The mission of the University of Maryland subunit is to promote recreational and economic opportunities provided by all fisheries resources in Maryland and to provide a link for communication between researchers, managers, students, teachers, and others interested in the welfare of fisheries in Maryland. We aim to benefit our members by promoting greater fisheries professionalism by all persons involved in the society.
On Wednesday August 31, the University of Maryland Chapter of the American Fisheries Society met to discuss our fall lineup of outreach and field trips and to discuss two chapters from this summer's book club book, "Four Fish" by Paul Greenberg. We plan to repeat a field trip undertaken two years ago by revisiting the Omega Protein plant in Reedville, Virginia! This is particularly exciting for president Emily Liljestrand, who is using models to study menhaden migration and plans to graduate in about a year. Our final seine demonstration would have been conducted that weekend, Sunday September 4, but unfortunately, foul weather derailed those intentions. If you missed any of the other three demonstrations, check out some pictures and descriptions HERE, and come out again next year. We had a lot of fun and look forward to starting up the seine demonstrations again next year. Thank you to everyone who came out and saw us and/or supported us. A special thank you to Alicia Lindbom, the lead park ranger at Calvert Cliffs State Park and to all the seasonal rangers. We literally could not do it without you.
A few of the subunit activities are still in the planning stages and much too tentative to report upon. But we'll keep the public abreast of our outreach and events as they become finalized.
Past AFS subunit member Cara Simpson looking over the fish ladder at the
Bonneville dam in Oregon. Fish ladders are one way to mitagate the effect
of damning on salmon spawning runs.
With all that out of the way, we launched into our discussion of chapters "Salmon" and "Sea Bass." When pressed to identify the most surprising thing we learned from these pages, Carlos Lozano pointed to the information about dam building in the Pacific Northwest, which severely restricted salmon passage to spawning grounds. However, this decision was not made in ignorance, but rather a careful consideration of both detriment to fish and benefit to humans. As Greenberg puts so eloquently: "wild salmon as a commodity have never been economically valuable enough to deter the more immediately profitable human activities that destroy salmon." In retrospect, after the damage is done, we often don't give enough credit to the needs and wants of humanity at the time of the incident. Now we're at a point where habitat loss and overfishing have forced us to stock salmon- raise them in captivity and then have them released back in the wild to be caught by fishermen. However, this, and selectively capturing salmon at different times during their run risks removing critical genetic diversity that is essential for long term persistence of any population in the face of stochasticity.
In the Sea Bass chapter, the topic that piqued our interest was the etymology of fish species and the marketing motivations involved. A famous example of renaming a species when it performs poorly in the fish market is the Patagonian toothfish (later "Chilean sea bass"). Not a true bass, the name change nonetheless transformed this overlooked species into a popular and occasionally overfished fishery. The European sea bass, a real Morone or "bass" species, has also had a range of pseudonyms including "branzino," "loup de mer," and "spigola." The supposed intent is to add nuance and mystery to the deceptively widely available fish, instilling an air of vacation and adventure to the consumer. We could think of a few other examples of this tactic, including "capeshark" instead of dogfish, and "swai" instead of Asian catfish.
With the last bit of time in our meeting, we once again revisited an idea brought up in the introductory meeting for Four Fish- the role of non fiction in science education. Matt summed it up better than anyone- this book is a narrative account with science elements. Though it does not contain species names or statistics- essential in primary literature- the first hand style and story entice the reader into effortlessly reading this book for 100 pages in a single sitting. The non-scientific elements, such as the Greek's lengthy history with bass or the nuances of aquaculture regulation might not have crossed our path in any other format. We value this and other similar literature for broadening our understanding of our own science and how it is placed within a richly complex world.
We'll be finishing our reading of Four Fish and discussing the last two chapters: Cod and Tuna in a meeting later this month, where we will also hear from guest speaker Genny Nesslage about the history of the Omega Protein menhaden processing plant.
There is a long standing tradition of reading during the summer. There are slightly academic associations with this practice- teachers would assign one or two books for kids to read in the off months before returning to school in the fall. But in more recent years the idea of the "beach read" has also developed, a light and non-intensive story, usually aimed at women, to read stretched out in the sand. We wanted to try something else. We'd keep the sand and sea motif but we'd make it the topic of the book we read rather than the setting itself (although that by no means means you can't read this one in front of a body of water). We had several suggestions but ultimately decided on Paul Greenberg's Four Fish, a New York Times bestseller on the hardcover list, originally published in 2010. In this book, Greenberg explores the history and fate of four fish: Salmon, Cod, Tuna, and Sea Bass, and how they have come to globally dominate the fish markets. The AFS Student Subunit met last week to discuss the introduction, where Greenberg presents the concept of the four fish and explains his own childhood and vested interest in the persistence of fisheries.
We were impressed by the sophistication of Greenberg's discussion, even in this early chapter. He talks about growing up in suburban Connecticut with ready access to streams and lakes, and how as he aged he had to push further out to catch the same number of fish. He reveals his uncertainty about the root cause of this decline in local fish stocks; Instead of boldly taking a stance that overfishing was the villain, he admits that it could have been any number of things- the weather, copper sulfate, etc. This kind of admission of ignorance is a bold move for any writer who needs authority and resoluteness to convince their audience, but as scientist we appreciate the humble and honest over the bombastic and potentially false. We already know with this introduction that we are in the hands of a dutiful levelheaded reporter willing to research rather than assume- to seek out what is right over what feels right. Greenberg is also a proficient orator, see below for his TED talk, essentially verbalizing the introduction to his book:
We then considered what it means for a message like this to come from a reporter rather than a scientist. Though it is true that scientists will more thoroughly understand the problem, the literature, and the contemporary research, a reporter has been trained to write eloquently and integrate ideas into a cohesive narrative. These days, with "Don't be Such a Scientist" being popularly passed around in academia, it is considered critical to create a story with your work for the public and fellow scientist alike. To create the requisite conflict, tension, and resolution, this necessitates placing the author into the narrative itself, something with which reporters have much more experience than scientist. They have better training with appealing to emotion, appealing to pathos by explaining the positive benefits of the work. We agreed that the ideal arrangement for a non-fiction book like this would be a collaborative project between both scientists, who have the detailed knowledge of the subject, and reporters, who can work this knowledge into an informative and entertaining narrative. Coming from an arguably objective reporter might also get controversial messages, for example restrictive fishing regulations, across to a potentially suspicious and hostile audience.
We then reiterated a popular topic among our group: how perceived trustworthiness and historical level of fisheries regulation are negatively correlated, something that is especially noticeable when you compare the East and West coasts of the United States. Basically, the East Coast has younger fishing stocks which have experienced fewer collapses and therefore less intensive regulation. So when regulation does need to be applied, watermen are more receptive to the message.
From there we moved on to our final topic- who is the true audience of these books? I asked our group how often they read books like this, fisheries non-fiction, a category in which we also place, say, Mark Kurlansky's Cod or Trevor Corson's The Secret Life of Lobsters. Suzan said that these books were vital as a starting place when preparing for her PhD qualifying exams. They are an excellent resource for understanding how the field is perceived outside of the scientific community. They provide a much needed reminder of how important your work is in the context of the broader world. Many members echoed this sentiment, adding that they enjoy reading science books outside of our specific field, books like A Brief History of Time, the famous Stephen Hawking bestseller of 1988. However, as an outsider, we read this material with no idea of the bias or politics within the field. Though we can understand tensions, gripes, and intentional put-downs between fisheries scientists, and can thus take with a grain of salt anything one writer says of another, we have no such knowledge within the field of nuclear physics. Being scientists ourselves really does offer a unique experience of reading the books in our field because we have critical insider knowledge that shapes our perspective.
We hope to expand on and explore these ideas further in our subsequent meetings as we read through the chapters of Four Fish. Feel free to comment on any of the ideas expressed in this post below in the comments, and we'd love it if you read along with us! We're reading "Salmon" and "Sea Bass" before regrouping in mid-August.
Congratulations are in order once again! One year ago, CBL had one student, Alex Atkinson, accepted into the Knauss Fellowship program. She's currently doing great things in the NOAA Office of Habitat Conservation, helping with a project to restore fish and wildlife habitat. Now, we are overjoyed to report that we have two Knauss Fellows from CBL!
So if you see or know Aimee Hoover or Gray Redding, please congratulate them. Both report that they are working hard on their theses so they can focus on finding a good office placement in the Fall. We look forward to seeing what great work they will do in 2017. We are so proud to have CBL represented once again in the class of incoming Knauss Fellows.
Summer is here! We're out of class and into nature, some for fun and some for field work. The students in Dr. Secor's lab have restarted the annual seine survey (click HERE for our post on the history of this survey and how it is conducted). Though it's been going on for more than 15 years now, we realized that few of the public have ever seen this performed or know the significance of the data we collect in examining long term trends of fish abundance and diversity in our little corner of the Chesapeake Bay. We wanted to extend the operation to a public venue- though not for the purposes of data collection. We partnered with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources and the outstanding, hard working rangers at Calvert Cliffs State Park, just north of our campus here in Solomons, MD to demonstrate a seining event. Check out the photos, all of which were taken by Christina Goethel, masters degree student at the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory.
Ours was only one of several interpretive programs at Calvert Cliffs that weekend. They also offer such programs as nature hikes and fossil discovery. Calvert Cliffs is infamous for the many readily-available shark tooth fossils easy to discover right along the beach. Click HERE to see a full calendar of events from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. We plan to repeat our seine demonstration next month, during July 4th weekend. So if you missed us this time, don't fret! There'll be more chances to get up close and personal with silversides, menhaden, croaker, and even a softshell crab or two!
We're now less than 24 hours away from the start of the 30th Annual AFS-Tidewater Chapter Meeting in Edgewater, MD! Several of our members have been hard at work putting the finishing touches on their posters and presentations. We've even been working together on a group poster that will highlight a few of the exciting and extensive long term data sets collected right off our pier here at the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory. So if you're reading this now and also planning to be there, please stop by our spot at the Thursday night poster social. A full list of our members who will be there sharing their original research are reproduced below:
Poster Presentations, Thursday 6:00-10:00PM Mathias Atrium
Matthew Damiano- "OysterFutures and the Current State of Harvest in the Choptank River"
Hillary Glandon (et al.)- "Gettin’ Jelly with It: The Influence of Local Environmental Conditions
on Gelatinous Zooplankton Abundance Observed at the Chesapeake
Biological Laboratory Research Pier and the Potential Interactions
with Fish Abundance and Diversity"
Oral Presentations, Friday 9:15-4:00 Schmidt Center
10:15AM Brian Gallagher- "Revisiting the Life History of White Perch (Morone americana) within the
Hudson River Estuary"
2:15PM Alexandra Atkinson- "Influence of Environmental Conditions on the Age, Hatch Dates, and
Growth of Juvenile Atlantic Menhaden in the Choptank River, MD"
2:30PM Emily Liljestrand- "Atlantic Menhaden (Brevoortia tyrannus) Seasonal Migration, Survival,
and Exploitation Rates During 1966-1969"
3:15PM Gray Redding- "Contingent Structure of Northwest Atlantic Mackerel Evaluated Using
Otolith Stable Isotopes"
Additionally, we are excited to announce that we will be at the front registration desk throughout the conference selling our subunit T-shirts! They are available in sizes S-L for $15, the proceeds of which will go towards our subunit outreach efforts, including a public rope tying course and a seining demonstration at local parks. Check them out:
We spent a little more than the first half of our meeting discussing subunit business. We have several upcoming conferences including the AFS-Tidewater Annual Meeting in Annapolis MD, and the Larval Fish Conference happening on our own campus in Solomons, MD. We are excited to be volunteering and possibly fundraising at both of these events. There're a few more outreach events in the planning stage, a little too early to announce. Be sure to check back in with us in a month see what springtime demonstrations and festivals we plan to conduct/attend.
But our real reason to meet was to discuss our thoughts about a paper published just last month by Daniel Pauly and Dirk Zeller of the Sea Around Us group at the University of British Columbia. It was titled "Catch reconstructions reveal that global marine fisheries catches are higher than reported and declining" and it revealed just that. The two researchers noted that the statistics organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (henceforth "FAO") neglected to include small scale fisheries like artisanal and sustenance practices, nor illegal or bycatch. When they reevaluated the last 60 years of global catch with this additional data in mind, they found an alarmingly different historical trajectory. Overall, the "reconstructed" catches, made with these other fisheries in mind, were 53% higher than the actual reported data. They further separated the global catch by geographic region and type of fishery to illustrate where the most overfishing and uncertainty may lie.
Gray praised the paper for it's clear style and straightforward message. Oftentimes, our discoveries can be clouded by jargon and bogged down in statistics. But it's no surprise that an article found in a journal called "Nature Communications" would present its findings colloquially. Though Mike pointed out that for a paper aimed (or at least well-understood) by non-scientists, is was surprisingly devoid of "doom and gloom." Usually to ignite concern for the current state of fisheries, reports get a bit "hand wavy" (also a direct quote from our meeting). If you have thoughts, please leave a comment. Is there a fundamental trade-off between optimism and impact?
When we got into the meat and potatoes of the paper, the conversation turned to data, specifically if we agreed with the methods and results. Hillary pointed out that "poor quality" data was weighted according to it's trustworthiness, so the overall sum would be biased towards information we were more sure on. Brian speculated if this might have been done better if they weighted measurements by the amount of resources that went into collecting it, as a de-facto measure of quality and reliability. When we started speculating on, and considering the dependability of data based on fishery type, but agreed that fisheries data is rife with error, even when it is collected by NOAA. It's no wonder when some of the sought after data is intentionally obscured or falsified. Suzan was reminded of another project by Daniel Pauly and his Post-Doc researcher Dalal Al-Abdulrazzak that used google satellite imaging to find illegal fishing traps in the Persian Gulf. We concluded that this was pretty and made for some surprisingly lovely images:
Credit: Google Earth by way of www.livescience.com
We ended our discussion of Pauly & Zeller 2016 by thinking about what we could learn from this paper, and what implementation we would promote or consider in our future fisheries endeavors, even if we ourselves would not pursue these avenues of study. Clearly, as a whole, we need to prioritize collecting data in small countries. Like voting, those seemingly insignificant contributions to the global catch can begin to add up and ultimately make a huge difference. But the UN doesn't have the clout nor incentive to calculate exact numbers. Some studies take time. When it takes too much time, things get put in academic limbo. And often, as noted by our resident expert and Research Assistant Scientist Barbara Hutniczak who has worked with this FAO data, when there is no requirement to report data, more often than not people won't. So we put it again to our few readers: How do we get a full assessment of global catch? How specifically do we collect data on illegal catch? Will we need to travel to every single Polynesian island to record their sustenance catches, or will a subsample be sufficient? And my own personal question that we never got around to, for the sake of time: What obligation do we have to manage different geographical and purposed fisheries?
We'll continue to think about these and other issues in the next month. And when we reconvene, we'll still be looking at the South Pacific, but how we can use shark tooth weaponry to reconstruct historical predator diversity.
