Tag: study

New UAF Analysis Offers Insight Into Salmon at Sea
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New UAF Analysis Offers Insight Into Salmon at Sea

A new analysis of multiple international high seas salmon surveys, led by the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF), is building on an extensive body of work on the marine component of the salmon life cycle, the university announced April 15. According to Joe Langan, who led the study as a post-graduate fellow at UAF, the research is establishing a new quantitative, baseline understanding of salmon distributions and temperature preferences that will allow other researchers to have a better foundation from which to build and answer more detailed questions. “The goal was to generate a baseline, quantitative understanding of the broad-scale, average distribution patterns of salmon species across the North Pacific,” Langan said. “While past efforts have produced schematic representati...
IPHC Seeks Longline Tenders For 2024 Catch Protection Study
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IPHC Seeks Longline Tenders For 2024 Catch Protection Study

The International Pacific Halibut Commission is seeking tenders by March 25 for its 2024 IPHC Catch Protection Study, which has a goal of reducing marine mammal depredation of catch from longline gear. According to a notice posted online Feb. 28, the IPHC is considering only vessels with captains and crews with experience within the past five years in longline fishing, and that vessel inspection may be required prior. There is no nationality requirement of the vessels it charters for operation in any region, as long as customs and immigration regulations are followed. The IPHC is not obligated to accept the tender with the lowest bid or any tender received and intends to contract according to its best interests. The announcement stated that vessels would be rated using several...
NOAA Study: Snow Crab Likely Well Adapted to Projected Ocean pH Levels
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NOAA Study: Snow Crab Likely Well Adapted to Projected Ocean pH Levels

Conclusions of a two-year federal study suggests that snow crabs are well adapted to projected increases in ocean acidification within the next two centuries, with no detectible effects on embryo development larval hatching or female calcification. Authors of the study, which was published Oct. 18 in the open access online journal Plos One, said that given the number of strongly negative effects they have documents over the years it is, in all honesty, a nice change to be able to report relatively good news in regard to how high the level of carbon dioxide will affect a commercial crab species. In both years of the study, starvation-survival, morphology, condition and calcium/magnesium content were assessed for larvae. The difference in response to high partial pressure of car...
IPHC Seeks Vessels for Fall Gear Comparison Study
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IPHC Seeks Vessels for Fall Gear Comparison Study

The International Pacific Halibut Commission is looking to charter fixed gear and snap gear longline vessels for a gear comparison study to be conducted this fall, to collect standardized data for use in the Pacific halibut stock assessment. An initial review of submitted bids is to take place on July 3 and the request for tender is to remain open until filled. All submissions must be completed by July 2 in order to be considered during the initial review. Survey results would be used to provide further data for the multi-year gear comparison study that began in 2019, as well as to study aspects of the Pacific halibut resource such as growth, distribution biomass, age composition, sexual maturity and relative abundance of other species, the IPHC said. Legal-sized Pacific halibut and P...
If Properly Managed, Atlantic Cod Stocks Could Rebound: Study
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If Properly Managed, Atlantic Cod Stocks Could Rebound: Study

New research on Atlantic cod, led by scientists at Rutgers University, concludes that if properly managed, stocks of the popular white fish may rebound, now that commercial fishing pressure has been reduced. The study, published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, offers the first genomic evidence that Atlantic cod evolved new traits over only decades during a period of overfishing – evolutionary changes that scientists formerly believed could take millions of years.  “The discovery was made possible by new technology that allowed us to extract and read the genetic code of cod, some caught more than 110 years ago, as well as new analytical techniques that detect subtle changes in that genetic code,” said Malin Pinsky, senior author on the stud...
Bering Sea Crabbers Partner With Alaska, Feds to Study Red King Crab
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Bering Sea Crabbers Partner With Alaska, Feds to Study Red King Crab

Harvesters in the Bristol Bay red king crab fishery are partnering with federal and state agencies to collect critical winter data in a month-long project that was slated to start in March to help inform management decisions. The research goal is to collect data sought by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council to help the council decide what actions might improve those stocks to a level to allow for the multi-million-dollar fishery to resume. The study’s lead, Mike Litzow of NOAA Fisheries’ Alaska Fisheries Science Center, said the collaborative effort offered an exciting chance to study these crab stocks in winter. “That’s when people really interact with the stock — the Bristol Bay red king crab fishery and many other fisheries that potentially interact with crab take place in...
Study Tracks Shifting Identities of Global Fishing Fleet
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Study Tracks Shifting Identities of Global Fishing Fleet

A new international research study has tracked 35,000 commercial fishing and support vessels, identifying their changing of country registration and also identified hotspots of potential unauthorized fishing and activity of foreign owned vessels. Changing the country of origin is a practice also known as “reflagging.” The study, “Tracking Elusive and Shifting Identities of the Global Fishing Fleet,” was published Jan. 18 in Science Advances, the open access multidisciplinary journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Participants in the project were researchers from Global Fishing Watch, the Maine Geospatial Ecology lab at Duke University and the Stockholm Resilience Centre. The study found that close to 20% of high seas fishing is done by vessels that are eit...