Poor old cod | TLS

Another review of University of New Hampshire professor and mariner W. Jeffrey Bolster's award-winning  The Mortal Sea. - gwc

Poor old cod | TLS:

by Richard Shelton

W. Jeffrey Bolster 
THE MORTAL SEA
Fishing the Atlantic in the age of sail 
378pp. Harvard University Press. £22.95 (US $29.95).
978 0 674 04765 5

At the time of writing, scientists agree that the numbers of many of the commercially exploited fish and shellfish species in the North Atlantic are at record low levels. Many scientists also point to deleterious structural changes in the ecosystems which support them, changes driven by a combination of excessive fishing effort, high levels of discarding, damage to the seabed and the intensive cultivation of carnivorous fishes such as the Atlantic salmon. So far, attempts at scientifically based regulation have been dogged by the perceived short-term costs of the necessary measures and concerns about the allocation of fishing rights among nations. The realization that intensive fishing has effects that extend far beyond the species targeted has caused some scientists to ask whether the effects of fishing are best understood not in isolation, but within the wider study of predator–prey relations. It is a branch of biological science in which understanding the natural history of the predator is as important as that of its prey. It has long been known that the rate at which a predator can secure sufficient surplus energy to grow to maturity and sustain its reproduction is ultimately linked to the abundance of its prey. Through this “feedback loop”, the prey controls the population size of the predator, the fineness of the control being linked to the complexity of the food web of which both are a part and in association with which both have evolved. Bolster’s fishery-dependent Mi’kmaks and Malacites were subject to just such control through energy acquisition, but once serious commercial fishing by Europeans began, such control as there was became dependent on the rate at which money could be acquired. The greatly increased fishing effort that ensued was exerted not by men alone but by fishing vessels, voracious alien predators even in the days of sail, which, although developing in rapacity through technical innovation, had not evolved alongside their prey.

The unit value of a fishery resource is positively linked, like any other good, to its relative scarcity rather than to its abundance. It follows that, in a laissez-faire culture, it can make short- and even medium-term economic sense to continue to build new and more powerful vessels even when their prey populations are reduced. Ultimately, of course, the prey reasserts its control because, as has happened to the cod fishers of the North West Atlantic, no fleet can make money when its target stocks have collapsed. However, such is the complexity of marine ecosystems that the recovery of severely depleted cod populations is taking decades longer than simple theory would suggest. The Mortal Sea is a beautifully written chronicle of what lay before this latest catastrophe and much earlier dire outcomes of poorly regulated fishing. As an authoritatively written natural history of the developing fishing communities of the North West Atlantic, it makes an important contribution to fishery science as well as to social history.

Richard Shelton is Chairman of the Buckland Foundation and a Research Fellow at the Scottish Fisheries Museum. His most recent book is To Sea and Back: The heroic life of the Atlantic salmon, which appeared in 2009.

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Waiting for ice and a cold breeze

Ah for the good old days. - gwc

Waiting for ice and a winter breeze - NY Times
by Samantha Storey
A century ago, when cold winters could be relied upon, the sport was particularly popular, especially on the Hudson River. The Times first reported about ice yachting in 1874, referring to new sailing regulations that made “the wild sport perfectly safe.” Of course, a couple of years later, it unsurprisingly reported that two ice yachts had collided, with one destroyed but no one hurt.       

Stanley Paris - 76 y.o. round the world attempt

I get interested in competitive round the world races - like the Volvo (formerly Whitbread), and Vendee Globe (single-handed, no outside assistance, non-stop).  But the oldest, the youngest, etc. don't catch my eye.  But Stanley Paris (who hopes to be the oldest) caught my eye.  His boat Kiwi Spirit was built at Lyman Morse, just across the river from Jeff's Marine, Thomaston, Maine where my power boat is maintained.
Paris - an endurance athlete (Ironman, etc.) can be followed at his blog.  Right now he is nearing Bermuda where the attempt (Bermuda - Bermuda) will start.

Star Sailors League Championships

The Olympics have ditched the Star in favor of extreme sailing events.  I don't object to kite sailors, and windsurfers, and multi-hulls.  But that's not a reason to ditch the Star - a great 100 year old keel boat one-design with the best sailors in the world - skippers like Paul Cayard.  This is sailing - at the Star Sailors League championship in the Bahamas this week. Or follow them on their Facebook page. - gwc

Paul Cayard - Whitbread champion, AC veteran - and Star sailing star

2014 winter shrimp season canceled

We won't be waiting for the Margaret E to come in, low in the stern, heavy with shrimp on a snowy winter evening.  Not this year - and perhaps not for several years to come.  We will be waiting to see if the shrimp reproduce in the Gulf of Maine, or move to different waters. - gwc
ASMFC Northern Shrimp Section Establishes Moratorium for 2014 Fishing Season 
Portland, ME – The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Northern Shrimp Section approved a moratorium for the 2014 northern shrimp fishing season. The results of the 2013 Assessment Report for Gulf of Maine Northern Shrimp indicate the northern shrimp stock is overfished and overfishing is occurring. 
Northern shrimp abundance in the western Gulf of Maine has declined steadily since 2006. Current biomass (500 mt) is the lowest value in recent history, estimated at 5.2% for the biomass reference period (1985-1994), and well below the biomass threshold of 9,000 mt and the biomass limit of 6,000 mt.   Additionally, there has been recruitment failure for the past three years. The Northern Shrimp Technical Committee considers the stock to have collapsed with little prospect of recovery in the near future. 

“Given the overwhelming evidence of recruitment failure and stock collapse, and continuing unfavorable environmental conditions, the Section felt it was necessary to close the 2014 fishery to protect the remaining spawning biomass and allow as much hatch to take place as possible,” stated Northern Shrimp Section Chair Terry Stockwell of Maine. “When environmental conditions are poor, the ability of the stock to withstand fishing pressure is reduced. With the stock at all time lows and only failed year classes to come, there is even greater loss of resilience for this stock.” 

The 2013 season, which was classified as a “do no harm” fishery, still resulted in a fishing mortality rate (0.53) above the target (0.38). This was despite the fact that only 49% of the total allowable catch was harvested (307 mt of 625 mt). Since the fishery targets 4- and 5- year old females, the 2013 fishery targeted the 2008 and 2009 year classes. Projecting this forward, the 2014 fishery would fish on the 2009 and 2010 year classes, with the 2010 year class representing the first year of failed recruitment in the fishery. The Section noted that due to this recruitment failure, it is possible that the moratorium could extend beyond one year. 

A North Atlantic Mystery: Case of the Missing Whales by Rebecca Kessler: Yale Environment 360

A North Atlantic Mystery: Case of the Missing Whales by Rebecca Kessler: Yale Environment 360:

Endangered North Atlantic right whales are disappearing from customary feeding grounds off the U.S. and Canadian coasts and appearing in large numbers in other locations, leaving scientists to wonder if shifts in climate may be behind the changes.

by rebecca kessler

Every summer and fall, endangered North Atlantic right whales congregate in the Bay of Fundy between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick to gorge on zooplankton. Researchers have documented the annual feast since 1980, and well over 100 whales typically attend, a significant portion of the entire species. Only this year, they didn't. Just a dozen right whales trickled in — 

New England Aquarium

Right whales were not found in their usual numbers this summer in the Bay of Fundy.

a record low in the New England Aquarium's 34-year-old monitoring program. And that comes on the heels of two other low-turnout years, 2010 and 2012. 

Numbers of the critically endangered marine mammal have been ticking up in recent years just past 500 individuals, so no one thinks the low turnout in the Bay of Fundy augurs a decline in the species as a whole. The right whales must have gone elsewhere. But where? And more importantly, why? 

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Thanksgiving in Maine

Back River

Elwyns wharf, Salt Pond Road

Elwyn's traps

More on "The Mortal Sea - Environment, Law, and History

Another review of Jeffrey Bolster's The Mortal Sea - which restructures the ecological history of the north Atlantic in a sophisticated and careful analysis of the ideological and material matrix that led to the disastrous state of our ocean fishery. - GWC
More on "The Mortal Sea - Environment, Law, and History:



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Buzzards Bay - G 1 Can - Pescadotes

The latest from Joe Warren at Pescadotes. The tide rips in Buzzards Bay, throwing up a steep chop when the ebb meets the summer sea breeze.  Joe Warren captures that here.  My boat - a Buzzards Bay 14 - has 750 lbs. of lead at the bottom to push the 17 foot sloop through such a chop. - gwc

onecanFINAL.jpg (1600×891):



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Naked female scientist tries to tame beluga whales in the arctic | Mail Online

For the advancement of science.
Naked female scientist tries to tame beluga whales in the arctic | Mail Online:

Who is studying whom?

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