Climate Change Discussed at the 40th Fishermen's Forum

One of the annual highlights in March in Maine is the Fishermen's Forum, a 3-day event that includes seminars, a trade show, and different evening events such as a seafood dinner and auction. This March marked the event's 40th year, which is a testament to the importance of fisheries to Maine's economy and community identity. This is the 3rd year Hurricane Island has had a booth and attended seminars at the event, and we always look forward to meeting new people and learning more about the hot-button issues in Maine fisheries. On Saturday, March 7, 2015 I attended a session co-hosted by the Island Institute and the Gulf of Maine Research Institute (GMRI) entitled “Forecasts, Tools, and Research to support Fisheries in Adapting to a Rapidly Changing Gulf of Maine." Speakers included staff from the Island Institute, GMRI, NERACOOS (Northeast Regional Association of Coastal and Ocean Observing System), and graduate students and professors from the University of Maine. The first half of the session focused on the changes that have been happening over the last few years in terms of warming waters and the resulting effects on oceanographic and biological processes, such as the earlier timing of the lobster shed following the Gulf of Maine "heat wave" in 2012 and the timing and strength of the spring and fall plankton blooms. Andy Pershing, GMRI Chief Scientific Officer, concluded that we can expect to see colder winters and warmer summers and falls which will continue to contribute to the overall warming trend in water temperatures in the Gulf of Maine. Dr. Pershing's model predicts that the result of warming temperatures will likely lead to lower cod recruitment and greater lobster landings. 

During the second half of the three-hour session, presenters highlighted tools that exist or are being developed to help individuals track change at various spatial and temporal scales. One notable tool is GMRI's climate dashboard and model to forecast the start of the summer lobster shed based on water temperature data. Another model presented during the session was a lobster landings forecasting model developed by one of our science advisors, Noah Oppenheim, as part of his graduate work. Noah's model predicts regional landings based on data from the New England Lobster Settlement Index and other sources. Finally, NERACOOS offers a wealth of data that is easily accessible through the real time data portal where you can compare daily data on temperature to the average over a larger timeframe. 

All in all, the session revealed the number of organizations and individuals working to understand climate change in the Gulf of Maine and how we can support adaptation in our fisheries. I plan to incorporate information I learned during this session into my panel presentation, “Climate Change in Maine” at the first Maine Science Festival in Bangor on March 21, 2015.

2015 Nor'easter Bowl

On Saturday February 7, 2015, Cait Cleaver and I drove up to The University of Maine campus to attend the Nor'easter Bowl, the regional ocean science competition of the National Ocean Science Bowl (NOSB) for Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont schools. We were there to watch students compete and we also set up a table to share information about the Marine Ecology ISLE program happening this summer on Hurricane. Because the Nor'easter bowl brings students from 3 states together, The University of Maine, University of New England, and University of New Hampshire's marine science departments rotate hosting the event each year. This year nearly 100 students on 17 teams from Belfast, Poland, Windham, Falmouth, York, Orono, and other schools attended the event. Each team consists of 4-5 students (teams can have an alternate), one of whom is designated as team captain, and is in charge of answering for the team in the case of short answer questions. New to the event this year were some familiar faces to us! Coastal Studies for Girls, including several girls who were out on Hurricane this past summer, put together a team and made it to the quarter finals! 

How exactly do students compete in the Nor'easter bowl? The morning competition consisted of several round-robin style tournament rounds, where every team faced each other and collected points which would help dictate their rank and competitors for the single elimination rounds in the afternoon. Each round followed the same format, starting with six minutes of "toss up" multiple choice questions, each of which had an attached bonus short answer question for the team who answered the toss up question correctly. This was followed by a two separate three-to-five minute written question sheets where the full team could work together to submit one collective answer sheet. The round ended with a second bout of six-minute toss up questions, and the team with the most points at the end won.

The competition was heated and the questions were hard. Questions ranged from ocean chemistry to geography to historic oil spills to books written by Rachel Carson. It was fun as an audience member to see how much of my marine education I remembered (or forgot in the case of physical oceanography...) and I was continually impressed by how quickly these students correctly answered questions I was struggling to remember. There is also a some great strategy to the rounds-- because they are timed, at the very end of the round some teams opted to buzz in and try to answer a question that hadn't been fully asked yet for a 25% chance of guessing the right answer and snagging some last-minute points. Other teams confidently buzzed in before all of the answers were given, to get that extra edge on their opponents. The winning team (ConVal Regional High School, Peterborough, NH) is headed up to the National Ocean Science Bowl, held this year in Ocean Springs, Mississippi in April. The theme for the national competition this year is "the science of oil in the ocean." You can read a little bit more about this event and see a photo of the winning team by reading this article by the Bangor Daily News.

Hurricane Island is excited to help start a midcoast Maine team together to compete in next year's event, which will take place at the University of New England. If you want to join our team, or know of a good student let us know! (email alice@hurricaneisland.net)

"Coastal Conversations" tackles the subject of Ocean Acidification

Maine's independent community radio station, WERU 89.9 FM, just added another great new program for listeners: Coastal Conversations, a new science and conservation program hosted by Maine Sea Grant's Natalie Springuel, will air on the 4th Friday of every month from 10-11am. Springuel's topic on January 23rd was ocean acidification, and she kicked off the conversation with Joe Salisbury of University of New Hampshire and Bill Mook of Mook Sea Farm, who helped listeners understand the chemistry behind ocean acidification. Here is a brief synopsis:

Simply put, ocean acidification is the result of lowered pH in the oceans (ocean water is usually 8 on the pH scale which ranges from 0-14). Unfortunately, the pH scale can be a bit challenging to interpret: it is a logarithmic scale that represents concentrations of hydrogen ions, so lower pH (7 is neutral) corresponds to increasing acidity. There are three main processes that tend to lower pH levels in the ocean (making the ocean more acidic):

1.  When CO2 from the atmosphere dissolves into the surface ocean. Normally, this isn't a huge problem as the ocean has the capacity to take in some atmospheric CO2, but what we are facing is an excess of atmospheric CO2 which is only increasing. This is mostly a consequence of human activities like burning fossil fuels. 
2. Increased freshwater runoff into the ocean. According to the National Weather Service, Maine has seen a 73% increase in the top 1% of storm events over the last century. This means that big storm events (which maybe happened only once every five years in the past) are becoming more frequent. When large storms happen, they literally flood existing municipal infrastructure, which often means that storm drains, dams, and sewers overflow, causing a huge influx of freshwater into the oceans over a relatively short amount of time. Freshwater typically has a pH of 5, so this influx leads to lower pH levels in the coastal zone.
3. Storm events don't just dump freshwater into the oceans, but also often bring along nitrogen and other nutrients. This one is a bit tricky, because nutrients don't directly increase the acidity of the ocean, but eutrophication (a fancy way of saying adding nutrients) starts a chain of events which ultimately leads to lower pH. Coastal zone productivity is usually limited by nitrogen availability. When nitrogen is added to the ocean (some sources include agricultural runoff of high-nitrogen fertilizer or from sewage runoff), micro algae get really excited and start photosynthesizing like crazy. An algal bloom forms, and then, when the photosynthesizers die off and sink, they in turn are consumed by mircoorganisms that also consume oxygen and respire CO2 creating hypoxic (low oxygen) zones and low pH zones.

Lobster is just one of many important commercial shellfish in Maine that is susceptible to ocean acidification.

So these processes lower ocean pH...what's the big deal? And which processes are having the biggest impact? We don't know all of these answers yet, but Dr. Salisbury and other scientists are documenting the seasonality of CO2 and pH levels in the surface ocean to see how much phytoplankton blooms, freshwater runoff, upwelling, and horizontal mixing are contributing to changes in pH compared to atmospheric CO2 emissions. We do know that lower pH impacts a lot of organisms in the ocean that we commercially harvest. Lower pH drops the concentration of carbonate ions in the ocean which is an important part of the compound calcium carbonate--a crucial ingredient in creating the shells of commercial shellfish including lobsters, oysters, scallops, and clams. According to Joe Salisbury, shellfish aren't the only critters that may be impacted. Fish can also face reproductive and olfactory (sense of smell) stress in lower pH environments, and low pH can even change how sound travels through water, which may impact how whales and other marine mammals communicate using vocalizations underwater.

As an oyster farmer, Bill Mook has seen first-hand what lower ocean pH can do to his larval oysters. Larval shellfish are much more vulnerable to ocean acidification compared to their adult companions. According to Mook, the calcium carbonate form that larvae use in their shells is aragonite, which is much more soluble (easily dissolved) in lower pH conditions. Larval oysters typically develop from fertilized eggs in 24 hours and live as swimming larvae from 14-16 days. Mook has noticed that since 2006, there have been more incidents at the hatchery where fertilized eggs do not convert to larvae and just die, or the larvae grow much more slowly, stop feeding, and generally take longer to go through metamorphosis. These events are often linked to runoff events from rain storms, and may be the canary in the coal mine for what the future may look like for shellfish.

So what is Maine and the scientific community doing about it ocean acidification? Damian Brady of Darling Marine Center, UMaine, and Esperanza Stancioff of University of Maine Cooperative Extension are great examples of other researchers and educators that are trying to learn more and educate people about the problem. Damian Brady works with numerical models to try to learn more about how changes in temperature, precipitation events, runoff, and land-use practices can mitigate some of the conditions we are seeing in the ocean. The state of Maine has also been one of the first states to mobilize forums, conferences, and meetings focused on ocean acidification, and there are several formalized networks and organizations that are also working to learn more about ocean acidification. Two that were mentioned during Coastal Conversations are The Northeast Coastal Acidification Network (NECAN) and The Ocean Acidification Commission (OAC). NECAN has been working to compile data and research around ocean acidification including hosting a series of webinars and a 2-day "state of the science" workshop. The OAC was formed less than a year ago by the Maine legislature to compile information about existing and potential impacts of ocean acidification on commercial species. Their goals involved identifying existing research and potential monitoring, mitigation, and education opportunities to continue to engage researchers, industry members, and the public in this issue. The OAC recently released a report (a link to the draft is here) outlining the following recommendations: 

1. Increase Maine's capacity to monitor the impacts of ocean acidification
2. Reduce CO2 emissions in Maine, and encourage new innovative technology to help make these reductions possible
3. Reduce nutrient and freshwater runoff
4. Mitigate, remediate, and adapt (for example, preserve macro algae (seaweed) areas, and use shells to buffer mudflats)
5. Educate the public about this issue
6. Sustain these research and mitigation efforts in Maine in the form an ocean acidification council to see this process into the future

If ocean acidification is a topic that interests you as a student, researcher, or citizen, then get involved! There are many research questions yet to be asked and explored, and opportunities to help Maine move forward to mitigate our impact on our oceans. The state of Maine currently doesn't require schedule maintenance of homeowner septic systems, there is not yet a citizen science ocean acidification monitoring network, the body of published scientific literature on ocean acidification is less than 10 years old, and there are still opportunities to develop curriculum around ocean acidification and share what you know with others! The time is now and you can make a difference! 

At the very least, be sure to stay informed by reading up on marine conservation issues and by tuning in every 4th Friday of the month to Coastal Conversations on WERU 89.9 FM or live-stream from weru.org. 

Visiting Seal Island, Maine

On Sunday, January 11, 2015 Sam Hallowell and I boarded Equinox, captained by John Morin and joined by a hearty crew of warmly dressed nature enthusiasts, to head out to Seal Island, a 65 acre treeless and desolate island 21 miles off the coast of Rockland. A layer of ice was on the stern, a stiff breeze kept everyone's hats and hoods tightly fastened, and snow coated the lines securing Equinox to the dock at Journey's End Marina. Despite the conditions, the mood was charged with energy and enthusiasm--we were on a mission to see the second largest gray seal pupping colony in the United States.

Around this time each year (starting in November), when most of us want to cozy up in front of a fire armed with hot tea and a book, gray seals (Halichoerus grypus) are gathering by the thousands to temporarily colonize offshore islands as their pupping grounds. Protected by a thick layer of blubber and hair, they are unfazed by the ice, windchill, and other inhospitable conditions, and lay out on exposed bedrock to give birth to snow white seal pups. After the pups are born, they consume a high fat milk concoction for nearly a month until they are left to fend for themselves, until they too return to the colony to mate and have pups of their own.

When we arrived and set anchor, the island was littered with pups laying near their mothers on the rocks. John clicked the engine off and a sustained eerie moaning sound emerged from the silence. At first it was hard to distinguish what we were looking at (is that a seal, a rock, or a seal slumped over a rock?), and where to look as eagles soared overhead scoping out vulnerable pups, and huge males lurked around us in the water, occasionally popping up their heads to look at us reproachfully. Male gray seals are hard to ignore: growing up to 10 feet long and upwards of 900 pounds, they also sport an unmistakable profile which influenced the origin of their latin name, which translates to "hook-nosed sea pig." 

Not much is known about gray seal life history and ecology because most of these major life events happen underwater or far offshore. This means that researchers can often only observe gray seals in the wild for a few days at a time. One instrument that has helped researchers have a more sustained look at these events is the "seal cam," which was installed on Seal Island in 2013.  Cameras can allow researchers to identify seals that have been seen or tagged elsewhere, and ask questions such as "how long do pups keep their white coats?" or "What are the interactions between mother and pup as the pup matures?" For the general public, the seal cam is a great way to enjoy gray seals from the comfort of our homes, although I will always treasure having the opportunity to see the pupping colony with my own eyes! Thank you so much to John Morin for making the trip possible.

DMR's Rockweed Harvesting Working Group Meets to Designate No-Cut Areas

Ascophyllum nodosum is a common type of brown alga found on Hurricane. It is commonly found with the red alga epiphyte Polysiphonia lanosa.

On December 18th, 2014, the Maine Department of Marine Resources Rockweed Working Group met to discuss locations that should be designated as "no-cut areas" where commercial harvest of Ascophyllum nodosum (known both as Knotted wrack and Rockweed - common names can be confusing...) will be prohibited. 

Thirteen coastal and island field stations and marine labs submitted a brief letter to the working group requesting that the intertidal zone at their facilities be designated as no-cut areas in order to maintain the ecological integrity of the intertidal community and habitat. The only exception to this no-cut designation would be for removing seaweed biomass for scientific sampling as part of research or for educational activities. Rockweed plays an important part in the ecology of the intertidal because it helps improve water quality by removing nutrients and metals from the water column, it is a source of food for a variety of grazing mollusks and crustaceans, and it provides shelter from predation and desiccation for other organisms at low tide. The list of stations and labs, in addition to the Hurricane Island Foundation's Center for Science and Leadership, includes:

• Bowdoin College's Coastal Studies Center, (Orrs Island, Harpswell, ME)
• Roque Island Gardner Homestead Corporation & the Roque Island Archipelago (Roque Island, Anguilla Island, Double-Shot Islands, Lakeman’s Islands, Middle Island, Great Spruce Island, Little Spruce Island, Shag Ledge, Halifax Island, Eastern Brothers, Western Brothers, Pulpit Rock, and the intertidal ledges within the archipelago)
• Schoodic Institute at Acadia National Park (Schoodic Point, Winter Harbor, ME)
• Cornell University & University of New Hampshire's Shoals Marine Lab (Isles of Shoals, NH/ME)
• University of New England Marine Science Center in Biddeford and Ram Island (Saco Bay, ME)
• National Audubon Society's Hog Island Audubon Camp (Muscongus Bay, ME)
• Suffolk University's R.S. Friedman Field Station (Cobscook Bay, ME)
• Eagle Hill Institute (Steuben, ME)
• Downeast Institute of Applied Marine Research & Education (Beals, ME)
• College of the Atlantic's Alice Eno Field Research Station (Great Duck Island, ME)

• College of the Atlantic's Edward McC. Blair Marine Research Station (Mount Desert Rock, ME)

• The University of Maine's Darling Marine Center (Walpole, ME)

This group of field stations and marine labs will provide boundaries of the areas that they would like to protect for education and research prior to the DMR working group's next meeting in January.