Return ‘Em Right!

Image courtesy of NOAA Fisheries and ReturnEm’ Right

The Return ‘Em Right campaign aims to increase survival of reef fish that are caught and released in the Gulf of Mexico. Project partners include Florida Sea Grant, University of Florida, Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission, NOAA and a coalition of anglers, industry groups, state agencies, universities, government and non-government organizations committed to maintaining healthy fish stocks and fishing access in the Gulf of Mexico.

 To improve survival of released reef fish, Return 'Em Right collaborated with for-hire captains, private recreational anglers, scientists, and fisheries managers to create a standard set of best release practices for reef fish. This effort culminated in the development of the Return ‘Em Right Best Release Practices Manual and a series of fact sheets—a resource for anglers to guide their decisions on the water and improve survival of reef fish.

 Other aspects of the project include funding studies to address depredation and release mortality concerns, as well as monitor descending device effectiveness to document improved survival of fish. In total, these efforts will help increase the number of fish that get back down to depth safely to help more fish live, and provide improved fishing experiences for anglers.

This $30 million project was selected and funded by the Deepwater Horizon Open Ocean Trustee Implementation Group as part of the 2019 Open Ocean Restoration Plan.

Crab Shells to Batteries

New biodegradable, recyclable battery is made of crab shells. Looking for a lithium alternative, researchers combined chitin and zinc to create a low-cost, long-lived battery with a smaller environmental footprint.

Prachi Patel, Anthropocene, September 8, 2022

A new battery made from crab shells and zinc promises to be fully biodegradable and recyclable. The safe, eco-friendly battery can be recharged at least 1,000 times, making it suitable for storing wind and solar energy for the power grid.

Lithium-ion is today the most widely used battery technology for grid energy storage. But the explosion of renewables and electric vehicles has put strain on the already tenuous supply chain of materials that go into lithium batteries.

Mining battery metals harms the environment. Plus, it is not easy or economical to recycle lithium batteries at the end of their lives, so most of the 15 million metric tons of discarded batteries the world is expected to produce by 2030 will likely end up in landfills.

Researchers at the University of Maryland and University of Houston wanted to make a more sustainable battery. They started with zinc-metal battery chemistry, which scientists have been developing for grid storage for several years. Zinc is much more abundant than lithium in the earth’s crust, so zinc-ion batteries are cheaper. But traditional batteries—made of zinc anodes, metal oxide cathodes, and water-based electrolytes—suffer from uneven deposition of zinc on the electrode surface, which makes them unsafe and short-lived.

No Fish Dry July 2022

For the month of July, Keep Fish Wet and Ten And Two Co. challenge anglers to make a 31-day commitment to not take a single photo of a fish. All month long Keep Fish Wet will be sharing inspiration for fish-less photography and the science behind what happens to fish as water temperatures rise.

With many places across North America experiencing extreme drought and higher than average water temperatures, the way we handle fish during the hottest time of year is crucial to their well-being. As water temperatures rise, fish become physiologically stressed, increasing the time it takes for them to recover from capture and handling, and increasing the chance of mortality once released.

Instead, anglers are encouraged to post other artful shots of their summer angling experience. This simple shift in the fishing community’s catch-and-release behavior could do years of good for your fish’s home water.  After all, fishing is rarely just about catching fish.

Follow along on social media as well as at keepfishwet.org to learn about how fish respond when the water gets warm, how you can tell if fish are stressed, and to see some beautiful fish-less photography.

Enter the giveaway to be eligible to win an awesome prize package from Waterworks Lamson, Patagonia, Bajio Sunglasses, Fulling Mill, Cheeky, Scientific Anglers, Fly Fishing Climate Alliance, and Ten And Two Co.

House Passes the "Recovering America’s Wildlife Act"

Eastern Brook Trout (photo courtesy of Native Fish Coalition)

On June 14, 2022, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to pass the bipartisan “Recovering America’s Wildlife Act” (H.R. 2773). Sponsored by Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI), the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act (RAWA) has been a long standing priority for many conservation organizations since 2015.

RAWA seeks to provide nearly $1.4 billion annually for proactive, non-regulatory conservation projects in every state, territory, and on tribal lands and waters. This bill would be one of the most significant investments in fish and wildlife conservation in a lifetime. Specifically, funding provided through H.R. 2773, combined with a 25% non-federal match, would fully fund each state’s Congressionally mandated State Wildlife Action Plan. Collectively, these plans have identified nearly 12,000 Species of Greatest Conservation Need, including many iconic species such as northern bobwhite quail, monarchs and other pollinators, gopher tortoise, sturgeon, and countless waterfowl species, all of which need a dedicated source of conservation funding before more regulatory and costly measures are necessary.

"Right now, the United States is facing an unprecedented biodiversity crisis,” said Congresswoman Dingell.  “We’ve already seen our nation’s beautiful monarch butterfly population plummet, and we’ve lost nearly 3 billion birds since 1970. Without a significant change in the way we finance conservation, more of the animals and wildlife we hold dear to our heart will become endangered. The Recovering America’s Wildlife Act is landmark legislation that takes long-overdue action to address this crisis by using innovative, on-the-ground collaboration that will protect our nation’s environmental heritage. We have a conservation, economic, and moral obligation to act in order to protect and recover America’s wildlife for future generations. I am grateful to the broad, bipartisan coalition that has fought for this legislation, and I urge the Senate to act on this bill right away.”

To learn more:

Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation https://congressionalsportsmen.org/

Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership https://www.trcp.org/

The Dangers of Bullsh!t

Photo courtesy of Enago Academy

Editor: Effective natural resource management and conservation is science-based. Science is also critical in the formation of priorities, action plans and successful program response.

Unfortunately, we currently live in a time where science is just another opinion. Witness the recent Science article “On the trail of bullshit” and the ongoing battle against misinformation (see below).

Science needs to be accessible and tell us the why and gauge the urgency. For example, a concern for climate impacts on fisheries can be simplified to a focus on the impacts of warming water and sea level rise. But we must rely heavily on science for solutions on how to deal with resulting range of impacts that these two seemingly simplistic impacts translate into, including habitat loss, fragmentation, shifting stocks, invasive species, and hybridization, to name a few. And we must fight the tsunamis of misinformation.

Fighting Misinformation

Readers of the March 25 issue of Science may have been startled to read a headline that read “On the trail of bullshit,” and even more startled to realize the very real impacts the spread of misinformation has visited on human health and society.

When Carl Bergstrom worked on plans to prepare the United States for a hypothetical pandemic, in the early 2000s, he and his colleagues were worried vaccines might not get to those who needed them most. “We thought the problem would be to keep people from putting up barricades and stopping the truck and taking all the vaccines off it, giving them to each other,” he recalls.

When COVID-19 arrived, things played out quite differently. One-quarter of U.S. adults remain unvaccinated against a virus that has killed more than 1 million Americans. “Our ability to convince people that this was a vaccine that was going to save a lot of lives and that everyone needed to take was much, much worse than most of us imagined,” Bergstrom says.

He is convinced this catastrophic failure can be traced to social media networks and their power to spread false information—in this case about vaccines—far and fast. “Bullshit” is Bergstrom’s umbrella term for the falsehoods that propagate online—both misinformation, which is spread inadvertently, and disinformation, designed to spread falsehoods deliberately.

“Misinformation has reached crisis proportions,” Bergstrom and his UW colleague Jevin West wrote in a 2021 paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). “It poses a risk to international peace, interferes with democratic decision-making, endangers the well-being of the planet, and threatens public health.” In another PNAS paper, Bergstrom and others issued a call to arms for researchers to study misinformation and learn how to stop it.

Microplastics Everywhere

Confetti-sized bits of microplastic get swept through the ocean by fast-moving currents and shifting circulation patterns, creating a snow-globe-like effect. Scientists at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute are investigating where these tiny particles concentrate in the global ocean to identify microplastic “hot spots” and better understand the nature and magnitude of the problem. (Shutterstock)

In the Ocean, It’s Snowing Microplastics

Tiny bits of plastic have infiltrated the deep sea’s main food source and could alter the ocean’s role in one of Earth’s ancient cooling processes, scientists say.

Although the term may suggest wintry whites, marine snow is mostly brownish or grayish, comprising mostly dead things. For eons, the debris has contained the same things — flecks from plant and animal carcasses, feces, mucus, dust, microbes, viruses — and transported the ocean’s carbon to be stored on the seafloor. Increasingly, however, marine snowfall is being infiltrated by microplastics: fibers and fragments of polyamide, polyethylene and polyethylene terephthalate. And this fauxfall appears to be altering our planet’s ancient cooling process.

Microplastics now contaminate the entire planet, from the summit of Mount Everest to the deepest oceans. Photograph: David Kelly

It’s in our blood

Meanwhile, much closer to home, no matter where you live, microplastic pollution has been detected in human blood for the first time, with scientists finding the tiny particles in almost 80 percent of the people tested. The discovery shows the particles can travel around the body and may lodge in organs. The impact on health is as yet unknown. But researchers are concerned as microplastics cause damage to human cells in the laboratory and air pollution particles are already known to enter the body and cause millions of early deaths a year.

World starts to hammer out first global treaty on plastic pollution

Each year, an estimated 11 million tons of plastic waste enter the ocean, equivalent to a cargo ship’s worth every day. The rising tide—in the oceans and beyond—is just a symptom of much wider problems: unsustainable product design, short-sighted consumption, and insufficient waste management, scientists say. To curb the flood, says Jenna Jambeck, an environmental engineer at the University of Georgia, “we need to take more action and it needs to be further upstream” in the production process.

That’s exactly what negotiators from 193 countries are setting out to do when they meet in Nairobi, Kenya, next week. Their ambitious goal: to create a negotiating committee that will try to hammer out, within 2 years, a new global treaty intended to curb plastic pollution.

The Pisgah Paradox

As America’s interest in getting outdoors grows, so does the potential for impacts on natural resources. Too often, we tend to give our own recreational pursuits a pass and blame the impacts on someone else. In western North Carolina Kristian Jackson found mountain bikers working to protect their use by helping to protect fish.

“I like to say that trails solve problems,” says Lisa Jennings, recreation and trails program manager for the Grandfather District. Lisa spends much of her time collecting input from different user groups about problem trails in the area, to better inform how to rebuild them in a way that both solves environmental issues and provides a better experience for users like Shanna Powell and Trey Thomas.

Kristian Jackson, Patagonia

The steep, rugged terrain of North Carolina’s Pisgah National Forest attracts mountain bikers from all over the United States. But the area also receives over 70 inches of rain annually – a recipe for washed out trails and silted-in creeks and rivers.

“The dirt’s long gone, brother,” observes J.E.B. Hall, a local mountain biker, kayaker and fishing guide. “Every rainstorm puts more of this trail into the creek. Sediment fills in the gaps between rocks, killing off the critters that scoot around underwater and warming up the stream.” This in turn threatens native brook trout.

With many of the Pisgah’s trails eroding and increasingly posing threats to the forest’s watersheds, and faced with the closure of one such trail, a group of mountain bikers, anglers and land managers embarked on an effort to heal a river by building a better trail—and sparked a series of large-scale projects that could transform the area’s trails and help restore entire watersheds in the process.

Their answer was the Mortimer Trails Project, a bold, collaborative effort between the USFS and Alliance to improve water quality by improving user experiences—or, more simply, to make better rivers by making better trails.

Beaver Dams Help With Wildfire Recovery

Beaver Dams Help Wildfire-Ravaged Ecosystems Recover Long after Flames Subside, Isobel Whitcomb, Scientific American, February 7, 2022,

“Dams mop up debris that would otherwise kill fish and other downstream wildlife, new observations suggest.”

Oregon endured the third-largest wildfire in its recorded history last summer. The Bootleg Fire tore through the Upper Klamath Basin, an ecologically sensitive area that is home to multiple threatened and endangered species including the northern spotted owl and two fish—the koptu and c’waam (shortnose sucker and Lost River sucker)—that are culturally vital to the area’s Klamath Tribes. The fire left behind a charred landscape more than twice the size of New York City.

A complex of beaver dams at Dixon Creek, a tributary in the Sprague River watershed in Oregon, keeps riparian habitat lush and green amid a landscape charred by the 2021 Bootleg Fire. Credit: Charles Erdman/Trout Unlimited.

After the local fire season ended in autumn, Bill Tinniswood, a fisheries biologist with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, went out to survey the damage. Ash from the fire, which burned for more than a month, had clogged formerly pristine tributaries and turned them into black slurries. Thriving trout populations had disappeared, presumably choked to death by waterborne debris particles that deprived the fish of oxygen. “I was in total shock,” Tinniswood said. “It just looked like devastation.”

Then Tinniswood and his team stumbled upon something even more surprising, and somewhat encouraging: roughly five acres of pristine greenery amid an otherwise burned-out area along Dixon Creek, a tributary in the Sprague River watershed. At the center were roughly eight active beaver dams. But this was more than a refuge from fire, which hundreds of beaver dams are known to have afforded to other riparian areas. Whereas fish seemed to have disappeared upstream of the Dixon Creek dam site, the downstream water was crystal clear—and trout were thriving as though the fire had never happened. The dams and ponds appeared to have altered the hydrology of the landscape around them, Tinniswood says. The beavers had effectively built something like a water treatment plant that staved off fire-related contamination.

Similar dam-driven refuges have been documented from Colorado to California, Idaho to Wyoming. Now, scientists are discovering that these green sanctuaries are part of a larger story of how beaver dams contribute to fire resilience. Along with deterring the flames themselves, beaver dams and ponds also function as filters for ash and other fire-produced pollutants that enter waterways—thus maintaining water quality for fish, other aquatic animals, and humans—emerging evidence suggests.

After the Bootleg Fire in Oregon, conservation nonprofit Trout Unlimited rushed to build “beaver dam analogues” at Harmony Preserve, a private wildlife refuge along the North Fork Sprague River, before fall rains washed ash and other debris into the watershed. Here, contractors help to build post-assisted log structures, or PALS, which function much like beaver dam analogues. Credit: Charles Erdman/Trout Unlimited

Beyond the Scope

Meet Anna Le, an aquatic ecologist and environmental educator. Anna has spent years welcoming students, families, community members, and beginners in the outdoors to connect with our outdoor spaces, and each other. “Beyond the Scope” is a film amplifying Anna’s story and conveying her contagious love for conservation and her deep desire to cultivate a more inclusive outdoors for all.

#EveryoneOutside is an Outbound Collective initiative focused on creating a more inclusive and culturally diverse outdoor community by elevating the profiles, work, and stories of historically marginalized and systemically excluded leaders and athletes. This is an Outbound Collective film, produced in partnership with Wondercamp, and presented by HOKA with support from Kampgrounds of America

Learn more: https://everyoneoutside.theoutbound.com

Outbound Collective: https://theoutbound.com

Wondercamp: http://www.wondercamp.co

Anna Le serves as a member of AFFTA Fisheries Fund’s Science & Policy Committee comprising scientists, educators, and fisheries policy experts that help guide the work of the organization.

The Greenest ‘Blue Foods’

“The lowest-impact label went to farmed bivalves and seaweeds; but there were also some surprises”

Emma Bryce, Anthropocene, October 8, 2021

What is the role of fish in a sustainable food future? Compared to other food groups, we have limited knowledge about the environmental impact of blue foods when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions and ecosystem impact.

A team of researchers set out to fill the gap. They gathered data from almost 7,000 fish farms and 1,000 fishery records about 23 species groups of fish, bivalves, seaweeds, and crustaceans. From this they built life cycle analyses that considered modes of production, land, water, nitrogen and phosphorus use, and emissions impact. The species they looked at collectively accounted for 70% of global blue food production, giving them a useful overall picture of the fishing and aquaculture industry’s environmental impact. 

A few key patterns emerged. First, the major source of emissions in aquaculture is the production of feed for the farmed fish. In fact this accounted for a striking 70% of emissions for most farmed fish, most notably flatfish and crustaceans, the researchers found. The footprint is attributable to the land conversion and fertilizers that are needed to produce the feed, which are typically soybeans. This land-based food production also gives farmed fish a relatively high footprint where water use is concerned. 

 In wild-caught fisheries meanwhile, the primary emissions culprit is fuel-use for boats, especially true for high-seas industrial fleets that may travel long distances to capture fish. 

 This assessment also revealed which are the ‘greenest’ blue foods to consume. The researchers found that across all fish – farmed and wild-caught—the lowest-impact were farmed bivalves and seaweeds, mainly because they don’t need to be fed. In fact, their self-sufficiency gives them an ecosystem benefit, because shellfish and seaweed can remove nitrogen and phosphorus pollution—usually originating from terrestrial agriculture—from the water. What’s more, bivalves especially have some of the highest nutritional value of all available blue foods, presenting a clear win on all fronts. 

 The analysis also turned up a few surprising results, such as the fact that farmed shrimp were found to be less impactful than wild-caught. Also, consumers looking to make a difference by eating wild-caught salmon rather than farmed may be squandering their efforts: like trout, this fish had the same footprint whether farmed, or wild-caught. 

 By highlighting the several weak points in blue food production, the researchers also make it clearer where the opportunities are to make this increasingly influential source of dietary protein more sustainable. 

Read the read: Gephart et. al. “Environmental performance of blue foods.” Nature. 2021.

Goodbye to “Rough Fish?”

Photo courtesy of Steve McComas, Blue Water Science and Minnesota Star Tribune

“Throw those trash fish up on the bank so they don’t compete with our gamefish.”

As a kid I often heard such comments focused on sunfish, suckers and other species whose last names were not “trout” or “bass.” (Editor)

As Margo Rosenbaum noted recently in The Sacramento Bee, Andrew Rypel growing up loved to fish. But he noticed that most fishermen he encountered paid little attention to the native fish. He also noticed there were stricter fishing restrictions on game fish, like walleye and trout, than the native species.

"I learned that there were all these different types of species," Rypel said. "Most of the fishing community focused on these select game fish species."

Now an associate professor at the University of California, Davis, Rypel and his co-authors have authored a perspective, Goodbye to “Rough Fish”: Paradigm Shift in the Conservation of Native Species, published in the American Fisheries Society’s July 2021 issue of Fisheries Magazine. Their abstract:

“While sometimes difficult to admit, perspectives of European and white males have overwhelmingly dominated fisheries science and management in the USA. This dynamic is exemplified by bias against “rough fish”—a pejorative ascribing low-to-zero value for countless native fishes. One product of this bias is that biologists have ironically worked against conservation of diverse fishes for over a century, and these problems persist today. Nearly all U.S. states retain bag limits and other policies that are regressive and encourage overfishing and decline of native species. Multiple lines of evidence point towards the need for a paradigm shift. These include: (1) native species deliver critical ecosystem services; (2) little demonstration that native fish removals deliver intended benefits; (3) many native fishes are long-lived and vulnerable to overfishing and decline; and (4) fisher values and demographics shifting towards native fish conservation. Overall, existing native fish policies are unacceptable and run counter to the public trust doctrine where government agencies manage natural resources for public use. We encourage agencies to revisit their policies regarding native fishes and provide suggestions for developing more holistic, protective, and inclusive conservation policy.”

Think reusable straws, wraps, and cups are always better for the environment? Think again.

Single-use straws and forks, plastic sandwich bags and wraps, and disposable cups can all wreak havoc on the environment. Many consumers are switching from these products to reusable alternatives with the assumption that these products are have less environmental impact.

A new study shatters that assumption. Although they are made from more environmentally friendly materials, reusable products are not necessarily always more green since their impact depends on how they are used. Some of these products might actually be worse for the environment than disposable plastic ones, the analysis published in The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment shows.

“The climate, water, and energy footprint of reusable products depends more on how they are used—than how they are made. ”

“This work pursues the misperception that reusable products are always better than single-use products, no matter what,” says Shelie Miller of the University of Michigan’s School for Environment and Sustainability. “In reality, reusables are generally better than single-use products, but they actually must be reused, and often reused a large number of times, to realize their environmental benefit.”

Prachi Patel, Anthropocene…

No Fish Dry July… August… September

This July, Keep Fish Wet and the AFFTA Fisheries Fund encourages anglers to ask ourselves “do I really need a photo of that fish?” With many places in North America enduring extreme drought and water temperatures much higher than normal, let's give the fish a break during one of the hottest months of the year by keeping them wet and releasing them quickly. As water temperatures rise, fish become more impacted by catch-and-release, which increases the amount of time it takes them to recover and the chance that they will not survive.  

Instead, we encourage you to post other artful shots showing what else you love about the angling experience.  All month long we will be sharing inspiration for fish-less photography and the science behind what happens to fish as water temperatures rise.  Follow along on social media as well as this page to learn about how fish respond when the water starts to get warm, how you can tell if fish are stressed, and to see some beautiful fish-less photography.  Tag your non-fish pics on Instagram with #NOFISHDRYJULY and follow @keep.fish.wet to be entered to win some amazing prizes from our Giveaway Sponsors — Ten And Two Co., Patagonia Fly Fish, Bajio Sunglasses, and Fulling Mill. 

Here in Montana, it’s clear that while it may not rhyme, we’ll be encouraging “No Fish Dry AUGUST” and “No Fish Dry SEPTEMBER.” [Editor]

Are Anglers Getting Too Good at Catching Fish?

Fighting a Bristol Bay King Salmon (photo: Whitney Tilt)

Technological innovations in the recreational fishing sector: implications for fisheries management and policy

In a recent issue of Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries AFFTA Fisheries Fund Science & Policy Committee member Andy Danylchuk and other authors found that technology developed for or adopted by the recreational fisheries sector (e.g., anglers and the recreational fishing industry) has led to rapid and dramatic changes in how recreational anglers interact with fisheries resources.

From improvements in finding and catching fish to emulating their natural prey and accessing previously inaccessible waters, to anglers sharing their exploits with others, technology is completely changing all aspects of recreational fishing. These innovations would superficially be viewed as positive from the perspective of the angler (aside from the financial cost of purchasing some technologies), yet for the fisheries manager and policy maker, technology may create unintended challenges that lead to reactionary or even ill-defined approaches as they attempt to keep up with these changes.

The goal of this paper is to consider how innovations in recreational fishing are changing the way that anglers interact with fish, and thus how recreational fisheries management is undertaken. We use a combination of structured reviews and expert analyses combined with descriptive case studies to highlight the many ways that technology is influencing recreational fishing practice, and, relatedly, what it means for changing how fisheries and/or these technologies need to be managed—from changes in fish capture, to fish handling, to how anglers share information with each other and with managers. Given that technology is continually evolving, we hope that the examples provided here lead to more and better monitoring of technological innovations and engagement by the management and policy authorities with the recreational fishing sector. Doing so will ensure that management actions related to emerging and evolving recreational fishing technology are more proactive than reactive.

Citation: Cooke, S.J., Venturelli, P., Twardek, W.M. et al. Technological innovations in the recreational fishing sector: implications for fisheries management and policy. Rev Fish Biol Fisheries 31, 253–288 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11160-021-09643-1