Marine and Coastal Fisheries最新文献

Atlantic Cod Gadus morhua, which are overfished in the United States, are potentially vulnerable to disturbance from offshore wind energy (OWE) construction and operation during their spawning period. While many aspects of Atlantic Cod biology are well studied, little is known of their habitat use and spawning behavior at the extreme southern extent of the species' range. As Atlantic Cod form dense spawning aggregations and produce sounds associated with courtship behaviors, we used a combination of fixed-station and glider-based passive acoustic monitoring methods to evaluate the spatiotemporal spawning dynamics of Atlantic Cod in the Georges Bank stock. Additionally, we assessed potential interactions with OWE in designated offshore wind lease areas within southern New England waters of the western North Atlantic Ocean. Generalized linear modeling was used to evaluate correlations between cod grunt activity and multiple environmental cycles. Results from the southern New England spawning grounds were compared to similar data describing the geographically separated Massachusetts Bay winter-spawning subpopulation within the western Gulf of Maine stock. Temporal patterns in Atlantic Cod grunts suggest that spawning in southern New England waters is concentrated in November and December and is greatest near the new and full moons. Although there were fine-scale differences in the temporal dynamics of grunt presence between the two regions, the overall seasonality of inferred spawning was similar. Results suggest that Atlantic Cod spawning in southern New England overlaps with planned OWE construction in time and space. An understanding of cod spawning phenology in the western North Atlantic can be used to minimize disturbance to spawning through limiting construction timelines and consideration of turbine or cable placement.

Climate change will disrupt many aspects of the marine environment, with anticipated effects for half of northeastern U.S. fisheries. To mitigate effects of climate change, the United States has designated 90,650 km² (35,000 mi²) of ocean for offshore wind energy development, but this growing industry could impact fisheries in the region. Hence, there is a need to measure the spatial distribution of fishing operations to support multiple goals, including spatial planning and compensatory mitigation. In the U.S. Northeast, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries developed fishing footprints previously by using logbooks. However, logbook footprints rely on coarse data: a single location, the center point of fishing trips reported in logbooks. Therefore, we evaluated bias in these logbook footprints by restricting the size of logbook footprints and by generating active-fishing footprints from fine-scale location data collected by a reference fleet operating in the same region. Active-fishing footprints act as a benchmark approximating the “true” fishing footprint and exposure to wind farms. We focused on the longfin inshore squid Doryteuthis pealeii fishery, including 336 trips from 2016 to 2019, and 38 wind farms in southern New England and the Middle Atlantic Bight. Compared to the benchmark active-fishing footprints, unrestricted logbook footprints detected all exposed trips. As we restricted the logbook footprints, the logbook analysis failed to detect exposed trips but better approximated the amount of exposed revenue. Finally, unrestricted logbook footprints underestimated the exposed revenue for high-impact wind farms and overestimated the exposed revenue for low-impact wind farms, and this bias declined with logbook footprint restriction. We show how restricting logbook footprints could improve exposure analysis that depends on coarse-scale data when fine-scale data are unavailable. Furthermore, our analysis highlights the limits of coarse-scale data (i.e., logbook footprints). Therefore, we recommend additional incentives for voluntary participation in programs collecting fine-scale data. These incentives should be prioritized because informed, time-sensitive decisions depend on data collected prior to construction of offshore wind farms.

Bottom trawl surveys are commonly used to examine potential effects on fishes and invertebrates from offshore wind (OSW) farms in Europe and in the northeastern United States. Because OSW surveys typically occur over a limited spatial footprint, comparison of OSW monitoring results to long-term fishery-independent surveys may provide a regional and temporal context for OSW data sets. We compared results of the Block Island Wind Farm (BIWF) bottom trawl survey (2013–2019) to three fishery-independent bottom trawl surveys (Northeast Area Monitoring and Assessment Program, Northeast Fisheries Science Center, and Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management [RIDEM]) using catch rates of 12 federally managed species. We evaluated temporal trends in annual residual catches for each species calculated within each survey as the difference between the mean annual biomass per trawl and the long-term mean. Regional consistency in relative catches was apparent for species exhibiting synchronous interannual variability among surveys (Black Sea Bass Centropristis striata, Scup Stenotomus chrysops, Summer Flounder Paralichthys dentatus, and Winter Flounder Pseudopleuronectes americanus) or a decreasing trend in residual catch rates across the 7-year study period (Little Skate Leucoraja erinacea, longfin inshore squid Doryteuthis pealeii, and Winter Skate L. ocellata). For other species, catches among surveys were asynchronous (Atlantic Herring Clupea harengus, Butterfish Peprilus triacanthus, and Windowpane Scophthalmus aquosus) or anomalous catches in a single year affected the results (Red Hake Urophycis chuss and Silver Hake Merluccius bilinearis). Monitoring of BIWF occurred during a period with lower-than-average historical catches in a 32-year RIDEM data set for Atlantic Herring, Butterfish, Little Skate, longfin inshore squid, Red Hake, Silver Hake, and Winter Flounder and higher-than-average catches for Black Sea Bass, Scup, and Summer Flounder. There was no evidence that variation in catches near BIWF differed from regional trends in a way consistent with a detrimental impact of OSW farm operation. The regional context provided from multiple bottom trawl surveys varies by species and thus may be limited for interpreting OSW monitoring results.

The Atlantic surfclam Spisula solidissima fishery, which spans the U.S. Northeast continental shelf, is among the most exposed to offshore wind energy development impacts because of the overlap of fishing grounds with wind energy lease areas, the hydraulic dredges used by the fishing vessels, and the location of vessel home ports relative to the fishing grounds. The Atlantic surfclam federal assessment survey is conducted using a commercial fishing vessel in locations that overlap with the offshore wind energy development. Once wind energy turbines, cables, and scour protection are installed, survey operations within wind energy lease areas may be curtailed or eliminated due to limits on vessel access, safety requirements, and assessment survey protocols. The impact of excluding the federal assessment survey from wind energy lease areas was investigated using a spatially explicit, agent-based modeling framework that integrates Atlantic surfclam stock biology, fishery captain and fleet behavior, and federal assessment survey and management decisions. Simulations were designed to compare assessment estimates of spawning stock biomass (SSB) and fishing mortality (F) for scenarios that excluded the survey from (1) wind energy lease areas or (2) wind energy lease areas and potential wind energy lease areas (“call areas”). For the most restricted scenario, the simulated stock assessment estimated 17% lower SSB relative to an unrestricted survey, placing it below the SSB target. The simulated F increased by 7% but was still less than the accepted F threshold. Changes in biological reference points were driven by the inability to access the Atlantic surfclam biomass within the wind energy lease areas. Deviations in reference points reflected the proportion of the population excluded from the survey. Excluding the Atlantic surfclam assessment surveys from the regions designated for offshore wind development can alter long-term stock assessments by increasing uncertainty in metrics that are used to set fishing quotas.

The Penobscot River Restoration Project in Maine was a large river rehabilitation project that culminated in the removal of the two lowermost dams and improvements to fish passage on several remaining dams. Fish assemblages were surveyed for 3 years prior to rehabilitation, 3 years after rehabilitation, and 8 years after rehabilitation. Approximately 475 km of shoreline were sampled via boat electrofishing, yielding 133,394 individual fish of 41 species. The greatest shifts in assemblage structure occurred immediately after dam removal in formerly impounded sections, with an increased prevalence of riverine and migratory species. Long-term sampling documented changes within tributaries and tidally influenced river segments, where large schools of adult and young-of-the-year alosines increased in abundance. Upstream of the lowermost dam, the river remains dominated by lacustrine species, while adult anadromous fishes continue to be most abundant immediately downstream of the lowermost dam. Our results provide increased evidence that dam removals result in altered fish assemblages, which are now dominated by riverine and anadromous species in previously impounded habitats. Alosines in the Penobscot River have exhibited the greatest long-term response to river restoration efforts.

The editors and editorial board thank the following people who contributed technical reviews of manuscripts submitted to Marine and Coastal Fisheries: Dynamics, Management, and Ecosystem Science during the year ending November 30, 2022.

Grant Adams

Matthew Ajemian

Paula Alvarez

Joel Anderson

Matthew Baker

Hugues Benoit

David Bethoney

Jason Boucher

Jon Brodziak

David Bryan

Sarah Burnsed

Jessica Carroll

Grace Casselberry

Kyle Cassidy

Peter Chase

Rosario Dominguez-Petit

Ralf Döring

J. Drymon

Jeffrey Duda

Syma Ebbin

Jessica Farley

Marko Freese

Kevin Friedland

James Gartland

Yi Gong

Kathryn Guindon

Steve Haeseker

Brianna Haugen

Danielle Haulsee

Roger Hewitt

Crystal Hightower

Kim Holland

Brian Hooker

Kelsey James

Brandon Jensen

Teresa Johnson

Adrian Jordaan

Junita Karlsen

Krystle Keller

David Kimbro

Jeff Kneebone

Ryan Knotek

Megan La Peyre

Laura Lee

Rosangela Lessa

Karin Limburg

Douglas Lipton

Pengfei Liu

Julia Livermore

Josep Lloret

Richard McBride

Christopher McGuire

Montana McLean

Anna Mercer

Rebecca Miller

Timothy Miller

Michael J. Miller

Jason Morson

Daphne Munroe

Benjamin Nelson

Gary Nelson

Matthew Ogburn

Casey O'Hara

Kenneth Oliveira

Magdalene Papatheodoulou

Daryl Parkyn

Maria Grazia Pennino

George Pess

Joshua Raabe

Michael Rasser

Rick Rideout

Daniela Rosa

Ilana Rosental Zalmon

Valerie Rountree

Peter Rubec

Fran Saborido-Rey

Fred Scharf

Andrew Scheld

Tomas Schmidt

David Secor

Nicholas Sisson

Kathryn Sobocinski

Helena Solman

Josefin Sundin

Fasil Taddese

Jonna Tomkiewicz

Jeremy Vaudo

Verena Wang

Joseph Watson

David Welch

Chantell R. Wetzel

Will White

Michael Wilberg

Binduo Xu

Lei Yang

Ellen Yasumiishi

Noelle Yochum

Viviane Zulian

Joseph Zydlewski

Understanding the drivers of mortality during critical life history periods is an important part of increasing our capacity to rebuild depressed salmonid populations. For threatened steelhead Oncorhynchus mykiss in Puget Sound, Washington, early marine predation has been implicated as a key source of mortality. Yet, the agents that mediate predation pressure are poorly understood. In this study, we characterize abundances of juvenile Coho Salmon O. kisutch and Chinook Salmon O. tshawytscha in Puget Sound and relate these abundance patterns to weekly steelhead survival to better understand whether pulses of hatchery-released salmonids mediate steelhead survival. We found that weekly abundances of hatchery Coho Salmon and Chinook Salmon smolts vary by several orders of magnitude across weeks, indicating that large resource pulses are available to salmonid predators. We further found that weekly steelhead survival was significantly negatively related to abundances of hatchery-released Coho Salmon but not Chinook Salmon, which had considerably smaller body sizes than both Coho Salmon and steelhead smolts. Together, our results suggest that releases of Coho Salmon into Puget Sound mediate mortality of steelhead smolts, possibly via increased predation pressure by shared predators.

Game fish populations in North America face increasing pressure from recreational anglers, yet sublethal effects from mandatory catch-and-release regulations remain unknown for many targeted species. In southern California, Kelp Bass Paralabrax clathratus populations have significantly declined in recent decades, prompting changes in management and increasing release rates. To assess acute effects of current fishing regulations, we collaborated with recreational anglers to evaluate short-term, sublethal impacts of capture stress on Kelp Bass physiology and behavior. To evaluate the timeline and magnitude of physiological stress, blood samples were collected at time points (10–120 min) after angling and confinement and compared to control fish sampled in less than 3 min. Postrelease recovery was determined by comparing biomarker levels between control fish and recaptured fish that were rapidly sampled after a time at liberty ranging from 3 h to 186 d. Biomarker levels in fish recaptured multiple times were compared to previous samples to evaluate repetitive angling effects on physiological responses. Circulating cortisol, glucose, and lactate were elevated and steadily increased in the hour after capture, although angling duration and handling duration were not correlated with biomarker response. Fish size significantly affected fish stress, with larger fish experiencing less stress and rapid recovery within 24 h. Behavioral control fish, which ingested acoustic accelerometers hidden inside bait, exhibited strong diel activity that was reduced for 30 h in angled fish. Tracked individuals exhibited high individual variation in rate of movement and area use, with no noticeable postrelease impacts. Although this study found Kelp Bass to be resilient to angling stresses, evaluation of long-term effects from catch and release is warranted. This fishery may also benefit from slot limit regulations, improved angler engagement programs, and education on best practices that minimize fish stress during catch and release.

Stock assessments of U.S. Atlantic Wolffish Anarhichas lupus are hampered by a landings moratorium and low catches in fishery-independent surveys. Working with the commercial fishing industry, we collected hundreds of fish to overcome a lack of regionally specific life history information. Based on ages from sectioned otoliths, Atlantic Wolffish are long lived (maximum observed age: males = 31 years, females = 29 years). A Gompertz growth model showed that Atlantic Wolffish exhibit dimorphic growth—with larger males across all ages on average. Preliminary estimates of total mortality ranged from 0.15 to 0.21 and were lower than an estimate measured at the beginning of the moratorium. Based on gonad histology, a cohort of vitellogenic oocytes emerged in mature females by April and developed group synchronously to ovulate primarily in October. Skip spawning, which accounts for nonannual spawning, was observed in 5.6% of the mature females. Accounting for abortive maturation, a physiological event that delays functional maturation, improved precision and reduced bias of maturity estimates. The resulting median length at functional maturity was 53 cm total length (95% confidence interval = 49–56 cm), and the median age was 6.7 years old (6.2–7.2 years). These estimates are smaller and younger than elsewhere in the western North Atlantic Ocean, confirming that regionally specific maturity parameters are relevant when assessing reference points of the U.S. Atlantic Wolffish fishery.

Cusk Brosme brosme are fished across the northern Atlantic Ocean, but even basic biological data are limited in part by their difficult-to-sample deep and structured habitats. We sampled fish from a variety of sources across the Gulf of Maine to provide comprehensive life history information (age and size at maturity, fecundity, sex ratio, growth) for this data-poor species considered by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries as a species of concern. Gonad histology and gonadosomatic index data indicated peak spawning in late spring (May–June), with limited spawning activity into summer. The histologically derived length at 50% maturity for female Cusk was 39.5 cm TL. Fecundity varied from a quarter million to four million oocytes, with a positive allometry versus size indicating that larger females have proportionally higher fecundity than smaller females. Male Cusk had unusually low gonadal investment for a gadiform, and males of all sizes examined (down to 21 cm) had spermatozoa present. Male maturity was equivocal even when the relative proportions of sperm stages were quantified through image analysis of gonad histology; further anatomical and physiological studies of small males are required to assess functional maturity in male cusk. The sex ratio at length indicated more males at larger sizes, and males had faster growth and larger size at age than females. Condition patterns also suggested lower condition for females than males after spawning and generally less variable condition for males. Gonadal investment, relative condition, and growth patterns all suggest differences in energy allocation between the sexes. This data-poor species has an uncertain stock status in U.S. waters; therefore, the results of the current work provide important information to its management.