Voxy

Deep sea technology that will provide some of the world’s most accurate and useful marine sustainability research is being launched today.

In a world-first, New Zealand fishing company Sealord has invested more than $750,000 in a new multi-frequency Acoustic Optical System (AOS).

At an event on-board Thomas Harrison, prior to the vessel taking the new equipment on its first sea-trial, Minister of Primary Industries Nathan Guy launched the new AOS which will provide a boost to the science that contributes to New Zealand’s world recognised Quota Management System.

The equipment allows scientist to use acoustics (sound) at different frequencies; and optics (visual) to understand what is happening with the fish in the ocean, and the marine environment.

Read more

Barents Observer

The first salmon genome — of a female fish named Sally — will be fully sequenced by the end of 2013 and researchers from around the world are already exploring ways to use this reference genome to address challenges in salmon farming and production.

“The expectations are that this will make aquaculture better, more directed and more sustainable,” explains Steinar Bergseth, chair of the International Collaboration to Sequence the Salmon Genome and advisor for the Research Council of Norway. “We can tap into the genes and understand how these are regulated with regard to diseases, food uptake, treatment of the animal and environmental adaptations.”

The sequencing of the salmon genome began in 2009 after research funding bodies from Norway, Canada and Chile pumped millions of dollars into the project. The genome sequence was supposed to be completed this spring, but the complexity of the sequencing meant timelines had to be pushed back.

“It’s not a very straightforward genome to sequence,” Bergseth says.

Read more

Pacific News Center

A veteran group of scientists and fishers will embark on a weeks-long journey through the Pacific in search of better fishing practices, identifying techniques that reduce the potentially wasteful catch of unwanted species. They’ll be onboard the Cape Finisterre, part of Tri Marine’s fleet of fishing vessels, for the sixth leg of the ISSF #BycatchProject in a region where roughly 51 percent of the world’s tuna is fished. At least 75 percent of the catch is made by purse seine vessels, which use a net to encircle and catch tuna. The #BycatchProject aims to reduce bycatch associated with purse seine vessels, particularly those that utilize floating objects, called FADs.

The research team will focus on three main projects, including observing tuna swimming underneath fish aggregating devices (FADs), as well as studying how these fish behave inside the fishing net. This information helps to determine how different species might separate when encircled in a net, which could provide opportunities for releasing the non-targeted catch.

“We’re thrilled to get back out on the water, along with this crew in order to build upon our successes from last year,” said lead scientist Jeff Muir. “And these truly are ‘our’ successes. The guys that work on this vessel played an important role in our project last year and they will be just as important to the discovery process this time.”

Researchers will also spend part of their trip tracking large marine animals. The survival of these species – such as sharks and manta rays – will be studied through tagging onboard the Cape Finisterre.  When the opportunity arises, researchers will handle the animals using identified best practices, tag them and then release them back into the Pacific.  Stress or physical damage can prevent them from thriving once released, so tagging and following the released sharks and rays can help to determine their chances of survival.

Read more

The San Francisco Chronicle

New research indicates that Lake Superior’s warming water is probably already affecting its most abundant big fish: the cold water-loving siscowet lake trout.

Increasing water temperatures over the last three decades have made conditions more favorable for chinook salmon, walleye and lean lake trout but less favorable for siscowet lake trout.

The study conducted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison estimates that fatty siscowets have lost about 20 percent of their historic habitat because of the temperature changes that have already occurred.

The research used a mix of computer modeling and temperature measurements. It was funded by Wisconsin Sea Grant.

Read more

Wisconsin Watch

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee have found that low doses of a chemical mixture of an herbicide and a plasticizer can lower testosterone levels in fathead minnows.

Testosterone plays a key role in male human health, regulating everything from the development of reproductive tissue to the building of bone and muscle.

The researchers exposed the fish to a blend of linuron, an herbicide used to control grasses and weeds, and DEHP, a plasticizer used to make medical products.

The chemicals are each known as potent disruptors of testosterone at high levels. But less is known about the effects of low doses and mixtures of chemicals, which is how humans and wildlife are usually exposed.

Read more

PhysOrg

A new study published in PNAS argues that for fisheries policies to be effective they must take in to account not just fish stock conservation and environmental issues, but also research data on the patterns and dynamics of fish trade, markets and user consumption.

Securing the critical contribution of wild fish stocks to food and nutrition security in the developing world depends on better governance and management of the fisheries sector.

Fish is a key source of animal protein, fatty acids, vitamins, and micronutrients like iron and zinc that contribute to a balanced diet, and is a particularly important food source in many developing countries.

A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America argues that for fisheries policies to be effective they must take in to account not just fish stock conservation and environmental issues, but also research data on the patterns and dynamics of fish trade, markets and user consumption.

Read more

KOMO News

Scientists are eager for access to information from a quarter-billion dollar lab at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean that they hope will teach them about climate change, earthquakes and even the origins of life on Earth and other planets.

The $239 million National Science Foundation project will install video cameras, seismic monitors and other gauges along a volcano in deep waters off the Pacific Northwest coast, giving researchers the ability to monitor activity 2 miles below the ocean surface.

The project could potentially warn of earthquakes that would threaten the Seattle area, according to scientists.

“It really will make a huge difference,” said University of Washington oceanography professor John Delaney, who is leading the effort.

Read more

Science Recorder

Two major studies seem to be rewriting the rules of evolution.

According to new research on the evolution of the human hip bone, the process of change from the simple hips of a fish to the complex, weight-bearing hips of homo sapiens was far less complicated than previously thought. This study, along with those comparing genetic distances between human and other species, underscores just how closely related all living creatures are to one another.

Four-legged animals, or tetrapods, ventured onto land for the first time about 395 million years ago. One important evolutionary change that made this possible was the development of strong hipbones connected by an ilium. The ilium is the largest, most uppermost bone of the pelvic and is present in birds, mammals, and all reptiles except snakes–but not in fish.

Read more

CNS News

The Department of Interior is providing $472,150 grant funding to increase the survival of two endangered fish species by “training” them to “recognize and avoid predators.”

“The objective of the proposed project is to determine if training increases Bonytail and Razorback Sucker survival when exposed to predators,” the grant abstract states. “This proposal builds upon the 2012 Bureau of Reclamation assistance agreement with the Arizona Game and Fish Department (AZGFD) tasked with investigating the potential for training Bonytail and Razorback Suckers to recognize and avoid predators.

“One of the early conclusions of the prior work is that the schooling behavior of Bonytail may allow untrained fish to show improved survival because they recognize predator avoidance behaviors exhibited by trained individuals,” the abstract states.

The funds, announced on Grants.gov on May 9, 2013 and set for a June 22, 2013 activation, will be given to the Bureau of Reclamation, Lower Colorado Region. The two species – Bonytail minnow and Razorback Sucker – are found in the Colorado River.

Read more

Science Codex

The impact of industrial fishing on coastal ecosystems has been studied for many years. But how it affects food webs in the open ocean―a vast region that covers almost half of the Earth’s surface―has not been very clear. So a team of Smithsonian and Michigan State University scientists and their colleagues looked to the ancient bones of seabirds for answers, revealing some of the dramatic changes that have happened within open-ocean food webs since the onset of industrial fishing. The team’s research is published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Few records of species that live in the open ocean date back more than 60 years, and the sheer size of open-ocean regions makes their food webs difficult to study. The Hawaiian petrel (Pterodroma sandwichensis), a crow-sized oceanic bird, offered the team a solution. These 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. What they found from bones 100 to 4,000 years old were nitrogen isotope ratios that were consistently high, indicating a diet of relatively large prey. Those less than a century old, after industrial fishing started, had low ratios, revealing a shift to smaller fish, squid and other prey.

“The question is, have the effects of open-ocean fishing gone beyond targeted species, like tuna,” said Anne Wiley, lead author, Smithsonian postdoctoral researcher and former MSU doctoral student. “Our study is among the very first to show that it has, and because Hawaiian petrels eat such a wide variety of prey over a large area, our results suggest that fishery influence may be widespread and profound in the Pacific. Understanding the influence of fisheries on open-ocean food webs has been one of the great mysteries of biological oceanography.”

Read more