fisheries – Page 11 – ANGFA Queensland

Fears for Pacific tuna stocks amid record 2012 catch

Aug 142013

Original story by Jemima Garrett, Australia Network News

Southern bluefin tuna swim in the open ocean off Australia, January 2004. Photo: Kerstin Fritsches,AAP

New figures revealing a record Pacific tuna catch in 2012 have prompted urgent calls from conservationists for more to be done to protect fish stocks.

The report from the Secretariat of the Pacific Community shows that more than 2.6 million tonnes was caught in the central and western Pacific region last year.

That's 59 per cent of the global catch and 1200 tonnes more than the previous record, which was set in 2009.

The report's author, Dr Shelton Harley says 2012 was also a record year for industrial purse seine fishing, which was led by high prices of skipjack tuna.

"Five or six years ago, they were getting less than $500 a tonne for skipjack and now the price is up around $2000 a tonne and some of the profits some of these vessels are making are very high," he told Pacific Beat.

Concerns over sustainability

"So purse seining is a very lucrative business to be in at the moment and that is probably driving the increase in the vessels in the region," he said.

But the record numbers are of concern to conservationists, such as Greenpeace's Co-ordinator for International Sustainable Seafood Program, Cat Dorey.

She says more must be done to protect the fish species.

"We've already seen over at least the last eight years that big eye has been declining and if we don't get this under control, the stock will reach a level where it will struggle to maintain the population," she said.

Species such as big eye and yellow eye tuna which are already on the radar of scientists also recorded record catches in 2012, with yellow fin up 25 per cent.

Ms Dorey says there needs to be bigger cuts to fishing quotas, and will be pushing for that at the December meeting of the Central and Western Fisheries Commission in Cairns, Australia.

"We will certainly be calling for much more stronger cuts to fishing across all fleets, targeting these species, particularly the purse seine fleets that use fish aggregating devices because these are the ones that catch the high numbers of juvenile tuna", she said.

All about aquaponics

fisheries

Aug 132013

Original story by Trevor Cochrane, The West Australian

Knowing where your food comes from is very important these days, as is producing your own food. With world trade agreements allowing countries such as China, Vietnam and Taiwan to ship fish products into Australia we can certainly get it at a cheap price. The problem is we don't know what's gone into producing the fish we are eating.

Erica Roberts and Maurice van Aurich of Aquaponics WA. Photo: Robert Duncan, The West Australian

I always buy local when it comes to seafood but in recent years I've become addicted to another form of fresh fish supply that ties in beautifully with my love of gardening.

In nature, forests surround streams and water trickles through the branches and roots making its way to the stream, cleansed of any toxins or excess nutrients by the roots and microscopic bacteria (called nitrite bacteria) that absorb these nutrients (mainly ammonias) and turn them into plant food absorbed by the tree roots.

The roots filter the water's edge as well, absorbing the waste products of the aquatic creatures in the water.

The stream flows and gravel on its bottom is an important home for the nitrite-fixing bacteria that absorb excess ammonia nutrient. The total effect is pure clean water, a pristine environment for fish to live in.

Ponds are a popular sight in domestic gardens, and many people introduce plants and some form of filtration process, either mechanical or biological, to help filter the water of unwanted impurities.

Hydroponics is another increasingly popular growing technique that effectively uses water to grow plants - mainly edibles - for commercial production. Most of us who shop at a supermarket enjoy lettuce and tomatoes that are grown this way.

It's a system that's incredibly productive and utilises liquid fertilisers to maintain the plants' growth, with those fertilisers converted into plant food by the same vitally important nitrate-fixing bacteria.

Some people don't like this because of the synthetic fertilisers used and would prefer a more organic approach to hydroponics - this is where fresh fish excreta can come in handy.

So why not combine aquaculture and hydroponics, creating a system to produce your own edible fish at home as well as freshly grown greens?

Well, you can - it's called aquaponics.

How it works

It’s not exactly a new idea; humans have been doing this in various forms for thousands of years, starting with the most recognised early form of aquaponics being managed by the Aztecs. They created artificial floating islands called chinampas in lakes that grew fresh vegetables and provided the perfect clean freshwater environment for an agricultural aquaculture approach around and under them.

Aquaponics is so easy to do these days, with local companies such as Aquaponics WA and Woodvale Fish and Lily Farm specialising in providing kit systems that make it easy to create your own aquaponics set-up at home.

The system involves using a specially designed deep tray for plants to grow in. The tray is filled with a product that looks like gravel but is actually expanded clay. This is necessary because it is extremely porous and makes the perfect home for billions of tiny nitrite-fixing bacteria, the essential and unseen ingredient in the system.

Water is pumped from the base of a water-filled round tank (I have successfully used 500-litre and 1000-litre tanks) into the tray, which is planted with a combination of perennial and annual edible plants.

Water flows from one end of the tray to the other, passing through the expanded clay (called hydroton) and plant roots that are growing through it. By the time it reaches the other end the water has been cleaned of excess nutrients and it flows back into the tank clean.

This is an incredibly waterwise system and uses a lot less water than a vegetable garden. The pumps are also cheap to run, usually less than a dollar a week.

What you can grow

The fish varieties that can be used are endless.

Barramundi, silver perch, trout in winter (rainbow are the best), black bream, cobbler and Murray River cod are just some of the choices.

You can grow yabbies and marron easily in this system and companies like Woodvale Fish and Lily Farm also have freshwater glass shrimp you can grow.

These can be sourced seasonally from Woodvale Fish & Lily Farm and Aquaponics WA.

An aquaponics system is perfect for growing pawpaws, dwarf fruit trees (ideally evergreen such as citrus or avocado) and herbs and vegetables that will come and go as they are harvested with the seasons.

Grow a mixture of edibles and try adding annual salad plants, such as lettuce and rocket, and herbs such as coriander and Italian parsley.

Mix these with perennial fruiting plants such as babaco, pawpaw, dwarf peaches, apples, peaches and nectarines.

Try biennial croppers such as kale, silverbeet, rainbow chard, chives and onions, and don’t forget about perennial berries such as goji berries, jostaberries, strawberries, blueberries and raspberries.

The system can also accommodate a huge range of edible water plants, including taro, watercress, water parsley, magnificent lotus and kangkong, to name just a few.

Aquaponics systems can be incredibly productive. My home system produces a crop of 20 trout through winter that start as fingerlings and end up 500-750g, then 15-20 barramundi — all about 1kg — through the summer months.

We’ve grown marron and yabbies extremely successfully and the best thing about the system is we know exactly what went into producing the food.

The vegies, pawpaws and other produce are pristine because they are kept off the ground away from pests and you can struggle to harvest enough at times as the better the water quality, the greater the plant density.

Expert advice

The main suppliers of aquaponic systems in WA are Aquaponics WA in Canning Vale, Backyard Aquaponics in Jandakot, and Woodvale Fish & Lily Farm in Woodvale.

The Department of Fisheries also has plenty of tips on its website. Go to fish.wa.gov.au/Sustainability-and-Environment/Aquatic-Biosecurity/Pages/Keeping-Fish-As-A-Hobby.aspx.

The cost?

According to Erica Roberts, from Aquaponics WA, basic starter kits are priced from about $700.

Tip:

In highly productive systems where you are pumping through crops of fish in big numbers, or where your fish get really big, you may need to combine the biological filtration of plants with a separate mechanical filtration process and this is where talking to an expert really helps. Water management is key and the monitoring of your system is the only technical part of the process of keeping aquaponics.

Do fish feel pain?

aquarium, community, fisheries

Aug 102013

Media release by Robert Arlinghaus & Eva-Maria Cyrus at Forschungsverbund Berlin e. V.

Fish do not feel pain the way humans do. That is the conclusion drawn by an international team of researchers consisting of neurobiologists, behavioural ecologists and fishery scientists. One contributor to the landmark study was Prof. Dr. Robert Arlinghaus of the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries and of the Humboldt University in Berlin.

The hook of a fishing lure is stuck in the upper jaw of this rainbow trout. Whether the animal feels pain is not verified beyond any doubt. Photo: Alexander Schwab.

On July 13th a revised animal protection act has come into effect in Germany. But anyone who expects it to contain concrete statements regarding the handling of fish will be disappointed. The legislator seemingly had already found its answer to the fish issue. Accordingly, fish are sentient vertebrates who must be protected against cruel acts performed by humans against animals. Anyone in Germany who, without due cause, kills vertebrates or inflicts severe pain or suffering on them has to face penal consequences as well as severe fines or even prison sentences. Now, the question of whether or not fish are really able to feel pain or suffer in human terms is once again on the agenda. A final decision would have far-reaching consequences for millions of anglers, fishers, aquarists, fish farmers and fish scientists. To this end, a research team consisting of seven people has examined all significant studies on the subject of fish pain. During their research the scientists from Europe, Canada, Australia and the USA have discovered many deficiencies. These are the authors’ main points of criticism: Fish do not have the neuro-physiological capacity for a conscious awareness of pain. In addition, behavioural reactions by fish to seemingly painful impulses were evaluated according to human criteria and were thus misinterpreted. There is still no final proof that fish can feel pain.

This is how it works for humans

To be able to understand the researchers’ criticism you first have to comprehend how pain perception works for humans. Injuries stimulate what is known as nociceptors. These receptors send electrical signals through nerve-lines and the spinal cord to the cerebral cortex (neocortex). With full awareness, this is where they are processed into a sensation of pain. However, even severe injuries do not necessarily have to result in an experience of pain. As an emotional state, pain can for example be intensified through engendering fear and it can also be mentally constructed without any tissue damage. Conversely, any stimulation of the nociceptors can be unconsciously processed without the organism having an experience of pain. This principle is used in cases such as anaesthesia. It is for this reason that pain research distinguishes between a conscious awareness of pain and an unconscious processing of impulses through nociception, the latter of which can also lead to complex hormonal reactions, behavioural responses as well as to learning avoidance reactions. Therefore, nociceptive reactions can never be equated with pain, and are thus, strictly speaking, no prerequisite for pain.

Fish are not comparable to humans in terms of anatomy and physiology

Unlike humans fish do not possess a neocortex, which is the first indicator of doubt regarding the pain awareness of fish. Furthermore, certain nerve fibres in mammals (known as c-nociceptors) have been shown to be involved in the sensation of intense experiences of pain. All primitive cartilaginous fish subject to the study, such as sharks and rays, show a complete lack of these fibres and all bony fish – which includes all common types of fish such as carp and trout – very rarely have them. In this respect, the physiological prerequisites for a conscious experience of pain are hardly developed in fish. However, bony fish certainly possess simple nociceptors and they do of course show reactions to injuries and other interventions. But it is not known whether this is perceived as pain.

There is often a lack of distinction between conscious pain and unconscious nociception

The current overview-study raises the complaint that a great majority of all published studies evaluate a fish’s reaction to a seemingly painful impulse - such as rubbing the injured body part against an object or the discontinuation of the feed intake - as an indication of pain. However, this methodology does not prove verifiably whether the reaction was due to a conscious sensation of pain or an unconscious impulse perception by means of nociception, or a combination of the two. Basically, it is very difficult to deduct underlying emotional states based on behavioural responses. Moreover, fish often show only minor or no reactions at all to interventions which would be extremely painful to us and to other mammals. Pain killers such as morphine that are effective for humans were either ineffective in fish or were only effective in astronomically high doses that, for small mammals, would have meant immediate death from shock. These findings suggest that fish either have absolutely no awareness of pain in human terms or they react completely different to pain. By and large, it is absolutely not advisable to interpret the behaviour of fish from a human perspective.

What does all this mean for those who use fish?

In legal terms it is forbidden to inflict pain, suffering or harm on animals without due cause according to §1 of the German Animal Protection Act. However, the criteria for when such acts are punishable is exclusive tied to the animal’s ability to feel pain and suffering in accordance with § 17 of the very same Act. The new study severely doubts that fish are aware of pain as defined by human terms. Therefore, it should actually no longer constitute a criminal offence if, for example, an angler releases a harvestable fish at his own discretion instead of eating it. However, at a legal and moral level, the recently published doubts regarding the awareness of pain in fish do not release anybody from their responsibility of having to justify all uses of fishes in a socially acceptable way and to minimise any form of stress and damage to the fish when interacting with it.

Reference: Rose, J.D., Arlinghaus, R., Cooke, S.J., Diggles, B.K., Sawynok, W., Stevens, E.D. & Wynne, C.D.L (in print) Can fish really feel pain? Fish and Fisheries, DOI: 10.1111/faf.12010.

Port Stephens fish studies expand

fisheries, government, waterways/wetlands

Aug 092013

Original story by Matthew Kelly, Newcastle Herald

OUT OF WATER: Minister for Primary Industries Katrina Hodgkinson and research scientist Dr Nick Otway examine a whaler shark at Port Stephens Fisheries Institute. Photo: Natalie Grono

A $1.2 MILLION extension to Port Stephens Fisheries Institute's tank and aquaria system will allow it to expand its world-leading marine research projects.

The institute's library has also been refurbished to house extra resources from the Cronulla fisheries centre and offices have been built for transferred staff.

The new works were officially opened yesterday.

The institute is a multi-disciplinary centre with staff from five divisions in primary industries.

Its units include science and research, aquaculture, conservation and marine parks, fisheries compliance and biosecurity.

Current research projects are being undertaken in the habitat of the Eastern King prawn, Sydney rock oysters and threatened sharks.

Three of the four fisheries research leaders are based at Port Stephens, as well as the Director of Fisheries Research, Bob Creese, and the executive director of Fisheries NSW, Geoff Allan.

"This enhancement of the Port Stephens Fisheries Institute is great news for the region and the international marine community," Port Stephens MP Craig Baumann said.

Primary Industries Minister Katrina Hodgkinson said Fisheries NSW now had a critical mass of scientists and managers based at Port Stephens.

"These staff are leading the field and specialising in aquaculture and aquatic ecosystems research and aquatic biosecurity," she said.

"Scientists at the Port Stephens Fisheries Institute are involved in a number of internationally renowned research projects and enjoy a stand-alone reputation as the best in their field."

Good weather brings big fish

community, fisheries

Aug 092013

Original story at Noosa News

GONE FISHIN' with Davo's

FISHING in the Maroochy River has been excellent lately, with the warmer weather stirring up some big fish.

FISH OF THE WEEK: Ben Pearce scored this huge mangrove jack out of Twin Waters.

Whiting and bream are on the chew at the moment, with the mouth of the Maroochy proving to be a popular destination this week.

If you're brave enough to venture down there during the early morning, tailor are also on the bite, with small pilchards and metal slugs being the most popular methods to catching a few.

Further up river, flathead have been feeding around the stretch between the Maroochy River Bridge and the Bli Bli Bridge, with trolling a small hard bodied along the sandy edges claiming plenty of fish.

On the beaches, North Shore has been popular this week, with plenty of bream, whiting, dart and tailor getting caught in the various surf gutters along the beach.

As usual, the early morning sessions have been the most productive, but if you're not much of a morning person, then the late avros are fishing pretty well too.

On the offshore scene, the Gneerings sections of reefs are holding some great snapper at the moment, with floated baits proving deadly.

The use of burley has been vital lately, and by cutting up some pilchards and putting a constant stream of burley into the water, you'll have snapper all around the boat in no time.

If you own and kayak and the weather conditions are favourable, the close in reefs located just off Coolum have been a popular destination for the kayakers, with plenty of snapper and sweetlips keeping them busy.

The winner of the Davo's fish of the week prize this week goes to Ben Pearce who scored this gigantic mangrove jack out of Twin Waters.

Ben scored a $50 gift voucher. For your chance to take out the Davo's fish of the week prize, drop by the store with your catch of the day and you're in the draw.

For fishing and bar reports, go to www.fishingnoosa.com.au.

Hunter River erosion project creating ‘fish hotels’

community, fisheries, government, waterways/wetlands

Aug 092013

Original story at ABC News

The Department of Primary Industries says the fifth stage of a project to stop erosion in the Hunter River is now complete.

A fish "hotel" being swung into position in the upper Hunter River, near Muswellbrook. Photo: : NSW DPI

With funding from the State and Commonwealth Governments, the Hunter Central Rivers Catchment Management Authority has strategically placed more than 140 logs in the river near Muswellbrook.

The logs help stop erosion and provide native fish with shelter, a place to hide from predators and somewhere to breed.

Senior Fisheries Conservation Officer Kylie Russell says the log structures are known as 'fish hotels'.

"They're essentially like a big constructed pile of logs, a bit like how you use to put matchsticks or paddlepop sticks together," she said.

"They're bolted together and then put into the river.

"They do a number of different jobs - the main thing is to actually protect the bank from erosion but along they way they also provide really good fish habitat for the native fish."

Ms Russell says the project has been underway for five years and will continue if federal and state funding is available.

She says the logs are taking the place of trees that were removed many years ago.

"And really, in hindsight, that was a fairly poor decision so we really need to try and put that vegetation back in to help stop the erosion," she said.

"Of course those trees would have fallen in and created these kind of log structures naturally, and so we are really just trying to help replaced what's been lost naturally."

Climate changing sea life says Coast scientist

environment, fisheries, waterways/wetlands

Aug 082013

Original story by Bill Hoffman, Sunshine Coast Daily

THE reality of climate change, which is already dramatically affecting the distribution of marine life, will ultimately become impossible for humans to ignore.

That's the personal view of University of the Sunshine Coast scientist David Schoeman, who has contributed to a three-year study which found that warming oceans are driving changes in breeding patterns and the geographic distribution of marine organisms, pushing them rapidly towards the north and south poles.

The biostatistics expert said the shift would lead to rapid changes in the hierarchy of the food chain as climate pinch points forced both environmental shifts and biological changes.

More tropical species will be seen off our own coastline. Whether that will include deadly marine stingers from Australia's northern tropics would be influenced by a range of factors.

Dr Schoeman contributed to a three-year study led by the CSIRO's Climate Adaptation Flagship and University of Queensland marine ecologists Dr Elvira Poloczanska and Associate Professor Anthony Richardson into the impacts of ocean warming, which was occurring at a third of the rate as on land.

Until now most studies had focused on the response of land-based organisms with little research into impacts on marine life.

However the temperature impacts in the ocean are profound.

The study discovered species shifting towards the poles at the rate of 72km every 10 years compared with 6km each decade on land.

Stocks of key recreational and commercial species are expected to be compromised.

Dr Schoeman said organisms at the bottom of the food chain with shorter life spans were adapting quicker than fish, which would quickly lead to changes in the food chain.

Dr Schoeman said areas like the Sunshine and Gold Coast were climate change hot spots.

No culprit found by QBFP after thousands of dead fish dumped on Moreton Island

community, fisheries, government, waterways/wetlands

Aug 082013

Original story by Brian Williams, the Courier Mail

AN investigation into the dumping of thousands of fish in a wetland area of Moreton Island National Park last month has failed to find a culprit.

Queensland Boating and Fisheries Patrol has investigated fish dumped at Yellow Patch in the Moreton Island National Park. Photo: Supplied

A Queensland Boating and Fisheries Patrol spokeswoman said one commercial fishing operation was operating on the island off Brisbane last month and was spoken to in relation to fisheries and national park matters.

"The source of the dumped fish could not be fully determined,'' she said. "QBFP discussed with the fisher the need to better manage fishing operations in terms of by-catch.''

Dumping of any material, including by-catch, in a national park is not permitted.

Fisheries staff also plan to take up the issue with commercial fishing industry representatives.

Some of the fish were identified as tailor but it was impossible to determine their size because of decomposition. Fisheries officers could also not determine why the fish had been dumped on the northern part of the island, although netting activities are known to occur there.

"Unfortunately, we have been unable to issue any fines due to the decomposed nature of the fish and interaction with wild pigs, making it difficult to determine whether the fish were of legal size, or confirm who was responsible,'' the spokeswoman said.

QBFP will raise the issue at an industry meeting and will start patrols in the area. The island will remain open to commercial fishing and visitors should phone 1800 017 116 to report suspected illegal activities.

Sunfish spokeswoman Judy Lynne said illegal netting had been occurring on the island for years and successive governments had done nothing about it.

She had personally contacted the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service and Queensland Fisheries more than 10 times in five years with no results.

Island residents and fishermen have complained that it was not the first time fish had been dumped.

Illegal dumping of all sorts of products has been a major issue in Queensland for decades and carries penalties ranging up to $110,000.

Climate change is causing modifications to marine life behavior

environment, fisheries, waterways/wetlands, wildlife

Aug 072013

Original story at Phys.org

Oceans cover 71 percent of the Earth's surface, yet our knowledge of the impact of climate change on marine habitats is a mere drop in the proverbial ocean compared to terrestrial systems. An international team of scientists set out to change that by conducting a global meta-analysis of climate change impacts on marine systems.

Warming oceans are causing marine species to change breeding, feeding, and migration timing. Credit: University of California - Santa Barbara

Counter to previous thinking, marine species are shifting their geographic distribution toward the poles and doing so much faster than their land-based counterparts. The findings were published in Nature Climate Change.
The three-year study, conducted by a working group of UC Santa Barbara's National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) and funded by the National Science Foundation, shows that warming oceans are causing marine species to change breeding, feeding, and migration timing as well as shift where they live. Widespread systemic shifts in measures such as distribution of species and phenology—the timing of nature's calendar—are on a scale comparable to or greater than those observed on land.

"The leading edge or front-line of marine species distributions is moving toward the poles at an average of 72 kilometers (about 45 miles) per decade—considerably faster than terrestrial species, which are moving poleward at an average of 6 kilometers (about 4 miles) per decade," said lead author Elvira Poloczanska, a research scientist with Australia's national science agency, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Marine and Atmospheric Research in Brisbane. "And this is occurring even though sea surface temperatures are warming three times slower than land temperatures."

The report, which involved scientists from 17 institutions, including NCEAS associates Carrie Kappel and Ben Halpern and former NCEAS postdoctoral associates Mary O'Connor, Lauren Buckley, and Camille Parmesan, forms part of the Fifth Assessment Report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC). The Geneva-based IPCC assesses scientific, technical, and socioeconomic information concerning climate change, its potential effects, and options for adaptation and mitigation.

"The effects of climate change on marine species have not been a major focus of past IPCC reports because no one had done the work to pull together all the disparate observations from around the world," said Kappel. "This study provides a solid basis for including marine impacts in the latest global accounting of how climate change is affecting our world."

Unlike previous climate change assessments, which relied heavily on terrestrial data to estimate marine impacts, the NCEAS working group scientists gathered from seven countries to assemble a large marine-only database of 1,735 changes in marine life from the global peer-reviewed literature. The biological changes were documented from time series, with an average length of 40 years of observation.

"Here's a totally different system with its own unique set of complexities and subtleties," said Camille Parmesan, professor in the Department of Integrative Biology at University of Texas at Austin. "Yet the overall impacts of recent climate change remain the same: an overwhelming response of species shifting where and when they live in an attempt to track a shifting climate.

"This is the first comprehensive documentation of what is happening in our marine systems in relation to climate change," added Parmesan. "What it reveals is that the changes occurring on land are being matched by the oceans. And far from being a buffer and displaying more minor changes, what we're seeing is a far stronger response from the oceans." Parmesan has been active in IPCC since 1997, and in her capacity as a lead author, she shared in the award of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize to IPCC.

The research revealed telltale traces that collectively build the case for climate change causing modifications in the ocean. These fingerprints of climate change include movements of species toward the poles as ocean temperatures rise, with an average displacement up to ten times that for terrestrial species. Phytoplankton, zooplankton, and bony fish showed the largest shifts.

Researchers also found that the timing of spring events in the oceans had advanced by more than four days, nearly twice the figure for land. The strength of response varied among species, but again, the research showed the greatest response—up to 11 days in advancement—occurred in invertebrate zooplankton and larval bony fish.

Multiple lines of evidence supported the hypothesis that climate change is the primary driver behind the observed changes: for example, opposing responses in warm-water and cold-water species within a community and similar responses from discrete populations at the same range edge. In total, 81 percent of all observations, whether for distribution, phenology, community composition, abundance, or demography, across different populations and ocean basins were consistent with the expected impacts of climate change.

Seafood Menus Reflect Long-term Ocean Changes

fisheries

Aug 062013

DURHAM, NC – The colorful restaurant menus that thousands of tourists bring home as souvenirs from Hawaii hold more than happy memories of island vacations; they contain valuable data that are helping a trio of researchers track long-term changes to important fisheries in the Aloha State.

Large swordfish (Xiphias gladius) on deck during long-lining operations. Photo: WikiMedia Commons

The scientists are using the menus as part of a larger project to fill a 45-year gap in official records of wild fish populations in the state’s ocean waters during the early 20^th century.

“Market surveys and government statistics are the traditional sources for tracking fisheries. But when those records don’t exist, we have to be more creative. Here we found restaurant menus were a workable proxy which chronicled the rise and fall of fisheries,” said Kyle S. Van Houtan, adjunct assistant professor at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment and leader of the Marine Turtle Assessment Program at NOAA’s Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center.

The team’s analysis of 376 menus from 154 different restaurants showed that near-shore species such as reef fish, jacks and bottom fish, for example, were common on Hawaiian menus before 1940, but by its statehood in 1959, they appeared collectively on less than 10 percent of menus sampled. Restaurants began shifting to serving large pelagic species, such as tuna and swordfish. By 1970, 95 percent of the menus contained large pelagics; inshore fish had all but disappeared.

"The decline in reef fish in just a few decades was somewhat of a surprise to us. We knew at the outset the menus would have a unique historical perspective, but we did not expect the results to be so striking," said study co-author Jack Kittinger of Stanford University’s Center for Ocean Solutions.

Changes in public tastes might explain part of this extreme shift, Kittinger offered, but the team’s analysis of landings records and background socioeconomic data suggests the disappearance of reef fish from menus paralleled drops in their wild abundance.

Said Van Houtan, “The menus provide demand-side evidence suggesting inshore fish were in steep decline.”

The researchers hope their study may increase opportunities and attention for similar historical analyses elsewhere.

“Historical ecology typically focuses on supply side information,” said Loren McClenachan, assistant professor of environmental studies at Colby College and co-author on the study. “Restaurant menus are an available but often overlooked source of information on the demand side, perhaps a modern equivalent to archeological middens, in that they document seafood consumption, availability and even value over time.”

“Most of the menus in our study came from private collections. They were often beautifully crafted, date stamped and cherished by their owners as art,” Van Houtan said. “The point of our study is that they are also data.”

“This research demonstrates the tremendous wealth of useful information that is often hidden away in people's attics,” added McClenachan.

The trio published their findings today as a peer-reviewed letter in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment.

The project was funded through a 2012 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers awarded to Van Houtan, who received his PhD in ecology from Duke in 2006

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