Recovery of West Coast marine mammals boosts consumption of chinook salmon

November 20, 2017

Recovering populations of killer whales, sea lions and harbor seals on the West Coast have dramatically increased their consumption of chinook salmon in the last 40 years, which may now exceed the combined harvest by commercial and recreational fisheries, a new study finds.

While the recovery of marine mammals represents a conservation success, it creates complex tradeoffs for managers also charged with protecting the salmon they prey on, the study concludes. The U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 protects all marine mammals, including whales and pinnipeds (seals and sea lions) within the waters of the United States. and the Endangered Species Act protects nine West Coast populations of chinook salmon.

The study was published today in the journal Scientific Reports. The findings resulted from a collaboration of federal, state and tribal scientists in the Pacific Northwest, including Oregon State University and NOAA Fisheries. The research was designed in part to understand the pressures on chinook salmon consumed by southern resident killer whales, which in contrast to other killer whale populations are endangered and show few signs of recovery.

Southern residents spend much of the year in the inland waters of Washington and consume about the same volume of salmon today as they did 40 years ago, the study found. The study suggests that, at least in recent years, competition with other marine mammals may be more of a problem for southern residents than competition with human fisheries.

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Protected waters foster resurgence of West Coast rockfish

September 20, 2017

West Coast rockfish species in deep collapse only 20 years ago have multiplied rapidly in large marine protected areas off Southern California, likely seeding surrounding waters with enough offspring to offer promise of renewed fishing, a new study has found.

The research published in Royal Society Open Science shows that protecting important ocean habitat promotes the long-term recovery of rockfish such as cowcod and bocaccio that have long been a staple of West Coast fishermen. Favorable ocean conditions also played a role, according to the study by scientists from NOAA Fisheries' Southwest Fisheries Science Center (SWFSC), University of San Diego, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

"The larvae of several species of rockfish that were once heavily fished increased in number within protected areas over the past decade," said Andrew Thompson, a research scientist at the SWFSC in La Jolla, Calif., and lead author on the study. "The larvae have the potential to drift outside the protected region. That's good for fisheries because it can build populations beyond the protected waters too."

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West coast marine mammals respond to shifting conditions, new research shows

Sea otters, harbor porpoises returning, scientists report at marine mammal conference

Date:December 16, 2015

Source:NOAA Fisheries West Coast Region

Humpback whales off the West Coast consume thousands of pounds of krill, plankton and small fish each day. Research shows that humpback diets reflect their surroundings, with the truck-sized whales filter-feeding on vast amounts of krill when cold upwelling waters prevail, but switching to schooling fish such as anchovies when warmer waters take over and the fish grow abundant.

The findings presented at the Society of Marine Mammalogy's Biennial Conference in San Francisco demonstrate that humpback foraging responds to environmental changes, and illustrates how marine mammals serve as sentinels of ever-changing ocean conditions. "Whales can be great indicators but only if we know what they are indicating," said Alyson Fleming, a postdoctoral researcher at the Smithsonian Institution who is lead author of the study. "Once we know that, they can shed light on the whole ecosystem as it is today and help us predict what it might look like in the future."

The Society's conference has attracted more than 2,000 marine mammal researchers, agency representatives, educators and conservation groups to San Francisco for its first return to California in 25 years. "This is the world's largest meeting of marine mammal professionals, and the place we all compare notes and look for patterns and trends that help us piece together important changes out in the ocean," said NOAA Fisheries research scientist Jay Barlow, a co-author of the new humpback research and president-elect of the Society.

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Scores of starfish suffer mysterious and gruesome demise along west coast

The cause of the most deadly sea star epidemic in recorded history remains unclear, but experts believe it may be a poorly understood ‘wasting’ disease

Brent Crane

Sunday 3 May 2015 15.04 BST

It is a gruesome death. First the legs shrivel up, followed by lesions. Then the legs inch away and finally detach. The victim continues to deteriorate until it is nothing but a plot of sticky goo.

This is the thoroughly unpleasant way by which scores of sea stars, also known as starfish, have perished along the North American west coast in the most deadly epidemic to hit the iconic echinoderms in recorded history.

From southern Alaska down to Baja California, sea stars have been dying in droves. The culprit, it is suspected, is a little-understood “wasting” disease known as “sea star-associated densovirus”, or SSaDV.

“It is unprecedented,” says Richard Ambrose, a marine biologist at UCLA. “It’s a really extensive decline of a really important component of rocky tidal and subtidal communities along the whole west coast. It’s pretty serious.”

While this is not the first time sea stars have been hit by a mass wasting event –similar die-offs occurred in the 70s and late 90s, and their cause remains unknown – it is by far the most destructive, extensive and perplexing. First observed in Washington state in June 2013, the disease has gradually spread up and down the coast.

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Unusual warm ocean conditions off West Coast bringing odd species

Hawaiian ono swimming off the California coast? Giant sunfish in Alaska? A sea turtle usually at home off the Galapagos Islands floating near San Francisco?

Rare changes in wind patterns this fall have caused the Pacific Ocean off California and the West Coast to warm to historic levels, drawing in a bizarre menagerie of warm-water species. The mysterious phenomena are surprising fishermen and giving marine biologists an aquatic Christmas in November.

Temperatures off the California coast are currently 5 to 6 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than historic averages for this time of year - among the warmest autumn conditions of any time in the past 30 years.

"It's not bathtub temperature," said Nate Mantua, a research scientist with the National Marine Fisheries Service in Santa Cruz, "but it is swimmable on a sunny day."

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Do Not Fear the Sailor 'Jellyfish' Invasion

By Cathy Lucas, University of Southampton | October 05, 2014 07:17pm ET

This article was originally published on The Conversation. The publication contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

Billions of small, jellyfish-like creatures known as “by-the-wind sailors” have washed ashore all along the west coast of North America this summer, from southern California to British Columbia. Images of vast swarms of electric-blue sails covering the ocean’s surface and littering the sand are indeed spectacular, but people might well wonder what exactly these strange-looking beings actually are. And this of course leads to the next question – should we be afraid of them?

Velella velella (to give them their scientific name) are often assumed to be a type of jellyfish but, while biology does lump them in with jellyfish, sea anenomes, and corals in a group known as Cnidaria, Velellas are not all that closely related to the common or moon jellyfish, Aurelia aurita.

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15-year analysis of blue whale range off California finds conflict with shipping lanes

Date:

July 23, 2014

Source:

Oregon State University

Summary:

A comprehensive analysis of the movements of blue whales off the West Coast found that their favored feeding areas are bisected by heavily used shipping lanes, increasing the threat of injury and mortality. But moving the shipping lanes off Los Angeles and San Francisco to slightly different areas -- at least, during summer and fall when blue whales are most abundant -- could significantly decrease the probability of ships striking the whales.

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Mass sea star deaths off US west coast puzzle scientists

Starfish have been mysteriously dying by the millions in recent months along the US west coast, worrying biologists who say the sea creatures are key to the marine ecosystem.

Scientists first started noticing the mass deaths in June 2013. Different types of starfish, also known as sea stars, were affected, from wild ones along the coast to those in captivity, according to Jonathan Sleeman, director of the US Geological Survey's National Wildlife Health Center.

"The two species affected most are Pisaster ochraceus (purple sea star or ochre starfish) and Pycnopodia helianthoides (sunflower sea star)," he wrote in a statement in December.

The sunflower sea star is considered among the largest starfish and can span more than a meter in diameter.

The most commonly observed symptoms are white lesions on the arms of the sea star. The lesions spread rapidly, resulting in the loss of the arm. Within days, the infection consumes the creature's entire body, and it dies.

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West coast whales, dolphins and sharks to be surveyed

Whales, dolphins and porpoises are to be photographed and their calls recorded during a new survey of marine life off Scotland's west coast.

Scientists and volunteers will gather the data between May and September.

The Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust (HWDT) project will also seek to record behaviour and numbers of basking sharks.

The survey work will be carried out over seven to 10 days from the charity's yacht, Silurian.

HWDT said 24 species of cetaceans - whales, dolphins and porpoises - can be found off Scotland's west coast, including species designated as national and international conservation priorities.

The survey will involve photographing dorsal fins for use in identifying individual animals and to improve understanding of species' movements and interactions.

Photo identification work has already catalogued 125 minke whales, some of which HWDT believe stay in Hebridean seas all year round.

Continued:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-22198502

'Zombie' Honeybees Spread Along West Coast

Earlier this year, researchers discovered that fly parasites were turning honeybees across the San Francisco Bay area into disoriented, zombie-like wanderers that dropped dead with maggots ready to burst out of their bodies. Other cases were reported in commercial hives in South Dakota and central California. And now the parasite has hit honeybees in Oregon and Washington State, the researchers confirmed.
Scientists first reported the discovery of the Apocephalus borealis infections in January. Several months later, they launched ZomBeeWatch.org, a website that tracks where the "zombie" bees have been documented. The group encourages citizen scientists to send in samples of dead bees they think might be infected with the parasite — a strategy that led to the confirmation of more cases along the West Coast.

"I joke with my kids that the zombie apocalypse is starting at my house," novice beekeeper Mark Hohn told The Seattle Times. Hohn collected dead honeybees on his property in Kent, near Seattle, and sent them to the researchers.

Continued: http://www.livescience.com/23461-zombie-honeybees-spread-on-west-coast.html