Lobster House Poster

I made a poster on lobster houses! Sorry the text is impossible to read, but you get the idea. There is no way to make it bigger. At least you can see the pictures... It's going to be presented at CERC's Sustaining Life, Securing Our Future next Tuesday. The conference is all day and the poster session begins at 4:20 and people just walk around looking at the posters so it's not going to be a formal presentation. 

Microscopic Crustaceans

My study of carcinology (the study of crustaceans) began at the University of New Hampshire when I was working as a lab tech at the Center of Freshwater Biology. I identified freshwater zooplankton of the Northeast, such as daphnia, ostracods and copepods, and helped improve an online key that the lab had created. I had elementary training using Dreamweaver and now I'm trying to learn more about web design to improve this blog and for useful general knowledge. A significant number of improvements have been made to the key since I used it last and I took the pictures displayed here from it. If you are interested in learning more about the thrilling world of zooplankton, it's full of cool videos and photos of zooplankton eating and doing other various activities.  : )

I have to say that my favorite group to identify were the rotifers because they were super cute like this guy though their identifying characteristics were sometimes difficult to see. This species is Branchionus angularis, which I added to the key myself.

I didn't like to identify the copepods as much because you have to count the number of segments on the antennules and sometimes determine whether there was a ridge on their rami (which is their last segment with the long hairy extensions that look like their tail) or if the rami was hairy, which was difficult especially when the sample was degraded. This is a photo of a male copepod, which you can determine because he is flexing his muscles. : )

This is a photo of a female copepod. The black blobs on either side of its last segment are her eggs. 

 And here's a photo of a Daphnia species. This species has is named retrocurva because it has a long curved head. This specimen has a tiny head compared to others I've seen.

New Fulton Fish Market

A few weeks ago I went with Thomas to the New Fulton Fish Market at on a quest for live snails and crayfish  for my aquaponics system. : ) We got on the bus at around 4:30 in the morning and got there by 6 and already most of the fish was gone! The market is from 1-7 in the morning and the peak time is around 4. As you can see from the picture below, it wasn't very crowded but they have pedestrian walkways that line the fish vendors and the center remains free for the forklifts and other vehicles to pass through.

The New Fulton Fish Market is located on Food Center Drive in the lower Bronx. It used to be located on Fulton Ave. in lower Manhattan where it had been since 1807. Up to 5% of the fish consumed in the US moves through the market and has the largest consortium of wholesalers in the US. (This is why I thought it would be worth while to check out if they had snails and crayfish). Restaurant and supermarket owners come to the market daily to pick out fish. However, the market moved because the rent was high and the fish were exposed to the elements so in 2005, it moved to its current location where the temperature of the warehouse is controlled to make sure that the fish doesn't spoil and it is very sanitary. However, the fishers say that the new location doesn't have as much character as the old location. Oh well, I guess I should have moved to NYC sooner.  

I did find some frozen spiny lobster tails! Sadly no live ones, but we did see some live Maine lobsters though, which is to be expected.

These ones are from Brazil!

There were some interesting fish there. I don't know what species of fish these two are!

 I definitely want to come to the market during it's peak time to see all of the activity and the fish. : ) 

Tides of Trouble

Last spring I had an internship for the NDRC (Natural Resource Defense Council) and helped to produce a fact sheet concerning the rising frequency of Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) due to climate change. I've been meaning to post it for a while because it's watershed-related but haven't had the time. To give you a brief synopsis if you aren't interested in reading the entire thing (extra bonus points if you open the end notes and find my name! : )), here's a summary:

• HABs are caused by a proliferation of cyanobacteria and other microorganisms in fresh and salt water that produce toxins that can harm people and animals (causing skin irritations, abdominal pain, other various symptoms, and in some cases even death) if they are consumed by eating contaminated fish or shellfish, inhaled through aerosol, swimming in contaminated waters, or drinking contaminated water. 
• As many as 10% of foodbourne disease outbreaks in the US may result from the consumption of algal toxins (the common ones you hear about are ciguatera and red tides).
• Algal toxins cannot be destroyed by cooking and accumulate toxins up the food chain. (This is why "picua"- barracuda are not allowed to be sold by fishers in the DR).

What I find the the most fascinating about cyanobacteria is that almost all cyanobacteria produce BMAA (B-Methylamino-L-alanine), an algal neurotoxin that has been linked with the development of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) or Lou Gehrig's disease, Parkinson's, and Alzheimer's. There was an extremely high incidence of these diseases in Guam, which was due to the fact that the Chamorro people would eat the seed from the cycad tree, which accumulated BMAA from the symbiotic cyanobacteria in its roots. A common delicacy was also fruit bats, which ate the cycad fruit, and were so delicious that they became extinct from the island. While I was working at the Center for Freshwater Biology at the University of New Hampshire, Dr. Haney was writing a paper concerning the high number of ALS patients around Mascoma Lake, which has frequent algal blooms.

Punta Allen to Receive Marine Stewardship Council Certification

Punta Allen is one of the case studies that I am using in my thesis. It is considered by the IUCN to be the most successful lobster fishery in Latin America and is located within the Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve. Fishers use lobster houses as its sole fishing method and each fisher is in charge of his own "campo,"or territory where he maintains and fishes his own lobster houses. Some of the reasons why this fishery has been so successful is because it is highly productive, its co-management system facilitates enforcement, and it is isolated. I was excited to learn recently that is one of six Panulirus argus fishing cooperatives that is set to receive Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification as part of the Regional Federation of Fishing Cooperatives in Quintana Roo. You can track the fishery or any other fishery certified or undergoing assessement by the MSC at this website.

The area undergoing certification extends from Tulum to the Mexico-Belize border. Scientists determined that this enormous area was necessary to sustain the lobster resource because it was considered a "bank," which is an area where recruited lobsters do not substantially mix with recruited populations. In order to receive certification, the fisheries will have to maintain a spawning abundance of adults above a precautionary limit in which the recruited lobster population is not impaired due to dispersal to other areas. This management strategy makes sense because the larval stage of spiny lobsters can last for almost a year, carrying the larvae great distances.

I contacted those in charge of the project and they informed me that the full assessment of the fishery has been completed and if everything goes smoothly, the fishery will be certified by the middle of this year and you will be able to buy spiny lobster from Punta Allen with this snazy logo!

Punta Allen isn't the first spiny lobster fishery that the MSC has certified. The MSC's first certification was issued to a Western Spiny Lobster (Panulirus cygnus) Fishery in Western Australia. The lobsters are harvested using baited pots. This fishery is the most valuable single-species fishery in Australia and generates US$300-400 million annually, exporting to markets such as Taiwan, Japan, Hong Kong, and the USA. Markets have also opened up locally due to rising demand for local, sustainably-sourced seafood. Another lobster fishery that is undergoing recertification is the Red Rock Lobster (Panulirus interruptus) Fishery of Baja California. 

I also had no idea how successful MSC has been. Approximately 6% of the world's total edible wild capture fisheries are now engaged in the program. Wal-Mart announced in 2006 that it would buy all of its wild-caught fresh and frozen fish for the US from fisheries certified by the MSC by 2011.

Becoming certified by the MSC allows fisheries to access higher-priced markets and may increase their income but also require compliance with certain terms of certification, which may require management changes that are difficult for fisheries to accept. The basic requirements for certification include:

(1) that the fishing activity must be at a sustainable level

(2) that fishing operations should be managed to maintain the structure, productivity, function, and                       diversity of the ecosystem on which the fishery depends

(3) that the fishery must meet all the local, national, and international laws and must have a management system that responds to the changing circumstances and maintains sustainability


Sadly the Miches fishery does not meet any of these criteria because the catch is decreasing, the fishing methods used are destructive to the environment, and none of the national laws are obeyed. 

Possibly No Consumable Oysters in the Gowanus Canal.... Ever

The future of oysters in Gowanus Canal looked bright in light of Kate's TED talk, but this New York Times article finds otherwise. The Canal has been deemed a Superfund Site, which is a site designated to clean up unregulated wastes. The canal is polluted with more than a dozen contaminants, some of which are carcinogens. The flow of contaminants into the canal has decreased but still continues today. The city and the EPA are working jointly on remediation measures. The city is upgrading the canal's flushing tunnel and pump, which will decrease combined sewer overflows by 34% and will be completed in 2013. The canal is in for years of dredging, starting in 2015 and ending 10 years later. This means that it will be impossible to have any oysters in the near future. Maybe oysters can be grown for consumption in a less polluted New York City waterway?

Aquaponics System Set Up

Here's my aquaponics system all set up! The system includes a 10 gallon fish tank, an air pump, a grow bed (a storage container with holes melted into the bottom with a glue gun), hydropon clay pellets, a plastic tube to carry the water to the grow bed, 8 gold fish, and several basil plants. We bought the grow bed, the fish, and the plants ourselves. I bought the gold fish at Petco in Union Square for 15 cents each. Sadly two of the goldfish died on the first night but the other eight are doing splendidly.

.

Aquaponics is the growing of plants and fish together. It's a symbiotic relationship. The fish produce waste in the water, which is pumped up into the grow bed, where bacteria converts the waste from nitrites to nitrates, and the plants suck up the nutrients, providing clean water for the plants. It requires less water than conventional growing systems because it is cleaned continuously. Some systems even grow duckweed to feed the fish, creating a complete closed loop. Will Allen uses a system that grows duckweed to feed the fish and supplements his grow beds with vermicompost (worm poo!) and grows nile tilapia.

We used a water conditioner to take the chloride and other water treatments out of the water. I was concerned about chloromine in the water, which is toxic to fish. Unlike chlorine, which evaporates after a few days, water with chloromine has to be treated with a water conditioner and let sit for a few days. We had already bought the fish and didn't have a few days so we tossed them in hoping for the best. Luckily I did some research and New York City's water is only treated with chlorine, fluoride, phosphoric acid, and in some cases sodium hydroxide.

New Release: FAO's State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2010

The FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) just released the 2010 update of the State of the World's Fisheries and Aquaculture. Time to update the statistics in my thesis...

Fun Fish Facts

Overfishing

• The proportion of marine fish stocks estimated to be underexploited or moderately exploited declined from 40% in the mid-1970s to 15% in 2008 (the lowest proportion recorded since the mid-1970s) and the proportion of overexploited, depleted, or recovering stocks increased from 10% to 32% (the highest since the mid-1970s). 53% of stocks are estimated to be fully exploited, with no room for expansion.
• Global marine fish catch production peaked in 1996 at 74.7 million tonnes. Although many studies predicted a rapid decline in production, the catch has remained relatively stable

• The same species have dominated marine catches since 2003, with the top ten species accounting for 30% of all marine catches. The fully exploited stocks in this list are the two main stocks of anchoveta (Engraulis ringens), Alaska pollock (Theragra chalcogramma), blue whiting (Micromesistius poutassou), Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus) (some stocks are depleted), Japanese anchovy (Engraulis japonicus), Chilean jack mackerel (Trachurus murphyi). It may be possible to expand some stocks of chub mackerel (Scomber japonicus). The largehead hairtail (Trichiurus lepturus) was estimated to be overexploited.

• 60% of the tuna stocks are fully exploited and up to 35% are overexploited or depleted and only a few appear underexploited (skipjack). Although the Atlantic bluefin was refused listing under CITES Appendix I, the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) has had some success in reducing the exploitation rates in some areas.

Consumption

• In 2008, 115 millions tonnes of fish was consumed by humans, which is 17kg (live weight) per person, an all-time high.
• In 2007, fish accounted for 16% of the global population's intake of animal protein and 6% of all protein consumed. In low-income food-deficit countries (LIFDCs), fish is 20% of the total animal protein consumed and is probably higher than the statistics indicate because of underreporting from small-scale and subsistence fisheries.
• Consumers of fish, particularly in the world's richer economies are increasingly demanding that retailers guarantee that their fish is high quality and also that it comes from sustainable sources. Several large-scale retailers are demanding certification to their own private standards schemes in food safety, quality, and sustainability. Traceability initiatives are growing, being initiated by NGOs, governments, or RFBs (regional fishery bodies)

Aquaculture

• Aquaculture now makes up 46% of the total food fish supply, which is slightly lower growth than than predicted but has grown from 43% in 2006 and is set to overtake capture-based fisheries in production.
• Latin America and the Caribbean has experienced the highest growth rate in aquaculture from 1970 to 2008 (21%).

Employment

• In 2008, 44.9 million people were engaged in the fish sector, and at least 12% were women. This is a 167% increase since 1980. For each person employed directly by fishing or aquaculture production, about three jobs are produced in secondary activities. Each job-holder provides for three dependents or family members on average. Therefore, fisheries support about 540 million people or 8% of the world population.

Small-scale Fishery Management

• The role of RFBs in international fisheries governance is growing but strengthening their performance is a major challenge. Their major tasks are regulating unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, effective implementation of monitoring, control and surveillance (MCS) and overcapacity in fishing fleets. Many RFBs have been unable to control IUU fishing, implementing the ecosystem approach to fisheries (EAF), the control of bycatch and the promotion of economic development in member countries.
• Small-scale fisheries contribute to more than half of the world's marine and inland fish catch, almost all of which is destined for direct human consumption. These fisheries employ more than 90% of the world's 35 million capture fishers and support another 84 million people in secondary jobs. Almost half of these people are women. More than 95% of small-scale fishers and related workers live in developing countries. Poverty remains widespread for millions of these communities, especially in sub-Saharan Africa and South and Southeast Asia.
• Overfishing are a threat but social structures and institutional arrangements play a central role in engendering poverty. Critical factors that contribute to poverty in these communities are insecure access rights to fishery resources, poor or absent health and educational services, lack of social safety nets, vulnerability to natural disasters and climate change, and exclusion from wider development processes owing to weak organizational structures and inadequate representation and participation in decision-making.
• Policy makers are suggesting a human rights approach to include marginalized groups in institutional processes, which would include measures such as: strengthening the capacity of fishing communities to be aware of, claim and exercise their rights effectively; requiring duty-bearers, including states, to fulfill their human rights obligations, including through legislation; the delegation of management responsibilities and the creation of comanagement arrangements that involve local resource users together with the state, which require human capacity on the local level as well as legal, practical, and community-based arrangements.

Data Collection

• The number of non-reporting countries increased this year due to the economic crisis.

Abandoned, lost, or otherwise discarded fishing gear (ALDFG)

• Magnets have been attached to longlines to repel sharks.
• Acoustic beacons and reflectors in gillnets and set net fishing gear to reduce catch of non-target species such as cetaceans, turtles, and seabirds.
• Trials are testing lines made from substances that reflect sound, such as barium sulphate, which don't affect the performance or appearance of the net in anyway

FAO Abbreviations

ALDFG- Abandoned, Lost, or otherwise Discarded Fishing Gear

CITES- Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species

EAF- Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries

EEZ- Exclusive Economic Zone

FAO- Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

ICCAT- International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas

IUU- Unreported and Unregulated Fishing

LIFDC- Low-Income Food-Deficient Country

MCS- Monitoring, Control, and Surveillance

NGO- Non-Governmental Organization

RFB- Regional Fishery Bodies

RFBN- Regional Fishery Bodies Secretariat Network

Blue Lobsters/Crawfish

For my aquaponics class I've been researching species to grow in our 10 gallon tank. I went to Petco to do some research and came away with 10 goldfish because they are hardy and only cost 15 cents each. One of the most exotic species I saw there were these small crustaceans, which were called blue lobsters and were $21 each! Maybe it would be profitable to start a breeding operation...

(They are even using artificial shelters!)

The blue lobster is a color morph of many different American crayfish species, some that breed in captivity and some that don't (there goes my plan). There are also blue American lobsters (the full-size Maine lobsters that you normally think of as lobster), but only one in a million is blue. They can get to 6 inches long. I decided that redclaw crawfish were a better option...

Oyster-tecture on TED!

My Sustainable Futures professor, Kate Orff, is a TED celebrity! I love TED talks. One of my favorite activities is exploring their videos, which are talks given by experts in many different fields, from cartooning to architecture to ecology to music artists. After coming back from the architecture class on aquaponics that I'm sitting in on, coming across this video was a real treat. I already made a blog post concerning oyster-tecture so you can find more details there but Kate's project proposed to reintroduce oysters to NYC's waterways in order to reduce pollution, restore the ecosystem, and grow some tasty mollusks for human consumption (I'm not sure I want to eat oysters from the Gowanus Canal though...).

How to Harvest Lobsters from a Lobster House

Finally I found an accessible video of harvesting lobsters from a lobster house! Even stranger, it was made during an exchange of Dominican fishermen to Punta Allen with ReefCheck DR. okgo007, who are you? Have you met James, he is also a fan of OK Go. : )