted in more than 1,000 tags on giant bluefin over the past decade -- and a comprehensive picture of their travels through the Western Atlantic, the  North Atlantic, Mediterranean and Caribbean.

There's data enough to support a dramatic reduction in fisheries quotas -- if the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas can muster the political will to impose it. Sadly, the commission seems unable to do more than preside over a collapse more dramatic than the 90 percent decline it's already suffered.

Calls for a moratorium on bluefin tuna fishing in the Atlantic were ignored last year. Since then, the European fishery was closed early and European chefs have begun to boycott bluefin tuna. ICCAT has another chance this November. We'll be watching.

Fish, Fuel & the Future

The skyrocketing price of oil is having unintended consequences on the high seas.

From Europe to Asia, fishing fleets are staying in port and fishermen are rising in protest at the staggering cost they have to pay to fuel up their boats if they want to go fishing.

Right now it's a short-term crisis. But if oil remains expensive, the economics of fishing could well undergo a sea change.

And the results -- which are going to be painful for fishing families and the fishing industry -- could have some benefits for ocean wildlife.

There's general agreement that there are too many fishing boats in the world, many underwritten by huge subsidies from national governments, chasing too few fish.

Will those fleets shrink in size in the face of expensive fuel? Will that mean fewer hooks and nets chasing the fish? And will that, in turn, give resilient fish populations " target="_blank">a chance to rebound from the overfishing that has led scientists to warn that global fisheries could collapse by 2048 if we don't change our ways?

Time will tell.

If nothing else, some fishermen may do what U.S. shrimpers are doing: using biodiesel fuel and going green as a way to set themselves apart in the eyes of consumers who are looking for more ocean-friendly approaches to commercial fishing.

(Wild-caught U.S. shrimp is a Good Alternative of the Seafood Watch program at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Check our other recommendations for ways to select seafood and preserve healthy ocean ecosystems.)

The Perils of Penguins

Penguins have had a good run in the popular media over the past few years, from March of the Penguins to Madagascar to Happy Feet.

Outside of movie theaters, the story's not as great. Penguins in temperate regions already faced a are in decline because of a quadruple whammy:  mining of guano, egg harvesting, commercial fishing and oil spills.

Now comes a new study indicating that climate change is adding new stresses, as penguins are forced to swim farther from shore to find food. The loss of sea ice and icebergs means fewer places where their prey species can aggregate.

No polar bears in the Southern Ocean, no penguins in the Arctic, but these ice-dependent creatures face similar threats.

Dee Boersma of the University of Washington spells out the details in a paper just published in Bioscience.

There's a lot we can do as individuals to reduce our carbon footprint. And we can take ownership of the overfishing issue by using a Seafood Watch pocket guide when buying seafood, or becoming a Seafood Watch Advocate and encouraging businesses to change their seafood buying practices.

It won't happen overnight, but our incremental changes will make a different -- for polar bears and penguins.

An Ich-y Situation

Just when you thought the state of Pacific salmon in 2008 couldn't get any worse, come two more pieces of bad news: one environmental, one political.

First, Ken Weiss, the Pulitzer Prize-winning oceans writer for the Los Angeles Times, reports that Alaska salmon -- up til now in such good shape that they're certified by the Marine Stewardship Council as sustainable and a Best Choice of our Seafood Watch program -- may be in trouble because of global warming.

The rivers in which they spawn are warming. Warmer water is more hospitable to diseases and parasites, including "white spot disease" from a parasite called ich for short (pronounced "ick") that renders Yukon River salmon unfit for anything but sled dogs or the garbage.

That's an environmental wake-up call.

On the political front, U.S. senators and members of Congress from the West Coast are fuming because the Bush Administration is proposing to cut $70 million from the $180 million disaster appropriation to aid the salmon fleet idled by the cancellation of this year's salmon season because of the California salmon population.

The money would be redirected to help pay for the 2010 federal census.

In a letter to the President, the bipartisan coalition asserts:

“This proposal is especially egregious when you consider that your administration’s water policies on all of the Pacific Northwest’s major salmon rivers are the reason this disaster funding is needed in the first place.”

And that was their reaction BEFORE he proposed reopening U.S. waters to offshore oil and gas development.

The State of the Seas

Not a day goes by without a headline or broadcast report about something happening to the health of the ocean. The news isn't always good, but at least more attention is focused on the largest living space on the planet. With awareness, you open the door for solutions. (In the case of the ocean, ignorance definitely isn't bliss.)

With that in mind, the bad news first:

In the Mediterranean, new research estimates that shark populations are down more than 90 percent from historic levels 200 years ago -- with all the negative impacts on overall ecosystem health that result when you all but eliminate the top predators in the system. Hammerheads, mackerel sharks and blue sharks have been wiped out as accidental bycatch, or killed as pests by fishermen who don't value their place in the ocean's living web. And, sadly, there are still few regulations in place to protect sharks in the wild.

There's also disturbing news about the presence of chemical pollutants in the deep ocean. Scientists surveying deep-water cephalopods in the northwest Atlantic Ocean have detected chemical pollutants (like tributyltin and PCBs) in the tissues of deep-sea squids. Tissue samples from deep-sea squids and octopus -- including the cockatoo squid (Galiteuthis spp.) and the vampire squid (Vampyroteuthis infernalis) -- yielded surprising concentrations of persistent organic pollutants. Chemical like tributyltin (TBT, used in anti-fouling paint on boats), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), DDT and flame retardants were documented in tissue samples collected by scientists in the northwest Atlantic Ocean.

Why worry? Because these cephalopods are an important part of deep-sea food web -- including a source of food for deep-diving whales and dolphins.

On the good-news front, Southern California Edison is spending $40 million to create an artificial reef off the coast of Orange County as mitigation for damage to native kelp forests caused by discharge from its San Onofre nuclear power plant.

The 2.5-mile-long reef, mandated by the state Coastal Commission, is intended to provide footings to anchor giant kelp that will become the basis for a restored kelp forest ecosystem where wildlife can thrive.

Here in Monterey Bay, the return of sea otters from near-extirpation by fur hunters in the 18th and 19th centuries provided conditions for a similar revitalization of the kelp forests. Today, you'd never know that the bay was denuded of kelp by sea urchins, abalone and other grazers after otters were eliminated in the bay. They returned in the early 1960s, and the kelp forest followed them. Keep your eyes on San Clemente to see if the reef there has the same effect.

Finally, a celebration reported this week for "the most important microbe you've never heard of." NPR's Joe Palca took part in commemorating the discovery of a marine bacterium called Prochlorococcus. Why? Because it's super-abundant in the ocean, and is probably responsible for the oxygen in one out of every five breaths you take. Although it's one of the most abundant organisms on Earth, it was utterly unknown to science until 20 years ago.

A Seafood Webcast

Want to sharpen your sustainable seafood smarts? And pick up some tips on selecting and cooking  seafood?

You'll find all that and more during a Monterey Bay Aquarium video webcast this Friday, June 13 featuring Dory Ford, executive chef of our Portola Restaurant, Seafood Watch Outreach Manager Sheila Bowman, and yours truly.

Dory and Sheila will will offer recommendations on what to order at restaurants and what to buy at the market. And they'll share some exquisite sustainable seafood recipes from our annual Cooking for Solutions celebration.

Along with everything else, you'll learn how you can be an advocate for our oceans and spread the word about sustainable seafood in your community. And you can submit questions via email for a Q&A session during the webcast.

You can register here for the hourlong webcast.

I hope you'll join us!

Cooking Up a Storm

The connection between what we eat and the health of the oceans is becoming clearer every day. Scientific journal reports on the disappearance of 90 percent of the ocean's major predators, or the prospects for all commercial fisheries worldwide to collapse by 2048 if we don't change our ways give a sense of urgency to the issue.

That's why Monterey Bay Aquarium created the Seafood Watch program. And its why our Cooking for Solutions events include a day-long Sustainable Foods Institute for members of the media. We want to get the issue onto the radar of food editors as well as environment writers.

This year, we had an unprecedented turnout of top writers, from established publications like the Washington Post and Bon Appétit Magazine to writers and bloggers for newer online outlets like Sustainable Food News and Grist.org.

And they've already had a lot to say about what they learned.

- Gourmet Magazine's Barry Estabrook has posted three times, looking at the impact of climate change on agriculture, and twice about how to make good seafood choices. (And thanks to Gourmet for the photo.)

- Roz Cummins, who blogs for the environmental news site Grist.org, found a renewed sense of hope as a result of her participation, and offers up one of Rick Moonen's recipes (for Chicken-Fried Trout).

- Bonnie Powell of The Ethicurean explores in depth the issue of sustainability and what it REALLY means, tapping into the wisdom of Fred Kirschenmann, senior fellow at Iowa State's Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture. She also dives into the topic of sustainable seafood, with the help of Edible San Francisco Magazine.

- Sam Fromartz, author of Organic, Inc. and writer of the Chews Wise blog, was astonished (as we were) to learn from Chef Rick Moonen that Las Vegas serves up 60,000 pounds of shrimp every day -- and probably not much sustainable shrimp in the lot. Rick was an Institute panelist, and the author of Fish Without a Doubt.

- Radha Marcum of Delicious Living offers some bullet points for individual action (learn to love sardines is No. 1 on her list).

These are just the early web posts. Many more articles are likely to follow in print media, and beyond.

Last note: You know the message is getting through when bloggers like The Slow Cook's Ed Bruske take culinary leaders to task for serving up a cornucopia of Red List seafood at a showcase event in Washington, D.C.

Community Supported Fisheries

Community supported agriculture (CSAs) is a growing tool to save the family farm. Sign up and you get a box of fresh produce each week, straight from your local -- usually organic -- farmer. Everybody wins.

Depending on where you live, you can do the same (or similar) thing now in support of family fishing boats. Add the term community supported fishing to your lexicon.

From Maine to California, it's possible to connect directly with the folks going out each day to catch fresh, seasonal seafood. You get a fresher product from someone you know. The folks on the boat get a better price for their catch. Fishing communities stay alive and healthy, rather than withering away into "colorful" remnants on a once-thriving waterfront.

I spoke with Zeke Grader, at the Institute for Fisheries Resources in San Francisco who says you can't yet buy an actual share of the catch in California, though their website will hook you up with places to buy fresh seafood everywhere along the coast.

But as bloggers like Carolina Bolado on Menu Pages, and publications from Gourmet Magazine to the Christian Science Monitor are reporting, community supported fisheries are a growing trend nationwide.

You can, for example, buy a year's catch from a Maine lobster trap for $2,995 -- with the average catch around 150 lobsters a year. Or you can buy a share of the catch for just $249, with the guarantee of "a gourmet lobster feast for 4" from the lobstermen with the Catch a Piece of Maine partnership.

Closer to home, there's a Fishfone at Pillar Point Harbor in Half Moon Bay, between Monterey and San Francisco, where you can call about buying fish straight from the boat, seven days a week.

Check out a few other options with the Menu Pages links, or visit the harbors and farmers markets near your home that offer fresh-from-the-boat seafood.

Let us know what you find in your neighborhood. We'll help spread the word!

And if all this sounds like too much trouble, you can't go wrong by using the Seafood Watch pocket guide for your region to select sustainable seafood at the market, or your favorite restaurant.

Cooking for Solutions

Sea Notes has been taking a break, not just for Memorial Day weekend, but to recover from an amazing set of Cooking for Solutions events at Monterey Bay Aquarium. This year's program -- from a daylong Sustainable Foods Institute for members of the media, through a culinary gala with celebrity chefs, weekend food and wine adventures, and the fantastic finish at the Sustainable Seafood Challenge (our own Iron Chef-like event) -- was far and away the best in the seven-year history of the event.

Everything about the celebration draws inspiration from our Seafood Watch program. We celebrate around food and wine not only because it's a delicious way to gather people together, but because of the fact that everything we eat (how it's grown, how it's caught, how it's transported) ultimately has an impact on the health of the oceans.

For three days, we raise important food & environment issues for journalists in a series of expert panels, we wine and dine Cooking for Solutions attendees wtih gourmet organic cuisine, and we honor chefs who are helping transform the culinary world through their restaurants, books, TV programs, cooking classes and -- overall -- their leadership in the field.

The Food Network's Alton Brown was our special guest, and an amazing advocate for Seafood Watch and the sustainable foods movement. Whether it was diving in the Kelp Forest or emceeing the Sustainable Seafood Challenge with Hawaii's Sam Choy, he was both delightful to be around, and a staunch advocate for sustainability.

"This card changed my life," he said at our celebrity chef awards ceremony, holding up a Seafood Watch pocket guide. (And if it can change his life, what can it do for yours?)

Ireland's Darina Allen was our Chef of the Year -- an inspiration through her Ballymaloe Cookery School in County Cork, which is set amid 100 acres of organic farmland. (Her influence even spread to the Salinas Valley, where one young man was inspired to create a series of farmers markets because of things he learned at Ballymaloe.)

Much more to share, including the abundant reactions of media participants, who've been blogging like crazy about what they learned.

Bon appétit!

Manky & Brian: Seafood Champions

How cool is this? A law school student & blogger named Manky took up a seafood challenge from her boyfriend Brian

If she completed the school paper she'd been laboring over (loudly, while he was trying to sleep) & managed to turn it in on time, he promised that for the next two years he'd only eat seafood that's a Green List choice of our Seafood Watch program (well, except for squid).

She blogged the challenge, then blogged the fact that she met the deadline.

"Whoohoo!" she wrote. "I am totally motivated! If I write this paper, I can save lives!! (Wow, he really wanted some peace and quiet.) He's already given up the red side of the chart and octopus (I think it's just wrong to kill something smart) and I really didn't expect him to take this step. I'm so excited! "

A day later: "Paper was in on time - Save the Sea Turtles!"

So -- what are you doing to save ocean wildlife through your seafood choices? You don’t have to follow Manky & Brian’s lead, and entirely give up the "Good Alternatives" on our Yellow List. (Just ask the necessary questions about how they’re caught, and consume them in moderation.) But if you’re doing something, let us know.

Comment here or blog it, and we'll share the news.