Red snapper

A large amount of New Zealand’s seagrass have been killed by sediments released from land development. The seagrass bed at Whangarei Harbour has for instance been reduced from 14 sq km in the 1960s to virtually non-existant today. And sedimentation this is not a new problem – between 1959 and 1966 Tauranga Harbour lost 90 per cent of its seagrass.

Researchers at New Zealands’s National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research are now fitting the floor of the Whangapoua Estuary with plastic seagrass in an attempt to show how New Zealand’s fish stocks could be boosted by restoring the seagrass habitats. The “seagrass” consists of plastic fronds attached to wire frames, and the length of the fronds varies from 5 cm to 30 cm.

“We made them with tantalising long blades of artificial grass, the things fish really go for,” says NIWA fisheries ecologist Dr Mark Morrison. “What we found, initially, is that fish are really looking for shelter and seagrasses provide good protection to fish.”

The largest density of fish could be found where the density of seagrass was also at its largest.

Fish is now being tagged to make it possible for the researchers to track both growth rate and survival rate.

When salmon is farmed in large-scale monocultures, the fish tend to become susceptible to disease and parasites. Researchers working for the organization Nofima have now found a way of combating the parasite salmon lice in fish farms without using any dangerous toxins. Wrasse loves to eat lice, so the researchers simply added wrasse to the salmon populations and the result was astonishing.

During the trials, the most efficient lice eater turned out to be the Ballan wrasse (Labrus bergylta). In addition to being highly efficient, it also gathered lice at lower temperatures than the other Wrasse species that took part in the experiment.

When Ballan wrasse was used, roughly 2-5% wrasse was needed for salmon living in sea cages. This means that a population of 100 000 salmon will need somewhere between 2 000 and 5 000 wrasse to stay deloused. A new larger project will now be prepared to make sure there is an adequate supply of the lice eaters in Norway. The project will go on for three years and has received funding from The Fishery and Aquaculture Industry Research Fund (FHF).

The effort which is now commencing is unique in both a Norwegian and global context. Norway is the only salmon-producing country that is using wrasse on a large scale to combat salmon lice,” says Arne Karlsen, managing director of FHF.

Removing large amounts of Ballan wrasse from the wild to keep in salmon farms could cause serious damage to the wild populations and the goal of the Norwegian project is therefore to cover at least 25% of the demand with farmed wrasse by 2013.

In addition to Nofima and FHF, the project will also involve SINTEF Fisheries and Aquaculture, the Institute of Marine Research and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

Several Norwegian projects are already taking a closer look at the Ballan wrasse, including a research venture concerning Ballan wrasse farming that started last year with funding totaling NOK 12 million from the Research Council of Norway, FHF and industry partners.

” It is estimated that the total Norwegian effort on Ballan wrasse farming is in the vicinity of NOK 100 million,” says Kjell Maroni, research and development director at FHF

The researchers will now have to find out how to carry out large-scale wrasse farming without being plagued by the same problems with disease and parasites as the salmon farms.



It appears that the traditional Turkey and local Salmon have been replaced with imported Brazilian birds and “chum salmon” imported from China. What is really a turn-off for these 5 GBP morsels – known as “Christmas Wild Salmon side with lemon and thyme butter” – is that many Inuit tribes have used this “chum salmon” to feed their dogs, as in not fit for human consumption.

The sudden appearance of “chum salmon” has really shocked shoppers.

You see, farmed salmon – primarily Scottish in origin in years past – has gotten quite pricey, and the chum is the cheaper alternative, being twenty to thirty percent more economical.

A traditional salmon side of 600 grams may run you 10 GBP to 12 GBP, however this “dog salmon” retails for around 5 GBP.

However, it is not just this “dog salmon” which has been hitting the shelves. Many retailers are also opting for foreign bred geese as well, which has the National Farmers’ Union in an uproar.

“There is concern about how much food is coming in from overseas for Christmas – particularly when it’s dressed up as a traditional product and can quite easily be misleading,” fumed head of the NFU’s food chain unit, Lee Woodger.
“British farmers pride themselves on the quality of the food they produce, both in terms of the environmental and welfare standards, and traceability.
“Consumers can only get a 100 per cent guarantee on where food is farmed, produced and packaged if they see the tractor logo with a Union Jack on the packaging.”

That being said, the cheaper alternatives are sure to be the norm this Christmas, what with the current economic crisis the world over.

Yellowfin tuna, Thunnus albacares

The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna did not accept the idea of reducing fishing of the Atlantic bluefin, whose populations have been declining for the past few decades from fishing pressure and, who could forget, the BP oil spill fiasco in the Gulf of Mexico. With the bluefin heading towards certain doom, the Center for Biological Diversity in May called for more protection, and invoked the U.S. Endangered Species Act. The decision to not reduce the international catch quotas by the commission means that the survival of the bluefin is riding very heavily on the U.S. Endangered Species Act.

“The international tuna commission had an opportunity to take bluefin tuna off the path to extinction but didn’t. Instead, the commission ignored years of scientific evidence about the perilous decline of bluefin tuna and chose to allow fishing to continue as if nothing is wrong,” commented a staff attorney at the Center, Catherine Kilduff.

Ever since 1969, when the international commission first came into being, the bluefin tuna – which was once very abundant – has been fished almost to the point of being extinct. The commission has set 2011 catch quotas of 12,900 tons, and 1,750 tons for the two different stocks of bluefin tuna: the Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic stock and the western Atlantic stock. The quotas have dipped a little, but not enough. They came down from 13,500 tons and 1,800 tons respectively. That is a step in the right direction, but not enough to help the bluefin regain a toehold in the world.

“This level of fishing pressure sentences bluefin tuna to yet another decade of depletion,” Kilduff explained. “The fishing quotas adopted today bank on overly optimistic conditions for tuna recovery so that fishermen can continue to catch the prized bluefin tuna as they have in past years. As the Gulf of Mexico oil spill shows, bluefin face more threats than just fishing.”

The BP oil spill fiasco of the Gulf Of Mexico couldn’t have come at a worse time for bluefin tuna: they had recently just made their way into the Gulf – where they generally went to try and mate – to get jiggy with it and make a bunch of little bluefin. Satellites have been keeping an eye on things, and have been a great asset in determining what damage has been done to the bluefin’s spawning grounds.

The amazing Atlantic bluefin tuna, some of the largest of this species of fish can be as large as a Volkswagon Beetle, make their way to the Gulf every year from January until June. The peak time when they spawn is about mid April to May – just as BP was giving out free samples of its precious oil, when the well they had exploded and started pumping thousands of gallons of crude into the area this past April 20th.

This fish, which is paramount to commercial markets everywhere, mate in the surface waters, the females lay their eggs and the males fertilize away behind them. The oil present could cause harm to the eggs, larva and even the adults in the area. To make matters worse, the Atlantic tuna populations of the world have seen a drastic decline of 82% over the past three decades, so it is extremely important that they be allowed to mate without interruption.

Well, great job BP.. You really did cause quite the disturbances… How would they like it if we dumped oil into their beds as they were getting in the mood?

Lionfish photo by Jens Petersen

The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries in Jamaica is taking some drastic measures to help prevent the collapse of the marine fisheries. They are now promoting lionfish as being a tasty treat for any menu. This effort is to help control the explosive growth of the lionfish population.

Officials have said that the nation’s marine biodiversity, its food security and economic well-being are all at risk.

“The situation in Jamaica is urgent,” commented the national coordinator for the Jamaican component of a Caribbean-wide Invasive Alien Species Project at the National Environment and Planning Agency, Nelsa English.

“A lack of sufficient natural predators suggests that it (lionfish) could be a potentially significant threat to Jamaica’s biodiversity and the ecosystem in general,” she added.

The marine resources of Jamaica are stretched dangerously thin, its reefs are being exploited to the point of extinction, and the fishing practices being used are detrimental to the environment. Some people even go as far as to use explosives to bring up their fish! Those that don’t often use toxic chemicals and nets whose mesh is illegally small.

Researchers have agreed that many of the once majestic reefs have been decimated to becoming mere communities of coral, and no longer operate as complete ecosystems due to the lack of diversity that calls them home.

Well seems to me that lionfish are part of the problem, and Jamaica has the answer. They are following suit as other nations are frying them up, putting them in sandwiches or using them as a pizza topping.

Some of the lobsters

Three lobsters have been hauled in from the depths of the sea, and are causing quite a stir. One of the specimens is bright blue, another is calico-hued, and the last is a brilliant orange, much like you would expect a Jack-O-Lantern to be.

These lobsters are incredibly rare, and even more rare to be seen together, they are quickly becoming the pride and joy at the Maritime Aquarium in Connecticut, as these lobsters form one of the most unique marine exhibits in the world.

“If you search around you can find other aquariums that have a blue lobster, and one that might have a calico or an orange lobster, but I’ve never seen one advertising having all three,” commented a spokesman for Maritime Aquarium, Dave Sigworth, which is putting it rather mildly.

You see, the odds of actually seeing these three lobsters in the same place are astronomical, if we listen to the Maine-based Lobster Conservancy.

Yellow lobster

Only about one lobster out of a million is born blue, and calico and orange lobsters are much more rare, being that only roughly one in 30 million lobsters are born in those colors.

The aquarium contacted a mathematician and were told, in the expert opinion of someone who knows their numbers, that the odds of encountering all three of these lobsters together in nature was about one in 900 quintillion, that’s 900 followed by 18 zeros!

Hopefully the lobsters like all the attention they get, and truly appreciate how special they really are!

Metro store

The famous operator of supermarkets, Metro Inc., has united with other big name food, retailers such as Loblaws and Walmart, to help adopt a sustainable fisheries policy, whereby it will stop selling those species of fish which are deemed to be at risk, or endangered.

“Starting today, Metro will temporarily withdraw seven threatened species,” the Quebec-based chain commented in a statement released this past Thursday.

The different kinds of fish set to be removed from the shelves include: Atlantic cod, bluefin tuna, orange roughy, Chilean seabass, New Zealand hoki, skate and shark.

“These species will be substituted with other products and might be reintroduced in the future if scientific reports indicate that their stocks have climbed back up to acceptable levels,” Metro explained.

Metro is instituting this new policy slowly, so as to not completely shock their consumers. They expect to have the policy in full swing in stores across Ontario and Quebec by the end of June 2011.

This policy means that Metro will only be offering fresh and frozen, wild and farmed seafood products which are not on the endangered list, and come from fisheries which are sustainable. It also means that all their suppliers will need to sign a code of conduct, and agree to abide by the new policy when selling products for resale.

“To facilitate the traceability of its seafood products, Metro has developed a new, more transparent labelling system to help consumers make informed choices,” it added.

It’s nice to see big businesses willing to put a bit of pressure on the fisheries to look after the health of our worlds’ oceans. Hopefully this will spur other large organizations to do the same, and the sea will be a happier place.

Oyster bed

There’s no need to worry – oyster herpes is not transferable to humans by eating “the food of love”.

This incurable, not to mention deadly, virus is a grave concern to the fishing communities in Europe. Oyster herpes is on the rise in Europe, and could go on spreading itself out even further, should the seas continue to get warmer, experts warn.

This past July farmed oysters were tested and the first known United Kingdom cases of herpes was detected in shellfish. This virus has already made its mark, killing somewhere between 20 and 100 percent of the breeding pacific oysters in some French beds from 2008 until 2010, according to, Ifemer, the French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea.

The reason that oyster herpes has been emerging more in Pacific oysters off of England still has scientists stumped, however many are speculating that Global Warming has something to do with it.

A new strain of Oyster herpes (Ostreid herpesvirus), remains dormant until the temperature of the water exceeds 16 degrees Celsius. UK waters reach this temperature in the height of summer, according to a member of the British government’s Fish Health Inspectorate, Kevin Denham.

Keeping that fact in mind, the director of Ifemer’s genetic and pathology lab, Tristan Renault, has commented that global warming “could be an explanation of the appearance of this particular type of virus.”

Though all of the herpes strains are DNA-based viruses, herpes, which infects everything from elephants to chickens to monkeys, comes in an astonishing number of species, each with their own distinct set of symptoms.

In humans, the best known forms of herpes are the Herpes simplex viruses, which spread through close contact and can produce symptoms such as oral and genital blisters.

Ostreid herpes viruses have been shown to affect not only oysters, but also scallops, clams and other scallops, explains Renault.

New Oyster Herpes

Shellfish who are infected with herpes are not new to the scientific world, however, in 2008 – the first year where there was a marked increase in the mortality rates detected in France – Ifremer stumbled upon a new strain of the virus.

Much like the other strains of the oyster herpes virus which infect mollusks, this new strain singles out younger oysters during the breeding season when the bodies of the mollusks’ are focusing all their energy on producing sperm and eggs, leaving them without enough energy to maintain their immune system Renault explains.

However, this new strain of oyster herpes is “more virulent than strains we have identified before,” Renault continued, adding that the virus is extremely efficient when it comes to killing its hosts, and can eradicate 80 percent of the oysters in a bed inside a week.

The most starting thing about this new strain of oyster herpes, is that the only visible sign there is something amiss, is the mortality rate, because oyster herpes does not have any visible symptoms, and can only be diagnosed through a lab test.

Orange lobster - Picture Birmingham sealife center

So what exactly is so strange about an orange lobster? It’s actually living! Normally, lobsters are a brownish-green color when they are alive, and they turn orange when they have been cooked. That being the case, a strange live reddish-orange lobster has been sighted in the UK.

The lobster, which hails from North America, has been aptly named “Gumbo”. Gumbo is so rare that he was saved from becoming dinner, and was plunked down into a new home at the Birmingham National Sea Life Center.

Before making his way to the Sea Life Center, Gumbo was staying at the Natural History Museum I London. The museum was made aware of the rare find by fishmonger Rex Goldsmith. “I’ve never seen anything like it in 25 years in this business,” Rex commented.

Paul Clark, a crustacean researcher at the museum, was simply flabbergasted by extraordinary color of the carapace and agreed to aid Rex in finding a more suitable home for the lobster. “I was able to set up a saltwater tank here at the Museum to keep him alive until Sea Life agreed to take him and arrange collection.” Paul explained.

The shells of lobsters generally have red, yellow, and blue pigments which give them their brownish-green color when they are still alive.

The lobsters’ diet consists of shrimp, algae and other sea animals which contain cartenoid pigments.

These pigments are what give lobsters their color, and when they are cooked they break down and give them that “red” look.