Sustainable Fishing in West Africa: Combating Piracy and Poverty

Counting fin rays. photo M. Boyle

MLML alumna Mariah Boyle has been busy. Since finishing her thesis work in Ichthyology at MLML, Mariah has found  work with Fishwise, a sustainable seafood consultancy located in Santa Cruz, as Assistant Operations Director. In addition, she has found a way to merge her passions for science, travel and social justice into action. Last night, attendees of the bi-monthly Friends of Moss Landing  seminar series were treated to the inspiring story of Mariah’s recent endeavors to enhance fisheries management in Sierra Leone.

With a backdrop featuring stunning photos of the land and people of the Freetown Peninsula in Sierra Leone, Mariah filled the audience in on some socio-political history of the region. Years of corruption and violent war have left this nation; rich though it is in an abundant diversity of natural resources; mired in poverty and weak infrastructure. Fish are what Mariah knows, and as it turns out fish are of great importance to the people of Sierra Leone. Smoked in the coastal villages and transported “upcountry”, fish provide a primary source of income and protein for people throughout the country.

Minna fish, a sardinella. photo m. boyle

Fishermen in the coastal towns craft fishing nets which are slung from the side of small boats and the catch brought in every morning to be cured and sold. Though the boats are small, they are many and fisheries data in the region hardly exists. Still, fish were plentiful until recently. The threat of piracy off the Western Coast of Africa is real and it is terrible. It is thought that 40% of the fish caught off the Sierra Leone coast are caught through IUU fishing. That is; Illegal, Unregulated and Unreported. These pirate boats use gigantic trawling nets that take everything they pass over, resulting in a tremendous amount of by catch. Though it is illegal for these massive trawlers to come within 5 nautical miles of the coast, there is little to no enforcement. Local fisherman are under direct threat by the boats and people on board. Their nets are often cut. Driven from their preferred fishing spots, the local fisherman have taken to fishing the nearby estuary.

Under duress from over fishing of both the juvenile and adult stocks, the fisheries have dwindled. And there is little management practiced at this time.

That is where Mariah drew her inspiration to bring her knowledge as a scientist into play. Ms. Boyle found funding through research grants, allowing her to return to Sierra Leone in 2011 with a goal to collect fisheries data; such as types of fish being caught, numbers and size; in order to inform community management.

Photo by Meredith Chandler

She has worked to transform this information into a useable Log Book and Fish Guide with photographs of typical fish along with both local and scientific names for the fish. Mariah hopes these books can be used by the fishermen to track their own data so that the fisheries may be locally managed. During her last visit, 50-70 fish were identified and over 1000 fish were measured. She is now working up analysis on this data.

Informative documentaries on the threat of piracy to fisheries sustainability may be found at the Environmental Justice Foundation website. Follow Mariah’s progress on her facebook page and on her personal blog.

Dozens of Diatoms

By Catherine Drake, Invertebrate Zoology Lab

The last field trip of the fall semester for the Geological Oceanography class was to the Monterey Formation on Toro Road in the Salinas Basin. As we drove up through the hills on the winding road, we came across a grayish cliff that must have spanned about a mile down the road. The students got out of the car, and as we walked along the road, we noted the striations and laminations within the sedimentary layers. What’s especially interesting about these layers is that they are biogenic sediments: they consist of organic particles, usually in the form of skeletal fragments of marine organisms.

The Monterey Formation consists of an incalculable amount of diatoms, which are a type of phytoplankton and are primary producers, meaning they take up carbon dioxide while. Diatoms have siliceous tests, meaning that their cell walls are silica based; so, when diatoms die, they become part of a siliceous ooze and get deposited on the seafloor. Considering that diatoms usually range from 2 to 200 μm and the Monterey Formation spanned almost a mile, which means that there were hundreds of millions of diatoms at the time! Primary production must have been incredibly high during that time period, which was approximately between 11 and 3 million years ago.

Diatoms are phytoplankton that produce oxygen through primary production.

Invertebrate Spotlight: Christmas Tree Worms

By Catherine Drake, Invertebrate Zoology Lab

For those of you vertebrates who still have their holiday decorations up, here is an invertebrate you might enjoy learning about: the Christmas tree worm.  These polychaetes, Spirobranchus giganteus, are tube-building worms that have two “crowns” in the shape of Christmas trees, hence their name.

Many Christmas tree worms assembled together.

These appendages are an extension of their mouth and catch prey that swims by and then transport it by cilia to the worm’s mouth.  Additionally, the appendages act as part of the worm’s respiratory system, and are thus commonly referred to as gills.  Christmas tree worms are generally found in tropical waters and live within corals in calcareous tubes formed by the worms.

The appendages on these polycheates aid in the catching of prey.

Capture the King Tides!

An opportunity is quickly approaching for you to get involved in marine science.  All you have to do is pull out your camera and snap some pictures.

On January 20, 21 and 22, and February 6, 7, and 8 king tides will take place along our coast.  What’s a king tide?  A king tide is the one of the highest seasonal tides.  For example, on January 21st the high will be 6.3 feet and on February 7 it will be 5.8 feet.  The California King Tides Initiative is asking members of the public to help document these big tides, because they can help us visualize what rising waters along our California coasts might do in the future.

Blog creator and MLML alumna Erin Loury contemplates the future of Capitola's beaches during a 2011 king tide. (photo: Center for Ocean Solutions, Mike Fox)

When king tides coincide with big swell, they can have some impressive and damaging results.  You can see pictures from past king tides and learn more on the California King Tide Initiative home page.  So charge those camera batteries, and get ready to see science in action.  And remember, have fun and stay safe!

Pitching Oranges in the Name of Science

by Diane Wyse, Physical Oceanography Lab

One sunny afternoon at the beach in Moss Landing, beachgoers were treated to a tangy surprise. Dr. Erika McPhee-Shaw’s Physical Oceanography class made the most of the beautiful weather and nearby beach to observe the effects of alongshore transport in the surf zone.

Physical oceanography students observing wave action on the Monterey Bay. Photo: Jason Adelaars

From the shore, students observed the waves breaking and made predictions about the direction of alongshore transport and where convergent rip currents would occur.

Feeding surfers? Not exactly. Vertebrate Ecology Lab student Emily Golson pitches an orange to observe it move in the surf zone. Photo: Jason Adelaars

How did they test these predictions?  Why, launching citrus into the surf zone, of course!  Members of the class warmed up their pitching arms and threw oranges into the water from the beach.  They observed and discussed where the oranges traveled as a means of visualizing transport of sediment and plankton with the movement of water in the near-shore environment.

Students discuss the movement of the oranges in the surf zone. Photo: Jason Adelaars

Dr. Erika McPhee-Shaw launches an orange in the name of science. Photo: Jason Adelaars

Physical Oceanography Teaching Assistant Shandy Buckley (L) discusses alongshore transport with students. Photo: Jason Adelaars

Removing Algal Bullies from Monterey Bay Aquarium!

Diana Steller speaks to the algae underwater, "No no no little brown algae, no bullying."

Have you ever needed help from your friends when confronted with a brown algae bully?  The Monterey Bay Aquarium has, they needed divers to help rescue algae in one of their tanks.  Moss Landing Marine Labs MS 105 Marine Science Diving class had the opportunity to dive in the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s kelp forest habitat tank (their kelp tank site is here).  This tank receives water from just offshore of the aquarium and gets all kinds of baby critters from the water that normally settle and grow just outside the aquarium.  Some of these baby drifters are the spores of an alga (singular of algae) named Dictyopteris undulata.  This alga has been bullying the other algae in the tank and outcompeting them for space.  The dive class was tasked with helping remove the algae and you can see from the photo above we were not happy with this little brown bully!

Student Will Fennie aids in collection of the bully.

Fishing in the Name of Science

F/V Huli Cat deckand Shannon O'Brien holds a vermilion rockfish, Sebastes miniatus, with MLML Ichthyology Lab student, Emily Donham

by Emily Donham, Ichthyology Lab

As a volunteer with the California Collaborative Fisheries Research Program (CCFRP), I had the opportunity to get up close and personal with central California’s ichthyofauna (fish species).  CCFRP’s mission is to monitor the performance of central California’s marine protected areas (MPA) by collecting data on the abundance and distribution of fishes via collaboration with the local fishing community.

MLML FIsheries and Conservation Lab student and CCFRP researcher, Cheryl Barnes, prepares to size and tag fish aboard the F/V Huli Cat

Expert volunteer anglers use standardized hook and line gear to land as many fish as they can during a survey block.  Fish are then tagged, counted and sized by CCFRP researchers before being released back into the wild.  These data are provided to fisheries managers to aid in stock assessments of economically important species.  If you’d like to learn more about CCFRP or how you can become a volunteer angler please visit: http://seagrant.mlml.calstate.edu/research/ccfrp/ or like them on facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/California-Collaborative-Fisheries-Research-Program-CCFRP/194987957217303

Trawling for Booty in the Briny Sea

by Angela Szesciorka, Vertebrate Ecology Lab

Classes at Moss Landing Marine Labs involve a lot of field trips, and this semester is no exception. On November 7, 2011 the marine ecology students ventured seaward to explore the ocean benthos.

Photo by MLML/UNOLS

The students waited with anticipation, saying goodbye to the familiar Moss Landing Harbor as the 135-foot Point Sur pulled slowly out into the open ocean.

MLML’s Dr. Mike Graham on His New Book, “The Essential Naturalist”

Dr. Mike Graham

By Catherine Drake, Invertebrate Zoology Laboratory

On Tuesday November 15, 2011, Friends of MLML hosted a talk with one of MLML’s own, Dr. Mike Graham, author of “The Essential Naturalist.” An alumni of Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, he then obtained his Ph.D. at Scripps Institute of Oceanography. Then, Dr. Graham came back to the MLML and is the advisor for the phycology (seaweeds) lab.

Nowadays with the internet, it can be easy for researchers to overlook journal articles that are 100, 50, even just 20 years old. With marine science librarian Joan Parker and Dr. Paul Dayton, Dr. Graham compiled older scientific articles—some from over one hundred years ago—into “The Essential Naturalist.” Not only were these articles extremely significant in a scientific context, but they also told great stories for those who enjoy nature. Dr. Graham stresses that scientists before us were just as smart as we are and they thought about all that goes into scientific research—methods, data analysis, etc.—just as we do now.  So, all we need to do is dig a bit to find articles that greatly contributed to science, and are hence indispensable for anyone who considers themselves naturalists!

Below is a conversation with Dr. Graham about “The Essential Naturalist”:

Where did you get the inspiration for “The Essential Naturalist”?

Well it stemmed out of a series of conversations I had with my PhD advisor (and “Essential Naturalist” co-editor) Paul Dayton. I was looking into the old literature while studying for my PhD qualifying exam and kept uncovering old papers that seemed to say exactly what more modern papers were saying. And every time I told Paul about one of these papers, he would respond with a comment about another paper that people had forgotten as well. So after a while we just started talking about how modern ecologists were beginning to lose their roots, and how great it would be to resurrect some of these papers.

How did you decide which journal articles to place in the book?

Well, in addition to all of the search I did on my own, plus the additions from Paul and Joan (my fellow co-editors), I polled over 100 ecologists and evolutionary biologists as to what their favorite Natural History gems were. This resulted in a long list, some papers of which were easily discarded because they didn’t fit our intended format for the book. But we ended up with about 150 papers that were good. Then I simply started working through them all to see which had compelling readings that could be excerpted and of interest to a broader audience. I tested some of the materials against my own kids and students to see what was boring, as well as my father Jon who loves natural history and was a good sounding board. The rest of the choices were simply from intuition as to what would fly.

Why do you think scientists and researchers tend to disregard, even sometimes inadvertently, journal articles that were published 50+ years ago?

Out of sight, out of mind. Its harder to keep track of the literature today with 1000s of articles published per year. Everyone has deadlines. So the easiest thing is to either Google your keywords of interest, or cite a paper that just happened to be on your desk, recommended by a colleague, or in a journal you subscribe to. All of these make it harder to find the older papers.

An electric eel, which Baron Von Humboldt studied and wrote about during his journeys.

Can you tell us one of your favorite stories in “The Essential Naturalist”?

I like them all, for different reasons. But the one that I recite the most is the story from Humboldt of how the native South Americans showed him how to fish for electric eels using stampeding horses. The story is vivid. My kids love hearing me tell it. And it’s so visual that you just cant help telling the story in such an exciting voice. It’s a lot of fun.

Invertebrate Spotlight: The East Pacific Red Octopus

By Catherine Drake, Invertebrate Zoology Lab

The Marine Ecology class recently boarded the our research vessel the Point Sur for a trawling expedition. The plan for this field trip was to run three—one mid-water and two benthic—trawls. The benthic zone is the lowest level in the ocean and includes the seafloor, which is a habitat that has a lot of biodiversity. So, it was expected that the nets would bring up many intriguing organisms, and they did not disappoint! The most prevalent invertebrates we captured were urchins, specifically red and heart urchins, but I want to focus on the slightly bigger invertebrates that caught my eye: three octopi!

Two east Pacific red octopi in adjacent tanks.

Octopi are incredibly intelligent and have highly developed nervous systems with 500 million neurons, which to put in perspective is in the same level as cats and dogs.  Although we are unsure what species of octopus we captured, we believe that these amazing cephalopods are most likely east Pacific red octopi.  The east Pacific red octopus, Octopus rubescens, is a small octopus ranging from 40 to 50 cm in length, and researchers who study this invertebrate say that it can easily solve puzzles and has an incredible memory.  So, after the Point Sur docked, we immediately took the octopi to our aquarium room to place them in their own tanks, which we filled with toys for them!

An east Pacific red octopus adjusting do his new home.

This octopus has iridescent coloring.