Will expanded SoCal marine reserves work?

California spiny lobsters are the subject of a study by San Diego scientists and lobstermen to assess the impact of marine reserves on sealife. - Photo courtesy of California Sea Grant

 

 Written by Mike Lee | Science-and-Environment Reporter

Hotly contested fishing restrictions take effect across Southern California waters on Sunday, when stretches of ocean offshore of La Jolla, Point Loma and elsewhere will be closed to harvest.

New and expanded sanctuaries were designed to improve marine life and coastal ecosystems, but there’s sharp disagreement about how well they will work.

That debate has spurred a multimillion-dollar network of research projects designed to look across several species and types of habitats — an initiative that includes an unusual alliance between lobstermen and San Diego scientists.

Despite harvesters’ dislike of no-fishing rules, some of them are helping tag tens of thousands of lobsters in the expanded reserve system so their growth and movement patterns can be tracked.

“It’s in everyone’s best interest to establish a good baseline,” said Rodger Healy, president of the California Lobster and Trap Fishermen’s Association, who is based in Dana Point. “It seems like it’s working. Hopefully, this is something that is going to be a template for the future.”

Like many other recreational and commercial fishermen, Healy distrusted the reserve-setting process, which started in Southern California three years ago and included several emotionally charged public meetings. Ocean “users” said the process was rigged against them, while conservation groups urged larger off-limits zones.

In the end, the state Fish and Game Commission adopted 52 marine protected areas and special closures that cover roughly 354 square miles of state waters. That’s about 15 percent of the nearshore region from Point Conception in Santa Barbara County to the U.S.-Mexico border.

Efforts by some anglers to invalidate the process in court so far have failed, leaving lobstermen such as San Diego-based Shad Catarius to fret about their livelihoods. He figures he’ll lose a third of his income when traps are outlawed in customary harvest spots and open zones become more crowded.

“Instead of there being 100 traps in an area, you could have 200 or 300 traps,” he said. “There’s going to be a lot of tempers out there.”

Read the rest of the story on the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Fishermen, farming, mining groups decry ocean zoning

By Richard Gaines Staff Writer

Shrinkage of Humboldt squid puzzles scientists

A scientist uses his hand to show the small size of a Humboldt squid found in the Sea of Cortez (Steve Fyffe / Stanford News Service)

David Perlman, Chronicle Science Editor

Thursday, November 24, 2011

A mysterious force has stunted the growth of Humboldt squid in the Sea of Cortez, and marine biologists suspect a change in the weather is to blame.

The ravenous animals normally weigh up to 30 pounds when they spawn at 12 to 18 months of age, but Stanford biologists have discovered a group of the squid that weigh only a pound apiece and spawn at less than 6 months old.

The rubbery animals with their long tentacles are a precious livelihood for Mexican commercial fishermen along the Gulf of California, and they’re a prized prey for gringo sportsmen.

But to William Gilly, a marine biologist at Stanford’s Hopkins Marine Station in Pacific Grove, they’re a scientific puzzle.

In a paper recently published in the journal Marine Ecology Progress, Gilly said he suspects the squid’s shrinkage was caused by the abrupt warming of the gulf’s water as a result of an El Niño that was detected during the 2009-10 winter.

The El Niño phenomenon, also known as the Southern Oscillation, occurs periodically when high surface air pressure over the Western Pacific pushes temperatures up throughout the tropical Eastern Pacific, including the Gulf of California, causing water temperatures to rise.

In September 2009, Gilly said, he and his colleagues cruised the Gulf of California, better known as the Sea of Cortez, and found abundant squid in their normal spawning grounds and their usual size.

“But in May, a year later, we couldn’t find any normal-sized squid in their normal spawning grounds,” he said. “Instead, the area was full of smaller squid – really small.”

A month later, Gilly said, the squid were still very small and spawning in what was formerly the normal spawning area for normal-size squid, while one group of full-size ones had migrated and were thriving 100 miles north around the gulf’s Midriff Islands.

“No one really understands the El Niño phenomenon,” Lilly said, “but it seems to be the best explanation – a change in the temperature is enough to change the total environment for squid or any other living organisms in the gulf.”

Read the rest at The San Francisco Chronicle.

Squid fishermen ask state commission to halt closure

Commercial squid fishermen are enjoying a banner year and have asked the California Fish and Game Commission to take emergency action and increase the quota for market squid.

The Department of Fish and Game announced on Nov. 10 that the commercial fishery for market squid will close at noon Friday, Nov. 18.

The Commission was told Wednesday at its meeting in Santa Barbara that the squid will die whether they’re harvested or not. The Commission asked the Department of Fish and Game for an update on the harvest numbers and quota, and the Commission also asked the state’s Deputy Attorney General about the process for emergency regulations. Those details are expected to be worked out later today or at tomorrow’s conclusion of the two-day meeting in Santa Barbara.

Commissioner Richard Rogers, the chair of the panel, said there was a “mind-boggling bio mass” of squid. The commercial squid fishermen said the cold water event that exists off California has led to an explosion in all bait species, from krill to anchovies, sardines and squid. The “ocean is rich with fish right now,” one squid fisherman said. “There is a large krill population, and the squid are eating krill.” Fishermen believe the state’s quota for squid does not take into account boom years such as this one.

The DFG decided to close the season based on landings information and projections. The DFG determined that the season’s harvest limit of 118,000 short tons of market squid will be reached by that date. The squid fishing season runs from April through the following March of each year. A closure would mean the fishery would remain closed through March 31, 2012.

Read the rest at The San Diego Union Tribune.

Weather satellite budget cuts a ‘disaster in the making’ – Obama official

Jane Lubchenco, head of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency, criticises GOP moves to cut funding for critical satellite

Suzanne Goldenberg, US environment correspondent

America and Europe face a “disaster in the making” because of Congress budget cuts to a critical weather satellite, one of Barack Obama’s top science officials has warned.

The satellite crosses the Earth’s poles 14 times a day, monitoring the atmosphere, clouds, ice, vegetation, and oceans. It provides 90% of the information used by the National Weather Service, UK Met Office and other European agencies to predict severe storms up to seven days in advance.

But Republican budget-cutting measures would knock out that critical capacity by delaying the launch of the next generation of polar-orbiting satellites, said Jane Lubchenco, who heads the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (Noaa).

“It is a disaster in the making. It’s an expression of the dysfunction in our system,” said Lubchenco, who was speaking at a dinner on the sidelines of the Society of Environmental Journalists meeting in Miami.

It would cost three to five times more to rebuild the project after a gap than to keep the funds flowing. “It’s insanity,” Lubchenco said.

2011 has set new records for extreme weather events in the US and around the world, bringing hurricanes, heatwaves, floods, tornadoes, blizzards, droughts and wildfires. Ten of those events, including last August’s devastating Hurricane Irene, inflicted damages of at least $1bn.

Climate change is expected to produce more extreme weather events in the future, making accurate long-range weather forecasts even more essential.

Read the rest on The Guardian.

Growing chorus against catch shares

Written by

John Oswald | Staff Writer

A number of U.S. legislators are voicing their growing displeasure with NOAA’s catch shares program by asking the federal government to abandon the controversial fisheries management measure.

Simply, catch share programs take the total allowable catch for a fishery and divide it up into shares which are then bought by individuals, associations, communities or corporations. A main concern among those raising the cry against catch shares is that the policy consolidates the fishery in the hands of a few large operations to the detriment of individual fishermen.

On Oct. 6, Congressman John Runyan (R-NJ) sent a letter to President Obama urging him to reconsider the use of catch share programs for commercial and recreational fishermen. In his letter, which was also signed by Representatives Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Frank Guinta (R-NH), and Sandy Adams (R-FL), Runyan wrote,

“Excessive government regulations have played a large role in our continued economic crisis. One of these excessive regulations is the catch share programs for fishermen. These programs have proven to decrease the number of fishing boats, which can have long lasting unintended economic consequences, including the loss of jobs in the fishing industry.”

Less than a week later, U.S. Senators Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) and Scott Brown (R-MA) introduced the Saving Fishing Jobs Act of 2011 which would require, among other things, that the Secretary of Commerce terminate new and existing catch share programs that result in a 15 percent or more reduction in the total number of fishermen in the program.

“Catch share programs are driving New Hampshire’s fishermen out of business. Five months after federal catch shares were implemented in New England, 55 out of the initial 500 boats in the fishery controlled 61 percent of the revenue, and 253 of the boats were sitting at the dock, unable to fish without quota,” Sen. Ayotte said.

And as recently as Wednesday, an article in the Gloucester Times of Gloucester, Mass, reports that Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) has requested that NOAA administrator, Dr. Jane Lubchenco, declare the catch shares program a disaster.

Read the rest here.

Squid invasion photographs reveal a surreal nighttime event

The rare invasion of large and ravenous squid off Southern California has been more like a blitz, with the slithery cephalopods showing first off San Diego and advancing at least as far north as Santa Barbara.

This has sent anglers clambering onto fishing boats for a truly wet and wild experience, but for one resident catching the mysterious denizens wasn’t enough. Jon Schwartz dove in with his camera to document the experience from beneath the surface (his self-portrait is pictured below).

It was not the safest swim the grade-school teacher from Oceanside has enjoyed, and this is not something others should attempt. But Schwartz, who is an expert marine photographer, captured some incredible images and even brought a few squid to class for first-grade study.

“I asked a bunch of experts if they thought it was safe and they said it might be,” Schwartz, who specializes in photographing large game fish from underwater, said of his weekend plunge.

Read the rest here.

— Images are courtesy of Jon Schwartz and protected by copyright laws. To read more about Schwartz’s adventures, please visit his blog

Jumbo Squid Encroach SD Beaches

Humboldt squid have been seen swimming the red tide waters of San Diego

By Sarah Grieco

Seen a squid lately?

San Diego beachgoers have seen large, red and white Humboldt squid wash up on the shoreline throughout the last few weeks.

No, the odd-looking invertebrates aren’t invading the coast; they’re simply beaching themselves. But the reason the large-tentacled creatures are here is unknown.

“We don’t actually know why they’re stranding,” said Linsey Sala, the UCSD assistant museum scientist and collection manager for pelagic invertebrates. “We haven’t really nailed down one particular reason why they’re here.”

Sala said the Humboldt squid are historically from Chile, but in recent years have been expanding their range north. Scientists are still trying to figure out why the jumbo squid are coming closer to the coast each year.

Read the rest on NBC San Diego.

Agencies prepare to carve up coastal waters

Unprecedented zoning process will be based on ecosystem approach

BY MIKE LEE, REPORTER

State officials decided last week that a hotly contested set of marine protected areas will take effect in the nearshore waters of Southern California on Jan. 1.

That planning process split the region into pro-fishing and no-fishing camps since it started in 2008, but it pales in comparison to the scope of a federal initiative that’s starting to take shape as a priority of the Obama administration.

The coastal and marine spatial planning process, launched by executive order in 2010, seeks to account for the full range of ocean uses, from wave energy and oil extraction to shipping and recreation. It’s supposed to span broad ecosystems instead of relying on the traditional sector-by-sector approach to regulating ocean activities.

The blueprint will extend the debate about marine uses from the three-mile limit of state waters to 200 miles from shore as part of an unprecedented national effort to balance a growing list of competing interests. It’s never been done on the national level in the United States, though a few states and other countries have created similar plans.

Think of them like ocean zoning maps covering nine regions of the country that say what activities are best suited for specific areas. If they work, they could give industries more confidence about investing in certain spots and conservationists clarity about which regions are designated for boosting marine life.

“It’s important to get ahead of the curve as demands for space in the ocean increase, but also to move deliberately to make sure all the relevant information is assembled and everyone is included,” said Karen Garrison, at the Natural Resources Defense Council in San Francisco. “This is about keeping the ocean healthy and making sure it continues producing the benefits we depend on into the future.”

Momentum for ocean-use maps has grown along with concern about the ability of the world’s seas to handle pressures for ocean-based food, energy and other necessities. The California Current Ecosystem, which runs along the West Coast of the continental U.S., is among the most highly productive saltwater areas on Earth. It’s also one of the most difficult to manage because tens of millions of residents live within 50 miles of the shore and use the ocean in countless ways.

Read the rest from the San Diego Union-Tribune.

NOAA Fisheries Releases 2010 Fisheries of the U.S. Report

Today, NOAA Fisheries released its Fisheries of the United States 2010 report.

Fisheries of the U.S. is an annual snapshot of the landings and value of U.S. fisheries. This year it contains some good news – landings were up and the value of those landings was up. U.S. commercial fishermen landed 8.2 billion pounds of seafood valued at $4.5 billion in 2010, an increase of 200 million pounds over 2009 and an increase in value of more than $600 million from 2009.

Today’s report also highlights the top U.S. ports including our leader for the 22nd consecutive year, the Alaska port of Dutch Harbor-Unalaska.  And, for the 11th consecutive year, New Bedford, Mass., had the highest valued catch, due in large part to the sea scallop fishery.

Another aspect of the report is seafood consumption. In 2010, the average American ate 15.8 pounds of fish and shellfish, a slight decline from the 2009 figure of 16 pounds.  On a global scale, the U.S. continues to be third-ranked for consuming fish and shellfish, behind China and Japan.  Imported seafood continues to increase to help fill consumer demand – about 86 percent of the seafood consumed in the U.S. was imported from overseas.

As Eric Schwaab, NOAA Assistant Administrator for Fisheries, said in our announcement today:

These increases in fish landings and value are good news for our nation’s fishermen and for fishing communities, where jobs depend on healthy fish stocks. We know fishermen are making sacrifices now to rebuild fish populations, and these efforts, combined with good science and management, support sustainable jobs for Americans.

Read the full report online.