The growing oyster aquaculture industry on the Delaware Bay tide flats may be harming an endangered migratory shorebird, a new study says… Oyster farmers on the bay and environmental groups trying to save the robin-sized red knot from extinction have spent the year trying to find ways to coexist. The study may make that more difficult, especially because the oyster growers want to expand operations north to prime red knot foraging areas… Lisa Calvo, aquaculture program coordinator with New Jersey Sea Grant at Rutgers University, sharply criticized the study. Her husband also is one of the oyster growers… Calvo said the study presents no evidence of impact on horseshoe crabs, was based only on “one single summer” and more data is needed for a clearer picture. She noted that emergency funding is in place to study the impacts for two years, so the study release at this time was “unfair and premature.”
Archives for October 2015
Essex County Master Gardeners honored for Glenmont Flowerbeds Restoration
The Rutgers Master Gardeners of Essex County received an Award for Excellence from the statewide Rutgers Master Gardeners Association of New Jersey for its Glenmont Project Committee… The Award for Excellence recognizes the contributions and service …
Scientists: Rapidly Warming Ocean is a Key Factor in Collapse of New England’s Cod Fishery
The rapid warming of waters off New England is a key factor in the collapse of the region’s cod fishery, and changes to the species’ management are needed to save one of America’s oldest industries, according to a report published Thursday in Science magazine… The scientists behind the Science report say the warming of the Gulf of Maine, which accelerated from 2004 to 2013, reduced cod’s capacity to rebound from fishing pressure. The report gives credence to the idea — supported by advocacy groups, fishing managers and even some fishermen — that climate change has played a role in cod’s collapse… Malin Pinsky, a biology professor at Rutgers University who was not involved in the study, said the findings help explain the northern shift in the cod’s population. Researchers reported this month that numbers are improving in the colder waters off Newfoundland and Labrador… “What we’re learning about cod are the same kind of processes that are likely to play out in a wide range of important fish in this and other regions,” he said.
Scientists: Warming Ocean Factor in Collapse of Cod Fishery
The rapid warming of waters off New England is a key factor in the collapse of the region’s cod fishery, and changes to the species’ management are needed to save one of America’s oldest industries, according to a report published Thursday in Science magazine… The lead author of the study, Andrew Pershing of the Gulf of Maine Research Institute in Portland, said the gulf is warming at a rate 99 percent faster than anywhere else in the world, and as a result, too many of the fish aren’t living past age 4 or 5. Cod can live to be older than 20… Malin Pinsky, a biology professor at Rutgers University who was not involved in the study, said the findings help explain the northern shift in the cod’s population. Researchers reported this month that numbers are improving in the colder waters off Newfoundland and Labrador… “What we’re learning about cod are the same kind of processes that are likely to play out in a wide range of important fish in this and other regions,” he said.
Scientists: Warming Ocean Factor in Collapse of Cod Fishery
The rapid warming of waters off New England is a key factor in the collapse of the region’s cod fishery, and changes to the species’ management are needed to save one of America’s oldest industries, according to a report published Thursday in Science m…
Indian Summer: Major Warm-up Expected in N.J. Next Week
The calendar will formally read November next week, but it might feel more like late-September. A massive ridge of high pressure is expected to build over the eastern half of the United States next week, potentially pushing temperatures to the low-to-mid 70s for several days — near record levels for this time of year… By the end of next week, temperatures could be topping out in the low-to-mid 70s, between 15 and 20 degrees above average for this time of year… “Near record temperatures may break out,” said David Robinson, the state climatologist at Rutgers University. “Generally speaking, record high temperatures are hovering in the mid 70s during that time period.”
Garden State and Jewish State Share Table on Food Innovation
Food innovation is the next course in the storied US-Israel partnership. Rutgers University’s Food Innovation Center and Tel-Hai College in Israel’s northern Galilee region recently announced the New Jersey-Israel Healthy, Functional, and Medical Food Alliance, a venture that will create synergies between start-ups and more established food businesses in America’s so-called “Garden State” and the Jewish state… The key players are Member of Knesset Erel Margalit (Labor), founder of the Jerusalem Venture Partners venture capital firm, and Lou Cooperhouse, director of the Rutgers Food Innovation Center and president of the New Jersey Business Incubation Network… “The Office of the Chief Scientist of the State of Israel is arguably why Israel has developed so much technology and is called the “start-up nation,” something that neither U.S. state governments nor the American federal government do to the same degree, Cooperhouse tells JNS.org.
Rutgers Dedicates NJ Institute of Food, Nutrition, and Health: Addressing Real-World Problems Associated with Food and Health
The dedication of the nearly 80,000-square-foot New Jersey Institute for Food, Nutrition, and Health facility on the George H. Cook campus took place on October 27. The facility offers nearly 40,000 square feet of research space and approximately 30,000 square feet of community space to facilitate communication and cooperation among scholars who pursue interdisciplinary research; […]
Giamarese Farms and Rutgers University Feed the Poor
Giamarese Farms on Fresh Ponds Road was busy, even on this rainy day. The gleaners had arrived from Cook Campus at Rutgers University and they were hard at work in the apple orchard. Some of the gleaners were students from Dr. Jack Rabin’s “Sustainable Agriculture” class at Cook, while others were members of Rutgers Against Hunger (RAH.) Farmers Against Hunger (FAH) were gleaning, too, gathering the Jona Gold and Golden Delicious apples that still hung on the trees or that had recently fallen to the ground… What is gleaning? Gleaning is an ancient farming practice in which farmers would leave an area, often the four corners of a crop area, unharvested so that the poor of the surrounding area could gather some fruits and vegetables to feed themselves and their families.
New Home of Rutgers Institute: Interdisciplinary from the Ground Up
If researchers studying food and children’s health bump into each other at the New Jersey Institute for Food, Nutrition and Health, it won’t be by accident… The new $55 million building on Rutgers University’s George H. Cook campus in New Brunswick was designed with open workspaces and laboratories that are intended to foster the interdisciplinary work that’s necessary to tackle some of the biggest challenges in public health, such as reducing childhood obesity… Institute Director Peter Gillies noted that leaders from many different academic departments and schools have committed to support the institute. While its staff is relatively small and devoted to administrative support, professors based in other parts of the university will work in the building… Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences Executive Dean Robert Goodman said the dedication of the new building yesterday was a “landmark milestone” in a process that began 12 years ago, when the institute was first envisioned… Goodman noted university President Robert Barchi, a cardiologist, has said that half of healthcare spending could be avoided if people lived healthier lives.