PCSGA Tidings

There is increas­ing con­cern that ocean acid­i­fi­ca­tion, caused by the uptake of addi­tional CO₂ at the ocean sur­face, could affect the func­tion­ing of marine ecosys­tems; how­ever, the mech­a­nisms by which pop­u­la­tion declines will occur have not been iden­ti­fied, espe­cially for non­cal­ci­fy­ing species such as fishes. Here, we use a com­bi­na­tion of lab­o­ra­tory and field-based exper­i­ments to show that lev­els of dis­solved CO₂ pre­dicted to occur in the ocean this cen­tury alter the behav­ior of lar­val fish and dra­mat­i­cally decrease their sur­vival dur­ing recruit­ment to adult pop­u­la­tions. Altered behav­ior of lar­vae was detected at 700 ppm CO₂, with many indi­vid­u­als becom­ing attracted to the smell of preda­tors. At 850 ppm CO₂, the abil­ity to sense preda­tors was com­pletely impaired. Lar­vae exposed to ele­vated CO₂ were more active and exhib­ited riskier behav­ior in nat­ural coral-reef habi­tat. As a result, they had 5–9 times higher mor­tal­ity from pre­da­tion than current-day con­trols, with mor­tal­ity increas­ing with CO₂ con­cen­tra­tion. Our results show that addi­tional CO₂ absorbed into the ocean will reduce recruit­ment suc­cess and have far-reaching con­se­quences for the sus­tain­abil­ity of fish populations.

Mun­day, P. L., Dix­son, D. L., McCormick, M. I., Meekan, M., Fer­rari, M. C. O., & Chivers, D. P., 2010. Replen­ish­ment of fish pop­u­la­tions is threat­ened by ocean acidification.

The rapid growth of the oys­ter aqua­cul­ture indus­try in Rhode Island has raised ques­tions about how many oys­ter farms Nar­ra­gansett Bay and the state’s salt ponds can sup­port. But a study by a Uni­ver­sity of Rhode Island grad­u­ate stu­dent has found that these ecosys­tems can with­stand con­tin­ued high rates of aqua­cul­ture growth with­out caus­ing eco­log­i­cal harm.

Car­rie Byron, a doc­toral stu­dent in the URI Depart­ment of Fish­eries, Ani­mal and Vet­eri­nary Sci­ence, exam­ined the eco­log­i­cal car­ry­ing capac­ity of the waters that cur­rently con­tain leases for oys­ter aqua­cul­ture in the state, includ­ing Nar­ra­gansett Bay and five South County salt ponds.

‘The farms are part of a greater ecosys­tem, and we want to make sure the whole sys­tem remains healthy,’ said Con­tinue Reading »

By DAVID KAMP

BENEATH a float­ing dock off Gov­er­nors Island, tucked behind the squat octag­o­nal white ven­ti­la­tion tower for the Brooklyn-Battery Tun­nel, there are oys­ters grow­ing in New York Harbor.

And not just any oys­ters. These lit­tle bivalves, 500,000 strong, make up the largest con­cen­trated oys­ter pop­u­la­tion that the har­bor has seen in per­haps a century.

On a recent spring day, Pete Mali­nowski, who tends to these oys­ters, removed one of the metal grates that have been fit­ted into the dock’s sur­face, reveal­ing a series of silos, as he calls the 60-gallon plas­tic tubs in which his charges live. He plunged his hand into a silo and pulled up a few spec­i­mens for exam­i­na­tion. They were small, maybe an inch and a quar­ter long, but they looked like nor­mal oys­ters: ridged, craggy and tightly shut — not the grotesque mutant mol­lusks that the words “cul­ti­vated in New York City waters” might suggest.

“I was skep­ti­cal about their rate of sur­vival because they all came in at two mil­lime­ters, when they’re pretty vul­ner­a­ble,” Mr. Mali­nowski said. “But look at this, the papery-thin part.” He pointed to Con­tinue Reading »

Begin­ning July 1, 2010, a Euro­pean Com­mis­sion Reg­u­la­tion allow­ing import of ANY mol­lus­can shell­fish and cer­tain marine inver­te­brates (not only live and fresh prod­uct) from the United States expired.  As a result, imports of live, fresh, frozen or processed prod­ucts con­tain­ing mol­lus­can shell­fish, echin­o­derms, tuni­cates, or marine gas­tropods from the United States are no longer accepted for import into Europe at this time.

http://​www​.seafood​.nmfs​.noaa​.gov/​N​e​w​s​_​N​o​t​i​c​e​s​_​1​0​.​h​tml

“It’s all about the water quality…”

Meet Nel­lie Wu, the oys­ter spe­cial­ist and Gen­eral Man­ager of W&T Seafood, a family-owned and oper­ated seafood dis­tri­b­u­tion com­pany based in Brook­lyn, New York. Nellie’s com­pany has been the link to con­nect­ing great NYC chefs and restau­rants to West Coast shell­fish farms, namely Tay­lor Shell­fish Farms, for the past 25 years – sup­ply­ing pre­miere oys­ter hubs like The Grand Cen­tral Oys­ter Bar with famed West Coast oys­ters like Tot­ten Inlet Vir­gini­cas, Pacifics, Kumamo­tos, Fanny Bay Oys­ters, Kusshis, Olympias and Euro­pean Flats.

Nellie’s pas­sion­ate about West Coast oys­ters not only from a sus­tain­abil­ity stand­point, but also from a taste stand­point. She firmly believes they are some of the best tast­ing oys­ters you can get in North Amer­ica. And with the local food move­ment inspir­ing more NYers to eat locally, she just wants peo­ple to under­stand the need for sup­port­ing region­ally grown food as well, espe­cially ones with a good mis­sion behind it.

So, I hope you enjoy this piece on West Coast oys­ters with Nel­lie Wu, the first of many pieces on seafood and shell­fish farm­ing I’ll be shar­ing this sum­mer.  We trav­eled together to Hood Canal and South­ern Puget Sound and boarded fer­ries all the way up to Van­cou­ver Island in British Colum­bia to make sure you saw for your­self where good shell­fish comes from.

And to join Nel­lie in her quest to teach oth­ers about oys­ters, check out the New York Oys­ter Lovers MeetUp and get started on your own Oys­ter Life List.

Thanks for watch­ing food. curated. Happy Eating!

?**And many thanks to the Tay­lor Shell­fish fam­ily who helped make this trip pos­si­ble.**

There is increas­ing con­cern that ocean acid­i­fi­ca­tion, caused by the uptake of addi­tional CO₂ at the ocean sur­face, could affect the func­tion­ing of marine ecosys­tems; how­ever, the mech­a­nisms by which pop­u­la­tion declines will occur have not been iden­ti­fied, espe­cially for non­cal­ci­fy­ing species such as fishes. Here, we use a com­bi­na­tion of lab­o­ra­tory and field-based exper­i­ments to show that lev­els of dis­solved CO₂ pre­dicted to occur in the ocean this cen­tury alter the behav­ior of lar­val fish and dra­mat­i­cally decrease their sur­vival dur­ing recruit­ment to adult pop­u­la­tions. Altered behav­ior of lar­vae was detected at 700 ppm CO₂, with many indi­vid­u­als becom­ing attracted to the smell of Con­tinue Reading »

By Mike Urch, Seafood­Source con­tribut­ing edi­tor
21 June, 2010 — The British Food Stan­dards Agency (FSA) com­pletely ignores shell­fish in its seafood con­sump­tion rec­om­men­da­tions. This is despite the fact that shell­fish are as nutri­tious as fin­fish and, in some instances, more ben­e­fi­cial to human health.

The agency advises con­sumers to eat at least two por­tions of fish a week, includ­ing one of oily fish, but there is no men­tion of whether peo­ple should include shell­fish as one of their seafood meal options.

“The FSA should be includ­ing shell­fish in its two-a-week mes­sage,” said Tom Pick­erell, direc­tor of the Shell­fish Con­tinue Reading »

(This recipe uses about half of one geo­duck and will serve 4–6 peo­ple as an appetizer.)

2 tbsp fresh green onion (scal­lions)
1/2 small, ripe papaya, seeded, and diced
Juice of 1/2 lime (approx­i­mately 1 oz)
Half of one 2 pound geo­duck, minced.  (Note:  siphon meat is crunchy and crisp; body meat is more ten­der.  You can either com­bine both types or use just one, depend­ing on your tastes).
2 table­spoons finely chopped cilantro
2 tea­spoons minced fresh jalapeno or Ser­rano pep­per (more to taste)
2 tsp finely minced fresh gin­ger
Salt and pep­per to taste.

Ceviche is good served on rice crack­ers, on slices of cucum­ber of jicama, or on a bed of fresh spring greens sprin­kled with olive oil and a splash of lime.

Some bac­te­ria in the Gulf of Mex­ico love eat­ing oil as much as they like infect­ing humans.

A close rel­a­tive of the bac­te­ria infa­mous for seafood con­t­a­m­i­na­tions that often lead to fatal dis­ease, the microbe Vib­rio para­haemolyti­cus, is com­mon in warm coastal waters like the Gulf. The long comma-shaped bac­te­ria, slurped down with raw oys­ters, brings twist­ing cramps and nau­sea to 4,500 Amer­i­can shell­fish afi­ciona­dos each year.

But unlike some of its finicky peers, V. para­haemolyti­cus has a deep thirst for crude Con­tinue Reading »

Chi­nook Observer

It is the best of times, it is the worst of times… Pacific North­west oys­ter grow­ers have cause to cel­e­brate and plenty of rea­sons to worry.

Though few peo­ple like to profit from another’s mis­for­tune, there is lit­tle doubt that oil pol­lu­tion and bad pub­lic­ity impact­ing shell­fish along the pro­duc­tive Gulf Coast will improve demand for oys­ters grown in Willapa Bay and else­where in our region.

Exactly how the mas­sive oil spill will affect Con­tinue Reading »

Local grow­ers see oppor­tu­nity to meet shell­fish needs of Louisiana and east­ern U.S.

By Lynda Layne, Chi­nook Observer Correspondent

WILLAPA BAY — Days after the start of the BP oil spill in the Gulf, a Los Ange­les Times story reported that some of the oys­ter har­vest­ing beds west of the Mis­sis­sippi River had been closed by the Louisiana Depart­ment of Health and Hos­pi­tals. More clo­sures fol­lowed, as a pre­cau­tion­ary mea­sure. And now that the amount of oil and dis­per­sant has increased, oys­ter har­vests are strongly threatened.

But even under the cloud of this Deep­wa­ter Hori­zon dis­as­ter, which packs poten­tial for caus­ing long-lingering dam­age to the ecosys­tem, con­sumers Con­tinue Reading »