fisheries

A Commerce Department agency has authorized up to 20 permits for deep-water aquaculture in the Gulf of Mexico that eventually could double the finfish output of the gulf. Fish farming in the ocean would help satisfy the growing world appetite for seafood, but it also is a formidable challenge, writes Virginia Gewin. The story, produced in partnership with FERN, was published in Ensia.

Only 9 percent of Marine Protected Areas have enough staff and only 35 percent receive adequate funding, says a report published in the journal Nature. MPAs, which include marine reserves, no-take zones, sanctuaries, and parks, are an increasingly popular way to conserve marine species by restricting fishing and energy extraction.

Retailers across the country, including Whole Foods, are upping their tuna game with new sustainability standards focused on how the fish was caught. “Last Wednesday Whole Foods Market announced that by January 2018, all canned tuna sold in its stores or used in its prepared foods departments will be sourced from fisheries that use only pole-and-line, troll or handline catch methods that eliminate bycatch (accidental harvest of other fish, birds or mammals) because fishermen are catching tuna one at a time,” says NPR.

The 2017 Alaska salmon catch could be twice as much as last year’s, with projections of 204 million fish compared 122 million in 2016, says Alaska Dispatch News. “The total dockside value of the 2016 salmon fishery barely topped $406 million, the lowest in 14 years,” says ADN.

After decades of gaming and monopolizing the system governing commercial fishing rights in New England, a crime lord known as The Codfather has been kicked from his throne in New Bedford, Massachusetts, writes Ben Goldfarb in FERN’s latest story, co-produced with Mother Jones. Rafael will plead guilty for fraud before a federal judge in Boston on Thursday, facing 25 years in prison and $500,000 in fines.

Pacific Northwest fishing and conservation groups have filed suit against the EPA for not doing more to protect wild sockeye salmon from rising water temperatures due in large part to climate change. The lawsuit is considered to be the first against President Trump's EPA.

Six ocean “hotspots” of marine diversity are getting walloped by climate change and industrial fishing, says a study in the journal Science Advances.

A study in the journal Fish and Fisheries points to a new source of seafood for human consumption: the tons and tons of food-grade fish that is ground into fishmeal each year and used in aquaculture and other places, says the NPR blog The Salt. A quarter of the world's annual fish catch, 20 million tons, is used for fishmeal and the new study says 90 percent of it is suitable for "direct human consumption."

The world started paying attention to the problem of plastic trash in the ocean when seabirds turned up with plastic rings from six-packs of beer twisted about their necks. Now researchers say tiny bits of degraded plastic are showing up in fish and shellfish at the grocery store, says CBC News.

Scientists are learning how to interpret “environmental DNA” (eDNA), the DNA that marine species naturally shed in water, which will help them track endangered species, check for invasive plants and manage fisheries.

Researchers say fossil-fuel emissions will make the oceans more acidic in coming decades and drive down the population of the Dungeness crab, native to the north Pacific coast, by 30 percent, reports the Seattle Times. Federal fishery biologist Issac Kaplan, a co-author of the study, said the research points to "a moderate decline in a species that is really economically important."

Eight of the biggest seafood companies in the world pledged to report and reduce illegal catches and root out endangered species from their supply chain, says Reuters. The firms also promised to end slave labor and reduce antibiotics in aquaculture.

The Commerce Department issued a final rule intended to crack down on illegal fishing and fraudulent sales of seafood imports. The result of years of work, the rule will require a paper trail from the fishing boat to the U.S. border for cargo deemed at risk of mislabeling or illegal fishing, said the Wall Street Journal.

The fish on the menu may be mislabeled, but there's a good chance it's less endangered than the real things, says Grist. About 30 percent of fish is misnamed, whether because of fraud or human error. But when University of Washington researchers collected data from 43 studies that DNA-tested fish for mislabeling, they found that on average the actual fish on the plate were 3 percent cheaper and nearly 10 percent better in terms of conservation status, according to extinction risk data from the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

California’s coastal ecosystem is in the midst of a massive “disruption” because of climate change, says the San Francisco Chronicle. For example, warmer waters have stalled the growth of kelp forests, causing sea urchins, which depend on kelp as their main food source, to mature abnormally. Their spiky shells are nearly hollow, and North Coast divers have brought in only one-tenth of their normally lucrative catch.

California is cracking down on illegal fishing in marine protected areas (MPAs) with a new ticketing system, says the LA Times. Previously, fishing in an MPA was considered a misdemeanor and subject to a large fine, which made authorities hesitant to approach someone who may not have even realized they were fishing in an off-limits zone. Now, game wardens hand out tickets worth a few hundred dollars that are payable in local traffic court, says the Times.