Environmental advocacy groups are concerned that proposed amendments to the state’s shellfish-safety program will make it infeasible for research to be conducted in prohibited waterways. Initially proposed in November, the New Jersey Department of Envi…
Fisheries/Aquaculture
Rapid Arctic Warming Drives Shifts in Marine Mammals, New Research Shows
New hydrophone surveys of migration gateways to the Arctic show that recent extremes in sea ice loss has opened new waters to humpback and fin whales that once ranged through the far north only in summer. And as climate change drives the ice into further retreat, such “summer” species may begin competing with bowhead whales that once had the habitat to themselves, according to research presented at the Society of Marine Mammalogy’s Biennial Conference in San Francisco this week… Jennifer Francis, a Rutgers University research professor and plenary speaker at the conference, sees potential connections between rapid Arctic warming and unusual weather patterns and climate extremes elsewhere on the globe. For instance, a so-called “warm blob” that turned the ocean off the West Coast of the United States unusually warm for more than a year may have been especially strong and persistent because of the atmospheric patterns taking hold over the Arctic, which is warming much faster than the planet as a whole.
Saving Shore Communities a Risky, Expensive Proposition
The sea is rising. The land is sinking. Entire mid-Atlantic communities are anchored in between, bookended by certain disaster unless a way is found to turn back the tide and save the shore… Build levees and dikes. Erect bulkheads around entire towns. Construct dunes in the marshes to absorb flooding from the west. Transform low-lying areas into amphibious suburbs. Admit defeat and retreat… “The bayside is basically the Achilles’ heel of New Jersey,” said Michael Kennish, a research professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences at Rutgers University. “It’s a crisis scientists are concerned about. People are more concerned about what they’re going to eat two days from now.”… Kennish said most experts advocate what he calls “a practical view,” endorsing infrastructure improvements to stormwater drainage systems and the installation of pumping stations, along with raising roads and houses.
DEP: Barnegat Bay’s Health a “Mixed Bag”
While portions of Barnegat Bay’s ecosystem appear strained by pollution, life remains resilient under its murky waves… The risks to bay life if phytoplankton disappear would be catastrophic. Native phytoplankton is eaten by zooplankton and other creatures, which feed clams, crabs and fish, Buchanan said… Yet, the same species that lived in Barnegat Bay in 1973 are still here now, said Gary Taghon, a professor of marine ecology at Rutgers University… “Their abundances have shifted, but they haven’t disappeared,” he said during a panel discussion at Ocean County College where researchers and environmentalists discussed the studies’ results… The changes in the bay’s ecology are speeding up, and are now noticeable within the span of a single human lifetime.
The Good, the Bad and the Unexpected Results of Barnegat Bay’s Studies [VIDEO]
For three years, 11 research projects studied the brackish Barnegat Bay from top to bottom. At Ocean County College, they revealed their findings… The good: “Based upon the kinds of animals that are living in the sediment, their abundance, how tolerant they are to stresses that Barnegat Bay is in good shape,” said Gary Tacghon, Director, Marine Science, Rutgers University… The bad: “Bird reproductivity has declined with these personal watercrafts getting too close. The birds flush, they leave their nests, every time a boat comes too close, it could be a few minutes, that’s a couple minutes the birds are not sitting on their nests, and incubating the eggs,” said Eden Buenaventura, graduate student at Rutgers University… The state calls the Barnegat Bay research so important and so extraordinary, that it’s making it available to world and plans to use this research for years to come, because as it says, improving Barnegat bay won’t happen over night.
Richard Lutz Recognized by Academy of Underwater Arts and Sciences for His Contributions
Rutgers marine scientist Rich Lutz will go to deep depths for public access to science. He has spent hundreds of hours since his first dive in 1979 in a variety of submersibles exploring hydrothermal vents throughout the world’s oceans… Last week, The Academy of Underwater Arts and Sciences agreed. In recognition of his lifelong contributions to ocean sciences, and for making those sciences accessible to the public, Lutz joined such luminaries as filmmaker James Cameron and the late oceanographer Jacques Cousteau and received the academy’s highest award – the NOGI… “Some of the scientists told me, ‘Well, I can go down there and take pictures just as well as these guys can,'” Lutz recalls. “Well, no, you can’t. Some of those scientists never forgave me, but if I had it to do again, I’d do it in a heartbeat.”
Oceans and Climate: Moveable Feast
In the early 2000s, trawler crews working the Celtic Sea off Ireland noticed something unusual. Small, spiny, bright orange fish, called boarfish, began appearing in their nets in huge numbers. Previously, the intruders had been a minor nuisance; their…
Climate Change Affects Where We Find – and Catch – Fish
Fishery managers too often develop fishing rules expecting that the same species will be found in roughly the same place every year. Setting catch limits for fishing requires some assumptions – and until recently, one of them has been that the vast ocean, while subject to cycles, is basically stable over time. But new information challenges that notion, as scientists and some policymakers have grown increasingly aware of long-term shifts in the ocean environment… “It occurred to us that there was another story in there,” said Rutgers University scientist Dr. Malin Pinsky. “By looking at data that already existed from a new and different angle, we could pinpoint where fish populations were found – and if those locations changed over time.”… Fish, even of the same species, can spread across a large geographic range, but scientists can calculate where most of the population is concentrated – the geographic centerpoint. By comparing the location and depth of the trawl to the centerpoint of the population, Pinsky’s analysis shows how different fish populations have shifted over time.
Gliders From Rutgers Scan the Seas
The world’s oceans cover more than two-thirds of its surface, and they’re home to Earth’s largest heat reservoirs and vast natural resource deposits. Yet, much about them remains a mystery to us… “The ocean essentially regulates all life on earth and we don’t really know how it works,” said Professor Oscar Schofield, an oceanographer with Rutgers University’s Coastal Ocean Observation Laboratory, or COOL. “Going to sea on a ship to do research can be dangerous, it’s very expensive, and it removes you from your family.”… But those days of logging long, arduous hours on a research vessel may be over, thanks to Rutgers’ fleet of ocean-going, submersible robots, which they call gliders.
BTN LiveBIG: Rutgers’ Ocean Gliders Scan the Seven Seas
The world’s oceans cover more than two-thirds of its surface, and they’re home to Earth’s largest heat reservoirs and vast natural resource deposits. Yet, much about them remains a mystery to us… “We decided two decasdes ago to essentially develop new ways to study the ocean because you can’t be out there in ships all the time,” said professor Oscar Schofield, an oceanographer with Rutgers University’s Coastal Ocean Observation Laboratory, or COOL. What we’ve focused on is developing robot technologies. The robots can be out there all the time. You can send a robot out in a hurricane and if you lose it, you lose it. You can’t send a human out in a hurricane.”… The COOL team works alongside the Department of Homeland Security, the NAtional Science Foundation and the U.S. Navy. In fact, the Navy is the only organization that possesses an ocean glider fleet on par with Rutgers’.
