Effective management of phosphorus is needed to curb the rise of harmful algal blooms. Few studies have explored how algal biomass, especially blue-green algae, can be used to create materials that remove phosphate from water. Researchers have filled that gap by transforming cyanobacterial biomass into materials that can pull harmful phosphorus out of water.
Tag: Fishing
Lake Erie walleye growth is driven by parents’ size, experience
Parent size and the conditions in which actively spawning adults lived are the most influential factors affecting growth of Lake Erie walleye, a new study has found.
Business operations affect fishermen’s resilience to climate change, new study finds
In their new study published in the journal Global Environmental Change, researchers found that fishermen’s responses to a changing climate can be strongly influenced by how they fish and how they’re organized. The study highlights the role that distinct strategies associated with different group sizes and levels of cooperation play in how fishers respond and adapt to climate change.
Brexit-induced spatial restrictions reveal alarming increase of fishing fleet’s carbon footprint
In a study published today in Marine Policy, researchers have unveiled striking evidence that fisheries management decisions such as spatial fisheries restrictions can increase greenhouse gas emissions.
Protected Sex: Study Records Grouper Mating Calls in Marine Managed Areas
Groupers produce distinct sounds associated with courtship, territoriality or reproduction. An autonomous mobile wave glider and passive acoustics were deployed to survey two marine protected areas on the western shelf of Puerto-Rico to locate spawning aggregations of two commercially important species – the Nassau and red hind groupers. Findings show these sites are critical habitat for both species and multiple previously unknown grouper species, which highlight the importance of expanding existing seasonal regulations.
Why are muskies the fish of 10,000 casts? Illinois study explains
In a new study, University of Illinois researchers got into the minds of muskies to learn what personality traits make the fish more likely to strike. In the process, they learned valuable lessons that could help conserve the important aquatic predators.
Hurricane’s effects killed sturgeon in Apalachicola River
As hurricane Michael churned through the Gulf of Mexico to make landfall near Florida’s Apalachicola River in 2018, it left a sea of destruction in its wake. The path was easy to follow on land, but debris and infrastructure failures also diminished the river’s water quality and led to the death of roughly half the gulf sturgeon population there.
Coastal experts get chance to explore new Gulf-wide research tools and information
Over 800 coastal researchers and managers will get the chance to explore more than 25 regional tools on display April 26 at the Gulf of Mexico Conference (#GOMCON) in Baton Rouge, La. The Tools Café gives participants a unique opportunity to access some of the newest and best tools for coastal resilience, data management, and conservation while learning about these resources directly from developers who created each tool.
FAU Receives NOAA Grant to Assess Shark Interactions with Recreational Fishing
Shark depredation, where a shark partially or completely consumes a fish before a fisherman can get it out of the water, causes a range of negative biological and economic impacts. Scientists have found a novel way to address this issue using a citizen-science approach that includes surveys, videos, forensics and social media.
FISHING IN AFRICAN WATERS
Industrial fleets from countries around the world have been increasingly fishing in African waters, but with climate change and increasing pollution threatening Africa’s fish stocks, there is a growing concern of the sustainability of these marine fisheries if they continue to be exploited by foreign countries.
Corals Carefully Organize Proteins to Form Rock-Hard Skeletons
Charles Darwin, the British naturalist who championed the theory of evolution, noted that corals form far-reaching structures, largely made of limestone, that surround tropical islands. He didn’t know how they performed this feat. Now, Rutgers scientists have shown that coral structures consist of a biomineral containing a highly organized organic mix of proteins that resembles what is in our bones. Their study, published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface, shows for the first time that several proteins are organized spatially – a process that’s critical to forming a rock-hard coral skeleton.
Overfishing of Atlantic Cod Likely Did Not Cause Genetic Changes
Overfishing likely did not cause the Atlantic cod, an iconic species, to evolve genetically and mature earlier, according to a study led by Rutgers University and the University of Oslo – the first of its kind – with major implications for ocean conservation.
How to Identify Heat-Stressed Corals
Researchers have found a novel way to identify heat-stressed corals, which could help scientists pinpoint the coral species that need protection from warming ocean waters linked to climate change, according to a Rutgers-led study.
COVID-19 Pandemic had Big Impact on Commercial Fishing in Northeast
With restaurants and supply chains disrupted due to the global coronavirus pandemic, two-fifths of commercial fishermen surveyed from Maine through North Carolina did not go fishing earlier this year, according to a Rutgers study that also documented their resilience and adaptation. Of those who kept fishing, nearly all reported a decline in income compared with previous years, according to the survey of 258 fishers in the Northeast published in the journal PLOS ONE.
Planning Ahead Protects Fish and Fisheries
Conservation of fish and other marine life migrating from warming ocean waters will be more effective and also protect commercial fisheries if plans are made now to cope with climate change, according to a Rutgers-led study in the journal Science Advances.
Marine Fisheries Will Not Offset Farm Losses after Nuclear War
After a nuclear war, wild-catch marine fisheries will not offset the loss of food grown on land, especially if widespread overfishing continues, according to a Rutgers co-authored study. But effective pre-war fisheries management would greatly boost the oceans’ potential contribution of protein and nutrients during a global food emergency, according to the study in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study for the first time explored the effects of nuclear war on wild-catch marine fisheries.
New Study Shows How Climate Impacts Food Webs, Poses Socioeconomic Threat in Eastern Africa
For the first time, a research team has obtained high resolution sedimentary core samples from Lake Tanganyika. The samples show that high frequency variability in climate can lead to major disruptions in how the lake’s food web functions. The changes could put millions of people at risk who rely on the lake for food security. The team says the findings are a critical building block toward research-informed policymaking in the Lake Tanganyika region.
New Study Finds That Access to Education and Markets Vital for Coastal Fishing Communities Adapting to a Warming and Changing World
A new study investigating the links between coastal communities and coral reefs in Kenya and Madagascar has found that access to education and markets can help mitigate acute vulnerabilities for communities struggling with poverty and reliant on ecosystems degraded by overfishing.
More protections needed to safeguard biodiversity in the Southern Ocean
Current marine protected areas in the Southern Ocean need to be at least doubled to adequately safeguard the biodiversity of the Antarctic, according to a new CU Boulder study.
Faster-degrading plastic could promise cleaner seas
To address plastic pollution plaguing the world’s seas and waterways, Cornell University chemists have developed a new polymer that can degrade by ultraviolet radiation, according to research published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
Climate Change Could Threaten Sea Snails in Mid-Atlantic Waters
Climate change could threaten the survival and development of common whelk – a type of sea snail – in the mid-Atlantic region, according to a study led by scientists at Rutgers University–New Brunswick. The common, or waved, whelk (Buccinum undatum) is an important commercial species that has been harvested for decades in Europe and Canada for bait and human consumption. Its habitat within the mid-Atlantic region is one of the Earth’s fastest warming marine areas and annual fluctuations in the bottom temperature are among the most extreme on the planet due to unique oceanographic conditions.
Microplastics from ocean fishing can ‘hide’ in deep sediments
Researchers reporting in ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology have linked microplastics in China’s Beibu Gulf with heavy fishing activities.
Rutgers Expert Available to Discuss Global Fisheries Management Study
New Brunswick, N.J. (Jan. 13, 2020) – Rutgers University–New Brunswick Professor Olaf P. Jensen is available for interviews on new marine fisheries management research to be published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study is the most comprehensive…
Rutgers Expert Can Discuss Proposed High Seas Biodiversity Treaty
New Brunswick, N.J. (Oct. 16, 2019) – Rutgers University environmental law expert Cymie R. Payne is available to comment on a proposed international treaty aimed at conserving high seas biodiversity. The treaty, which is under negotiations at the United Nations,…
High Levels of Fecal Bacteria Found in Lower Raritan River
New Brunswick, N.J. (Sept. 17, 2019) – High levels of fecal bacteria have often been found at six new water sampling sites in the lower Raritan River since May, according to a Rutgers-coordinated monitoring program that included more than 20…