Report of the 2004 Workshop on In Situ Iron Enrichment Experiments in the Eastern and Western Subarctic Pacific

Foreword 1. BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES (pdf, 0.1 Mb) 2. 2004 WORKSHOP SUMMARY (pdf, < 0.1 Mb) 2.1. What have we learned from the enrichment experiments? 2.2 What are the outstanding questions? 2.3 Recommendations for SEEDS-II 3. EXTENDED ABSTRACTS OF THE 2004 WORKSHOP 3.1 Synthesis of the Iron Enrichment Experiments: SEEDS and SERIES (pdf, 0.5 Mb) Iron fertilization experiment in the western subarctic Pacific (SEEDS) by Atsushi Tsuda The response of N and Si to iron enrichment in the Northeast Pacific Ocean: Results from SERIES by David Timothy, C.S. Wong, Yukihiro Nojiri, Frank A. Whitney, W. Keith Johnson and Janet Barwell-Clarke 3.2 Biological and Physiological Responses (pdf, 0.2 Mb) Zooplankton responses during SEEDS by Hiroaki Saito Phytoplankton community response to iron and temperature gradient in the NW and NE subarctic Pacific Ocean by Isao Kudo, Yoshifumi Noiri, Jun Nishioka, Hiroshi Kiyosawa and Atsushi Tsuda SERIES: Copepod grazing on diatoms by Frank A. Whitney, Moira Galbraith, Janet Barwell-Clarke and Akash Sastri The Southern Ocean Iron Enrichment Experiment: The nitrogen uptake response by William P. Cochlan and Raphael M. Kudela 3.3 Biogeochemical Responses (pdf, 0.5 Mb) What have we learned regarding iron biogeochemistry from iron enrichment experiments? by Jun Nishioka, Shigenobu Takeda and W. Keith Johnson Iron dynamics and temporal changes of iron speciation in SERIES by W. Keith Johnson, C.S. Wong, Nes Sutherland and Jun Nishioka Dissolved organic matter dynamics during SEEDS and SERIES experiments by Takeshi Yoshimura and Hiroshi Ogawa Formation of transparent exopolymer particles during the in-situ iron enrichment experiment in the western subarctic Pacific (SEEDS) by Shigenobu Takeda, Neelam Ramaiah, Ken Furuya and Takeshi Yoshimura Atmospheric measurement by Mitsuo Uematsu 3.4 Prediction from Models (pdf, 0.3 Mb) Modelling iron limitation in the North Pacific by Kenneth L. Denman and M. Angelica Peña A proposed model of the SERIES iron fertilization patch by Debby Ianson, Christoph Voelker and Kenneth L. Denman 4. LIST OF PARTICIPANTS FOR THE 2004 WORKSHOP (pdf, < 0.1 Mb) APPENDIX 1 Report of the 2000 Planning Workshop on Designing the Iron Fertilization Experiment in the Subarctic Pacific (pdf, 1 Mb) APPENDIX 2 Terms of Reference for the Advisory Panel on Iron fertilization experiment in the subarctic Pacific Ocean (pdf, < 0.1 Mb) APPENDIX 3 Historical List of Advisory Panel Members on Iron fertilization experiment in the subarctic Pacific Ocean (pdf, < 0.1 Mb) APPENDIX 4 IFEP-AP Annual Reports (pdf, 0.1 Mb) APPENDIX 5 PICES Press Articles (pdf, 0.6 Mb) (194 page document)

The Annual Economic Survey of Federal Gulf Shrimp Permit Holders: Report on the Design, Implementation, and Descriptive Results for 2006

This technical memorandum documents the design, implementation, data preparation, and descriptive results for the 2006 Annual Economic Survey of Federal Gulf Shrimp Permit Holders. The data collection was designed by the NOAA Fisheries Southeast Fisheries Science Center Social Science Research Group to track the financial and economic status and performance by vessels holding a federal moratorium permit for harvesting shrimp in the Gulf of Mexico. A two page, self-administered mail survey collected total annual costs broken out into seven categories and auxiliary economic data. In May 2007, 580 vessels were randomly selected, stratified by state, from a preliminary population of 1,709 vessels with federal permits to shrimp in offshore waters of the Gulf of Mexico. The survey was implemented during the rest of 2007. After many reminder and verification phone calls, 509 surveys were deemed complete, for an ineligibility-adjusted response rate of 90.7%. The linking of each individual vessel’s cost data to its revenue data from a different data collection was imperfect, and hence the final number of observations used in the analyses is 484. Based on various measures and tests of validity throughout the technical memorandum, the quality of the data is high. The results are presented in a standardized table format, linking vessel characteristics and operations to simple balance sheet, cash flow, and income statements. In the text, results are discussed for the total fleet, the Gulf shrimp fleet, the active Gulf shrimp fleet, and the inactive Gulf shrimp fleet. Additional results for shrimp vessels grouped by state, by vessel characteristics, by landings volume, and by ownership structure are available in the appendices. The general conclusion of this report is that the financial and economic situation is bleak for the average vessels in most of the categories that were evaluated. With few exceptions, cash flow for the average vessel is positive while the net revenue from operations and the “profit” are negative. With negative net revenue from operations, the economic return for average shrimp vessels is less than zero. Only with the help of government payments does the average owner just about break even. In the short-term, this will discourage any new investments in the industry. The financial situation in 2006, especially if it endures over multiple years, also is economically unsustainable for the average established business. Vessels in the active and inactive Gulf shrimp fleet are, on average, 69 feet long, weigh 105 gross tons, are powered by 505 hp motor(s), and are 23 years old. Three-quarters of the vessels have steel hulls and 59% use a freezer for refrigeration. The average market value of these vessels was $175,149 in 2006, about a hundred-thousand dollars less than the average original purchase price. The outstanding loans averaged $91,955, leading to an average owner equity of $83,194. Based on the sample, 85% of the federally permitted Gulf shrimp fleet was actively shrimping in 2006. Of these 386 active Gulf shrimp vessels, just under half (46%) were owner-operated. On average, these vessels burned 52,931 gallons of fuel, landed 101,268 pounds of shrimp, and received $2.47 per pound of shrimp. Non-shrimp landings added less than 1% to cash flow, indicating that the federal Gulf shrimp fishery is very specialized. The average total cash outflow was $243,415 of which $108,775 was due to fuel expenses alone. The expenses for hired crew and captains were on average $54,866 which indicates the importance of the industry as a source of wage income. The resulting average net cash flow is $16,225 but has a large standard deviation. For the population of active Gulf shrimp vessels we can state with 95% certainty that the average net cash flow was between $9,500 and $23,000 in 2006. The median net cash flow was $11,843. Based on the income statement for active Gulf shrimp vessels, the average fixed costs accounted for just under a quarter of operating expenses (23.1%), labor costs for just over a quarter (25.3%), and the non-labor variable costs for just over half (51.6%). The fuel costs alone accounted for 42.9% of total operating expenses in 2006. It should be noted that the labor cost category in the income statement includes both the actual cash payments to hired labor and an estimate of the opportunity cost of owner-operators’ time spent as captain. The average labor contribution (as captain) of an owner-operator is estimated at about $19,800. The average net revenue from operations is negative $7,429, and is statistically different and less than zero in spite of a large standard deviation. The economic return to Gulf shrimping is negative 4%. Including non-operating activities, foremost an average government payment of $13,662, leads to an average loss before taxes of $907 for the vessel owners. The confidence interval of this value straddles zero, so we cannot reject, with 95% certainty, that the population average is zero. The average inactive Gulf shrimp vessel is generally of a smaller scale than the average active vessel. Inactive vessels are physically smaller, are valued much lower, and are less dependent on loans. Fixed costs account for nearly three quarters of the total operating expenses of $11,926, and only 6% of these vessels have hull insurance. With an average net cash flow of negative $7,537, the inactive Gulf shrimp fleet has a major liquidity problem. On average, net revenue from operations is negative $11,396, which amounts to a negative 15% economic return, and owners lose $9,381 on their vessels before taxes. To sustain such losses and especially to survive the negative cash flow, many of the owners must be subsidizing their shrimp vessels with the help of other income or wealth sources or are drawing down their equity. Active Gulf shrimp vessels in all states but Texas exhibited negative returns. The Alabama and Mississippi fleets have the highest assets (vessel values), on average, yet they generate zero cash flow and negative $32,224 net revenue from operations. Due to their high (loan) leverage ratio the negative 11% economic return is amplified into a negative 21% return on equity. In contrast, for Texas vessels, which actually have the highest leverage ratio among the states, a 1% economic return is amplified into a 13% return on equity. From a financial perspective, the average Florida and Louisiana vessels conform roughly to the overall average of the active Gulf shrimp fleet. It should be noted that these results are averages and hence hide the variation that clearly exists within all fleets and all categories. Although the financial situation for the average vessel is bleak, some vessels are profitable. (PDF contains 101 pages)

Lessons from the breeding program on common carp in Hungary

Common carp is one of the most important cultured freshwater fish species in the world. Its production in freshwater areas is the second largest in Europe after rainbow trout. Common carp production in Europe was 146,845 t in 2004 (FAO Fishstat Plus 2006). Common carp production is concentrated mainly in Central and Eastern Europe. In Hungary, common carp has been traditionally cultured in earthen ponds since the late 19th century, following the sharp drop in catches from natural waters, due to the regulation of main river systems. Different production technologies and unintentional selection methods resulted in a wide variety of this species. Just before the intensification of rearing technology and the exchange of stocking materials among fish farms (early sixties), “landraces” of carp were collected from practically all Hungarian fish farms into a live gene bank at the Research Institute for Fisheries, Aquaculture and Irrigation (HAKI) at Szarvas (Bakos and Gorda 1995; Bakos and Gorda 2001). In order to provide highly productive hybrids for production purposes starting from 1964, different strains and crosses between Hungarian landraces were created and tested. During the last 40 years, approximately 150 two-, three-, and four-line hybrids were produced. While developing parental lines, methods of individual selection, inbreeding, backcrossing of lines, gynogenesis and sex reversal were used. This breeding program resulted in three outstanding hybrids: “Szarvas 215 mirror” and “Szarvas P31 scaly” for pond production, and “Szarvas P34 scaly” for angling waters. Besides satisfying the needs of industry, the live gene bank helped to conserve the biological diversity of Hungarian carp landraces. Fifteen Hungarian carp landraces are still maintained today in the gene bank. Through exchange programs fifteen foreign carp strains were added to the collection from Central and Eastern Europe, as well as Southeast Asia (Bakos and Gorda 2001). Besides developing the methodology to maintain live specimens in the gene bank, the National Carp Breeding Program has been initiated in cooperation with all the key stakeholders in Hungary, namely the National Association of Fish Producers (HOSZ), the National Institute for Agricultural Quality Control (OMMI), and the Research Institute for Fisheries, Aquaculture and Irrigation (HAKI). In addition, methodologies or technologies for broodstock management and carp performance testing have been developed. This National Carp Breeding Program is being implemented successfully since the mid-1990s.

Annotated bibliography II of the hard clam Mercenaria mercenaria

In this era of proliferating scientific information it is difficult to keep up with the literature, even in one's own field. Review articles are helpful in summarizing the status of knowledge. In oyster biology, several such published reviews have been of great help to working scientists. The outstanding contributions that come to' mind are those by Baughman (1948), Korringa (1952), Joyce (1972), Breisch and Kennedy (1980), and Kennedy and Breisch (198 I). If done well, such compilations serve as checkpoints, eliminating or vastly reducing the need to consult the literature in detail. On Long Island, New York, where the hard clam Mercenaria mercenaria is the major commercial resource, we have felt the need for some time for a compendium of knowledge on this important mollusk. Several years ago my secretary, students, and I began to gather materials for an annotated bibliography. We have already published a collection of 2233 titles (McHugh et al. 1982), nearly all accompanied by abstracts, and in this publication we have added another 460. The experience has been rewarding. We have been surprised at the extent of the literature, much of it only remotely related to the shellfish industry itself, but nevertheless throwing light on the biology, physiology, and many other aspects of the scientific knowledge of hard clams. The following bibliography is divided into three parts. Part I comprises the bulk of the bibliography, while Parts 2 and 3 contain additional titles that we decided to include during editing, submission, and approval of the manuscript for publication. All three parts are indexed together, however. We also reexamined those titles in the previous bibliography (McHugh et al. 1982) which did not include abstracts. These are included in Parts 2 and 3 of this bibliography. Most of these contained no specific reference to Mercenaria mercenaria. A few searches were terminated for various reasons. (PDF file contains 66 pages.)

Unterschiedliche Trends beim Fischnachwuchs der Nordsee

During this years’ International Bottom Trawl Survey (IBTS) of ICES, a total of 407 half hour tows were made in the North Sea including Skagerrak in January/ February, 1998. Results indicate except for sprat no outstanding incoming yearclasses for cod, haddock, saithe, Norway pout, whiting, herring, and mackerel. Most of the adult cod and saithe investigated did not show normal gonad development for this time of the year. The abundance of skates and sharks was still low. Results of 68 hydrographical stations of R.V. “Walter Herwig III” showed in contrast to four preceeding IBTS-surveys a warming of the northern North Sea of approx. 1 K.

Parasites and non-fish predators of tilapia with particular reference to the sustainable management of fisheries of Lake Kainji Nigeria

The fisheries of Lake Kainji, Nigeria, experienced a boom year following impoundment, then decline post impoundment and now is in a period of stabilisation of the fish resources. Several reasons have been advanced on factors responsible for these changes, but two outstanding factors are those of nutritional status and fishing methods of the lake. Two important fish families however continue to dominate the lake fisheries in daily fisherman catches: Clupeidae and Cichlidae (tilapias). Recent studies have also shown that the dominance of the tilapias and clupeids is an important factor in the understanding of the stability of fisheries of Lake Kainji. One area which has remained undiscussed concerns the parasites and non-fish predators of tilapias which can affect the population dynamics of tilapias. This paper examines therefore some aspects of the fisheries of Lake Kainji and the potential roles that parasites and non-fish predators of tilapias can contribute in developing strategies for consideration in the sustainable management of the fisheries

The lakes of Michoacan (Mexico): A brief history and alternative point of view

This article is intended to open a discussion about the historical development of lakes Zirahuen, Patzcuaro and Cuitzeo in the state of Michoacan, and the postulated relationships between lake ecology and evolution. Dr Fernando De Buen was the first man dedicated to limnology in Mexico who came to the country in the 1930s. He was adviser at the Estacion Limnologica de Patzcuaro and wrote outstanding papers dealing with Mexican lakes. The lakes of Michoacan probably formed in the late Pliocene or Holocene, and were part of a tributary to the Lerma River, which became isolated by successive volanic barriers to form lake basins. Lake Zirahuen is a warm monomictic waterbody with unique water dynamics amongst the Michoacan lakes. Because it is relatively deep (max depth 40m), seasonal patterns of alternating circulation and thermal stratification develop in the lake, a feature not shared by the other two polymictic shallow lakes, Patzcuaro and Cuitzeo.

Historical Catches of Humpback Whales, Megaptera novaeangliae, in the North Atlantic Ocean: Estimates of Landings and Removals

Whaling for humpback whales, Megaptera novaeangliae, in the North At- lantic Ocean has occurred in various forms (e.g. for local subsistence, for oil to be sold commercially, using hand harpoons and deck-mounted cannons, using oar-driven open boats and modern powered catcher boats) from the early 1600’s to the present. Several previous attempts to estimate the total numbers of humpback whales removed were considered close to comprehensive, but some uncertainties remained. Moreover, the statistical uncertainty was not consistently presented with the previous estimates. Therefore, we have pursued several avenues of additional data collection and conducted further analyses to close outstanding data gaps and address remaining issues. Our new estimates of landings and total removals of humpback whales from the North Atlantic are 21,476 (SE=214) and 30,842 (SE=655), respectively. These results include statistical uncertainty, reflect new data and improved analysis methods, and take account of some fisheries for which estimates had not been made previously. The new estimates are not sufficiently different from previous ones to resolve the major inconsistencies and discrepancies encountered in efforts to determine the conservation status of humpback whale populations in the North Atlantic.

Biographic Memoir of Ernest Ingersoll: Naturalist, Shellfish Scientist, and Author

The name Ernest Ingersoll is well-known to many shellfishery biologists as the author of two outstanding monographs on the shellfisheries of the United States and Canada in the 1880's. The first (Ingersoll, 1881a), entitled "A Report on the Oyster-Industry of the United States," was a 252-page description of historical and contemporary oyster fishing' marketing methods, and statistical data in the eastern provinces of Canada and the coastal states of the United States. The second (Ingersoll, 1887), entitled "The Oyster, Scallop, Clam, Mussel, and Abalone Industries," was a l20-page summary of the first monograph about oysters as well as a history and description of contemporary methods and statistical data of the other shellfisheries. Although Ingersoll was, by profession, a naturalist and author but only briefly a shellfish scientist, these monographs are regarded as benchmarks, providing the principal descriptions of shellfisheries in North America in the 1700's and 1800's.

Annual Report of the Game and Fisheries Department for the period Ist July, 1957 to 30th June, 1958

This report follows the now established practice of covering the financial year although, as before, for the sake of continuity and accuracy many of the statistics refer to the calendar year. This year has again been an outstanding one in the field of research on wildlife conservation problems, and culminated in one of the largest short-term biological projects yet carried out in the Protectorate. The latter involved the removal by shooting of nearly 500 hippo from badly over-grazed areas in the Queen Elizabeth National Park, but every carcass was examined by a team of scientists, a variety of scientific data collected, and the meat disposed of for local consumption. Not one animal was wasted.