Category Archives: Marine Affairs & Policy

(Video) Study Shows Link Between Neurotoxins in Shark Fins and Brain Diseases

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Sharks are among the most threatened of marine species worldwide due to unsustainable overfishing. They are primarily killed for their fins alone, to fuel the growing demand for shark fin soup, which is an Asia delicacy. A new study by University of Miami (UM) scientists in the journal Marine Drugs has discovered high concentrations of BMAA in shark fins, a neurotoxin linked to neurodegenerative diseases in humans including Alzheimer’s and Lou Gehrig Disease (ALS). The study suggests that consumption of shark fin soup and cartilage pills may pose a significant health risk for degenerative brain diseases.

“Shark fins are primarily derived through finning, a practice where by shark fins are removed at sea and the rest of the mutilated animal is thrown back in the water to die,” said co-author Dr. Neil Hammerschlag, research assistant professor of Marine Affairs & Policy and director of the RJ Dunlap Marine Conservation Program (RJD) at UM. “Estimates suggest that fins from as many as 70 million sharks end up in soup.  As a result, many shark species are on the road to extinction. Because sharks play important roles in maintaining balance in the oceans, not only is shark fin soup injurious to the marine environment, but our study suggests that it is likely harmful to the people who are consuming them.”

Seven species of shark were tested for this study: blacknose, blacktip, bonnethead, bull, great hammerhead, lemon, and nurse sharks. Samples were collected from live animals in waters throughout South Florida. “The concentrations of BMAA in the samples are a cause for concern, not only in shark fin soup, but also in dietary supplements and other forms ingested by humans,” says study co-author Prof. Deborah Mash, Director of the University of Miami Brain Endowment Bank. The Bank supports basic and clinical research and holds one of the world’s largest collection of postmortem human brains encompassing a wide range of neurological disorders.

The new study found levels of between 144 and 1836 ng/mg of BMAA, which overlapped the levels measured in the brains of Alzheimer’s and ALS victims. “Not only does this work provide important information on one probable route of human exposure to BMAA, it may lead to a lowering of the demand for shark fin soup and consumption of shark products, which will aid ocean conservation efforts,” added Hammerschlag.

The project was funded through a donation from the Herbert W. Hoover Foundation. Click here to read the full story.

Will this effect the demand for shark fin soup and other shark fin products worldwide? Comment below with your thoughts.

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Student Has “Once in a Lifetime” Experience in Guatemala

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The sheer power of a blue marlin and the acrobat skills of a pacific sailfish caught on light gear are some of the most exhilarating feats an angler can encounter, but the fast runs and jaw-dropping aerial jumps are something that every ocean love can appreciate. As an intern with The Billfish Foundation and a second year Marine Affairs and Policy student, I had the opportunity in November to take a short break away from my research and head to Guatemala to fish in the Presidential Challenge of Central America — a tournament series that generates $25,000 dollars a year for billfish conservation.

Team Billfish Foundation aboard the Intensity with Captain Mike Sheeder


Despite the fact that Guatemala is one of the only places in the world you can “pitch bait” sailfish and blue marlin, the amount of wildlife in addition to billfish in Guatemala is absolutely incredible. On the practice day of the tournament, the boat counted over 100 olive ridley sea turtles and during the following three days I was fortunate enough to see a humpback whale breach three times and spinner dolphin schools that stretched for as far as the eye can see.

Hooked up!

While my Spanish skills are not where they should be after countless years of Spanish in school, the phrase “san cocho” will be something that haunts me for some time. The “art” of pitch baiting can only be done in a handful of locations around the world because of the aggressive nature and abundance of billfish present—Guatemala is one of those. Rather than having hooked baits being trolled behind the boat, only teasers are used to attract fish up into the “spread” (If you were a fish looking up at what the boat was dragging, that would be the spread – all the lures and teasers the boat pulls. The purpose is to attract fish and look like baitfish that are running away). Once a fish is spotted in the spread, the captain will call out which teaser the billfish is trying to eat and at that point in time, it is the job of one of the anglers to “pitch” a ballyhoo (type of baitfish, most are caught off of south florida and then shipped all over the world) to the hungry and angry billfish that cannot seem to kill the plastic teasers. Once the sailfish eats and realizes that it is hooked up, it will immediately sky rocket and start a series of jumps and hard runs. Circle hooks are exclusively used in the sailfish fishery in Guatemala to improve the post release survivability of the fish because they hook the fish in the corner of the mouth rather than the stomach and are ultimately a conservation tool used by recreational anglers to ensure the health of the stock.

Pacific Sailfish About to swim away with a new tag

All in all, the tournament was a great success and Team Billfish Foundation finished in third place despite having mechanical problems on the second day of the tournament. The opportunity to do something like this as an intern at The Billfish Foundation was an extraordinary experience. Never did I think I would have the opportunity to take a break from my research (determining the socioeconomic benefits of billfish anglers in the Gulf of Mexico) to fish in one of the world’s premier fisheries.

To read more about the trip, visit The Billfish Foundation blog.

Andrew Cox
Marine Affairs & Policy Student
The Billfish Foundation Intern
Twitter: http://twitter.com/TBF_Andrew

Webinar of the Week: Can Marine Protected Areas and Reserves Conserve Top Predatory Fishes?

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This week’s webinar is by Rosenstiel School student Jennah Caster. As part of Dr. Neil Hammerschlag’s Marine Conservation class, Jennah talks about further examining the roles and difficulties surrounding the implementation and enforcement of shark sanctuaries. Shark sanctuaries are critical management tools, which can have positive cascading effects for a variety of ecosystem functions in various aquatic communities.

- Andrew DeChellis
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Plankton and Policy

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It may be surprising to scientists, but research in its scientific format (peer-reviewed papers, scientific conference presentations) is not useful to decision-makers. Policy makers can’t be experts in everything and they depend on scientists to provide them with appropriate evidence for decision making. Scientists are notoriously bad at doing this as the language and jargon we use to communicate with each other are not easily understood by non-scientists. As a marine science and policy researcher, I conduct policy-driven research and translate scientific knowledge into a policy-relevant format. I work closely with policy-makers to feed this information into the decision making process at the UK and European levels.

Figure 1: Distribution maps of foraminifera on CPR samples (measured as frequency of occurrence). From: McQuatters-Gollop, A., Burkill, P., Beaugrand, G., Edwards, M., Gattuso, J.-P. and Johns, D.G., 2010. Atlas of Calcifying Plankton: Results from the Continuous Plankton Recorder Survey. SAHFOS, Plymouth, UK, 20pp.

Plankton isn’t the first thing to come to mind when one thinks of marine policy, but much of what we know about pelagic marine ecology (open ocean) in the North Atlantic we’ve learned from research using data from the Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) survey. The CPR survey is a near-surface plankton monitoring program coordinated by the Sir Alister Hardy Foundation of Ocean Science (SAHFOS) in Plymouth, UK, which has collected ~1 million plankton samples in the North Atlantic since 1931. Due to my role at the science-policy interface I am particularly interested in ecological responses to human pressures and translating this work into ecological indicators for decision making. I am currently leading the UK’s development of pelagic indicators and targets for the EU’s Marine Strategy Framework Directive. I coordinate a team of pelagic experts who have developed ecological indicators and targets to use to monitor and manage UK waters in compliance with the EU Directive. I have to convince the UK government, my peers, and the public that the indicators and targets we propose are scientifically sound – therefore they must be easy to communicate to non-scientists, a tough job when plankton are microscopic and most people don’t even know what they are!

Figure 2: The CPR survey has collected >1 million samples in the North Sea/North Atlantic since 1931, analyzing each one for ~500 taxa of plankton. Sister surveys now operate in other ocean basins, making the CPR survey a near-global marine monitoring program.

Ocean acidification is one policy-relevant subject I’m currently working on. We know that changes to marine pH will affect calcareous (partly composed of calcium carbonate) organisms to some extent, but there is some debate as to how much and when. Our 80 year time-series of CPR data indicates that currently some calcareous plankton taxa are increasing in abundance in the North Atlantic, suggesting that they are not yet responding to ocean acidification.

- Dr. Abigail McQuatters-Gollop
RSMAS MAF Class of 2001
Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science (SAHFOS), Plymouth, UK

MPS Announces New ‘Coastal Sustainability’ Track

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The Rosenstiel School for Marine and Atmospheric Science is enhancing the Master of Professional Science program once again by creating a new track in Coastal Sustainability Science and Practice (Marine Affairs and Policy Division). This track will be offered for the first time in Fall 2012 and provides students with advanced training in the expanding field of sustainability, with a combined focus on the practical aspects of systems management and the theoretical understanding of whole-systems design. The goal of this track is to train future leaders who create solutions for sustainability issues at local and global levels.

The wet lab at Cape Eleuthera Institute

The Fall semester will provide students with the unique experience to conduct a semester of hands-on applied research on location at the Cape Eleuthera Institute in Eleuthera, Bahamas. The Cape Eleuthera Institute specializes in testing innovative sustainable technologies and practices for small island and coastal systems. MPS students will develop professional skills through their direct involvement in ongoing aquaculture, biodigestion, passive building design, sustainable entrepreneurship, marine management, and alternative energy programs. They will become active participants in everything from conceptual design to the daily technical maintenance of these projects. In addition, students benefit greatly from the exposure to island conditions and daily life at an active field research campus on a small island with a population of only 10,000.

Cape Eleuthera Institute

The Cape Eleuthera Institute semester will be strengthened and complimented by a Spring semester of coursework at the Rosenstiel School for Marine and Atmospheric Science. This curriculum will provide a foundation in the history and philosophy of sustainability, as well as exposure to case studies of sustainable design from other bioregions. Additionally, students will be allowed to select electives that reflect their growing interests, such as aquaculture, the economics of natural resources, and environmental engineering. This will be followed by a summer internship that expands upon their previous experience, either returning to CEI or working with another faculty approved internship site. This degree provides excellent preparation for employment in the areas of marine conservation, renewable energy, ecological design, and coastal systems management.

- Dr. Brian Soden
Professor and Associate Dean for Professional Studies
- Dr. Jill Richardson
Director – Masters of professional Science/Lecturer/Advisor

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RSMAS Science Highlights of 2011

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RSMAS was a busy place for cutting-edge science this year. Here’s a look back at the top research studies that made headlines in 2011 and the latest science and education from Virginia Key and beyond.

Dr. Neil Hammerschlag’s study of one hammerhead shark’s lone journey to New Jersey made headlines in early 2011 as did Dr. Lisa Beal’s ongoing research on the Agulhas Current and its link to global change change.

Coral reefs made news this year, including from a newly published study by Dr. Diego Lirman that showed Florida’s reefs cannot endure a ‘cold snap’ and from a study of Papua New Guinea reefs by Dr. Chris Langdon that suggests ocean acidification may reduce reef diversity.

 

Before the year closed, Dr. Shimon Wdowinski presented a new study at the AGU Fall Meeting in San Francisco that showed tropical cyclones could trigger earthquakes.

RSMAS scientists and student were part of many new and ongoing research expeditions. Researchers and students from RSMAS joined an international team on a six-month field campaign in the Indian Ocean, known as DYNAMO. They are studying how tropical weather brews over the region and moves eastward along the equator, with reverberating effects around the entire globe. Follow the ongoing work from the scientists.

Meanwhile, it was a busy end of the year for Lisa Beal and her research team who embarked on a month-long expedition to the waters off of South Africa to understand how one of the world’s strongest ocean currents – the Agulhas Current – is both affected by climate change and also has an effect on climate change.

On the academic side of RSMAS life, the Masters of Professional Science program was in full swing this year and the newly acquired Broad Key Research Station welcomed its first cohort of students to study the coral reef ecosystems of the Florida Keys. Finally, joint degrees in law and marine affairs was launched at UM to provide students with a unique educational opportunity to tackle environmental issues.

As 2011 comes to a close, RSMAS faculty, researchers and students are looking forward to another busy and exciting year in 2012 filled with new scientific discoveries and educational opportunities.

Tell us about your research plans for 2012.