CAPE CHARLES MIRROR

Reflections on Cape Charles and the Eastern Shore

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How to curb the environmental impact of Beef

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Beef is the largest food based culprit when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions.

To counteract the effects of cattle farming, California startups are increasingly targeting carnivores with plant burgers so beef-like they bleed–and new research is breaking down food’s impact on climate change, and potential solutions are emerging to cut down on a potent greenhouse gas that cows emit.

The Impossible Burger

Beef, responsible for roughly 6% of greenhouse gas emissions, is the single biggest food factor when it comes to climate change, according to a 2013 United Nations report.Cows emit methane, a potent greenhouse gas, when they burp and pass gas. This accounts for nearly half of beef’s greenhouse gas emissions. This includes cattle manure that emits a greenhouse gas called nitrous oxide, how cattle graze on pastures and deforestation, particularly in Brazil.

Global beef demand is projected to nearly double by 2050, fueled by booming populations in China and India, according to the World Resources Institute, an environmental think tank.

Given that anticipated growth, two avenues are emerging to limit associated rise in greenhouse gas emissions: Make real beef more environmentally friendly, or convince people to eat something else.

On the “something else” side, the hottest trend today is beef-like burgers from plant material. One kind, called the Impossible Burger, is targeting carnivore eaters. It looks, tastes and feels like a real burger. It even bleeds and sizzles like one. It has its share of controversies, though, including how its main plant-derived ingredient is genetically modified and that its nutritional content is comparable to real beef, canceling out any health benefits.

On the real beef side, Elm Innovations, a nonprofit founded in 2016, is working with researchers at University of California, Davis, to feed cattle a supplement of particular kind of seaweed.

“The seaweed very dramatically reduces cow-burped methane to the tune of 50% or greater, which is extremely large,” said the group’s founder, Joan King Salwen, whose family had a cattle and sheep ranch.

The beef industry itself and companies that sell it, like McDonald’s, are increasingly realizing the importance of addressing the issue.

Earlier this year McDonald’s announced its first-ever target cutting its greenhouse gas emissions, with beef as its largest challenge. “The biggest focus for us is how do we feed those animals using less land,” said Robert Gibbs, an executive vice president with the fast food chain.

McDonald’s works with companies that own live herds through the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, whose members include the National Cattleman’s Beef Association.

“We recognize that we of course have a significant carbon footprint so we want to work to improve that,” said Ashley McDonald, the industry group’s senior director of sustainability.
What could be next: The World Resources Institute is working toward reducing the projected global growth in beef demand over the next 30 years. The U.S. cattle industry has among the most sustainable practices in the world, so the group suggests exporting more American beef and reducing production elsewhere.

“If we were to cut back on U.S. beef consumption by half, that doesn’t mean put half of U.S. beef producers out of business,” said Rich Waite, an associate at the World Resources Institute’s food program. “It could just mean expanding exports to countries where beef consumption is going to be doubling.”

Lots of dolphins showing up in the Chesapeake Bay

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The effort to better track movement of dolphins through the bay and its tributaries began last June, and since then, over 900 sightings have been reported.

“We were only expecting maybe 25 to 30 [dolphin sightings] a year,” said Helen Bailey, a research professor at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. “We had over 900 reported last year, and we were able to verify nearly 450 of those.”

To report a dolphin sighting, go to the Dolphin Watch website.

Scientists say dolphins used to visit the bay more frequently. Published reports of sightings date back into the 1800s. But as pollution degraded the Chesapeake’s water quality through the 20th century, they became more rare.

Researchers are exploring whether more dolphins are swimming up the bay, possibly invited by clearer waters, abundant submerged grasses and rebounding fisheries. Through a website they set up to collect sighting reports — and a smartphone app that will launch soon — the researchers are learning that the beloved creatures venture miles upstream in rivers such as the York and Potomac, and as far north as Annapolis and the Bay Bridge.

“It’s very likely they’re following fish into the bay. Hopefully, that’s a good sign,” Bailey said. “It doesn’t look like it’s just amusement from the coast into the bay.”

VIMS adds first James-drainage snakehead to Fish Collection

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David Malmquist, VIMS – A northern snakehead—the non-native fish whose 2004 appearance along the Potomac River watershed unleashed a wave of public concern—has for the first time been found within the James River drainage in Virginia. The James is Virginia’s largest Chesapeake Bay tributary.

The fish was collected on April 27 from Lakeview Reservoir near Petersburg by biologists with the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. It has now been deposited in the Virginia Institute of Marine Science’s Nunnally Ichthyology Collection, where it joins two other snakehead specimens.

“We now have three wild-caught specimens of Channa argus in the collection,” says Curatorial Associate Dr. Sarah Huber, “the one we just got from the James River drainage, one from the Potomac River drainage where the fish made its first Virginia appearance, and another from Chesapeake Bay near the mouth of the Little Wicomico River.”

The species is now established throughout the lower Potomac River watershed, and has been observed in the lower reaches of several other Maryland rivers as well as the lower stretches of the Susquehanna and Delaware rivers.

VIMS Associate Professor Eric Hilton, Curator of Fishes for the Nunnally Ichthyology Collection, says it’s likely that snakeheads could spread within the James River watershed once introduced. “Lakeview Reservoir is on Swift Creek, a tributary of the Appomattox. It can easily spread from there to at least the freshwater portions of the James River itself,” says Hilton.

A northern snakehead (Channa argus) from the Nunnally Ichthyology Collection at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. (Sarah Huber/VIMS)

A broader expansion is less probable, but not impossible. “Snakeheads are restricted to some degree by not being able to live in full strength sea water — or even the mainstem of the Bay,” says Hilton. “But it’s possible they can get from the mouth of one tributary to another along the Bay shoreline.” [Read more…]

Status of U.S. Fisheries

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NOAA Fisheries has released the 2017 Report to Congress on the Status of U.S. Fisheries managed under the science-based framework established by the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA).

At the end of 2017, the overfishing list included 30 stocks and the overfished list included 35 stocks. Overfishing remains near all-time lows and we reached a new milestone with the number of overfished stocks at the lowest level ever—just 15 percent of assessed stocks. The number of stocks rebuilt since 2000 increased to 44. NOAA Fisheries tracks 474 stocks or stock complexes in 46 fishery management plans. Each year, assessments of various fish stocks and stock complexes are conducted to determine their status. These assessments include stocks of both known status and previously unknown status. Based on assessments conducted by the end of 2017, six stocks were removed from the overfishing list and six were added. The additions are the result of stock assessments or data showing catch was too high, including international harvest on certain stocks that the United States has limited ability to control. Six stocks were removed from the overfished list and three were added based on stock assessments that indicated population sizes were too low. As required by the MSA management framework, the councils are developing management measures to end overfishing and rebuild all stocks added to the overfishing and overfished lists.
Specific changes to the status of stocks in 2017 include:

Benefits of Sustainable Fisheries Management
Sustainable fisheries management is an adaptive process that relies on sound science, innovative management approaches, effective enforcement, meaningful partnerships, and robust public participation. Sustainable fisheries play an important role in the nation’s economy by providing opportunities for commercial, recreational, and subsistence fishing, marine aquaculture, and sustainable seafood for the nation. Combined, U.S. commercial and recreational saltwater fishing generated more than $208 billion in sales and supported 1.6 million jobs in 2015. By ending overfishing and rebuilding stocks, we are strengthening the value of U.S. fisheries to the economy, our communities, and marine ecosystems.

Small Ruminant Health at Crooked Fence Farm

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Small Ruminant Health at Crooked Fence Farm Saturday, May 19, 9 am – 12pm

Gain hands-on experience trimming sheep hooves and caring for small ruminants during this intro to farm-based veterinary medicine with experienced livestock farmers at Crooked Fence Farm.

Register Today

Image courtesy morningclips.com

Join Crooked Fence Farm for an intensive introduction to small ruminant biology and healthcare. Learn about basic ruminant biology, general flock upkeep, veterinary options, and get hands-on experience trimming the sheep flock’s hooves. Located in Reisterstown, MD, Crooked Fence Farm is a diversified farm operation growing “field-to-belly” food. Farmers Sarah and Billy McCarthy raise vegetables, flowers, pork, and sheep, and sell their products through a CSA and at farmers markets in the region. The field day will conclude with a potluck!

$20 FHCASA Member / $40 Non-Members

Crooked Fence Farm, 2050 Geist Road, Reisterstown, MD 21136

Questions? Please contact Caroline Selle at caroline@futureharvestcasa.org

Are Menhaden still Overfished: A Second View

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The Chesapeake Bay is the Atlantic Ocean’s largest nursery for young menhaden—the fish that feeds much of the East Coast’s marine food web and is the target of intense commercial fishing here. In 2006, when managers first set a bay catch cap—or limit on menhaden fishing—they recognized that taking too many could harm predators and mean that not enough young menhaden would survive to create the next generation of fish.

Last November, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, an interstate body that manages commercial fishing, voted 14-2 to set a catch cap in the Chesapeake Bay at 112 million pounds, close to the average catch in the Bay over the last several years. Thousands of citizens supported this decision to conserve the bay, which continued the commission’s tradition of stewarding fisheries based on sound science and consultation with a range of stakeholders.

But in the following months Virginia, which catches nearly 80 percent of all menhaden landed along the East Coast, failed to adopt the cap, despite a commission requirement that its members do so. Virginia also appealed to the fisheries commission to raise the cap significantly—by an amount roughly equal to 120 million fish—arguing that the menhaden population is healthy and that a big increase in the bay catch would not negatively affect the overall population.

However, the scientific data clearly show that menhaden in the bay need protection. Here are five reasons the commission should hold the line on the bay catch cap:

1. The Chesapeake Bay is Atlantic menhaden’s most important nursery.
Every year, currents carry millions of menhaden larvae from the ocean into the bay. The calm, protected waters offer young fish their best chance to feast on their primary food source, plankton, and juveniles that survive their first year return to the open ocean. Historically, around 7 out of 10 menhaden swimming in the Atlantic spent their first year in Chesapeake Bay, but recent science suggests that number has declined. As this sensitive estuary recovers from decades of pollution and overfishing, no scientific evidence supports the claim that the Chesapeake Bay, or the coastwide population of menhaden, could sustain an increase of catch.

2. Menhaden’s predators and coastal communities will suffer if the bay catch increases.
Menhaden are critical prey for many fish and birds, including striped bass, which are the flagship species of the commission and the target of one-third of East Coast recreational fishing trips, generating more than $6 billion in annual economic value. The bay is also the primary East Coast nursery for striped bass, and juvenile striped bass prefer to eat young menhaden, which provide greater nutrition than other species such as bay anchovy. But analyses of stripers’ stomachs have found poorer quality prey such as crabs and worms, suggesting the bass are not finding enough menhaden. The striped bass population is also at the low end of the level managers are trying to maintain. Other menhaden predators, including bluefish and weakfish, are also struggling. Predators that are growing in numbers, including ospreys, loons, and eagles, will increasingly need more menhaden to support them—especially those, like Chesapeake Bay osprey, that rely almost exclusively on menhaden. Managers are not yet explicitly accounting for predators’ needs, and there is no evidence that they can recover or sustain themselves if the catch of menhaden is increased in the bay.

3. Commercial vessels concentrate around the bay and catch many juveniles.
The largest fishery by volume in the U.S. Atlantic is the “reduction” menhaden fishery, which renders menhaden into fish meal for aquaculture, fish oil for nutritional supplements, and other commodities such as pet food. More than half of the entire coastwide catch is taken in and around the Chesapeake Bay, and data show that young menhaden make up a concerning portion of that: between 2006 and 2016, 1-year-old menhaden comprised an average of 31 percent—and in some years above 40 percent—by weight of the total commercial landings. Removing too many young fish is risky for the population, because it means there will be fewer fish that reach adulthood to produce the next class of fish.

4. Menhaden in the Chesapeake Bay are not enjoying the comeback seen to the north.
While evidence suggests that juvenile menhaden are on the rebound in the waters off New York, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, young menhaden in the bay have been at near-historic lows for over 20 years, according to annual surveys by Virginia and Maryland. This raises concerns that the bay is suffering from “localized depletion,” a term used when a population in a particular place is too low to sustain itself or predators, or both. One sign of that is a marked decrease in how many fish are caught given the same amount of effort—known as catch per unit effort—and that metric has declined notably in the Chesapeake Bay.

5. The bay cap prevents further harm while menhaden and their predators are struggling in the bay.
Scientific studies have demonstrated that all the conditions that could cause the bay menhaden population to decline currently exist. In addition, scientists could not prove that the bay was not enduring localized impacts of heavy fishing. In response to these warning signs, scientists recommended managers take a precautionary approach and integrate ecosystem considerations into menhaden policy. The commission’s November decision to reduce the bay cap from 192 million pounds to 112 million pounds—a number based on the average of several recent years of catch—was a response to that advice. Until scientists can confidently recommend an ecologically sustainable limit for the bay, the reduced catch cap is necessary.

Successful menhaden management requires that each state play by the rules. Rather than reversing a 14-2 decision that is widely supported by the public, the commission must hold the line on the Bay cap to protect menhaden and its predators. Atlantic managers must not compromise their core mission of conserving fisheries, nor their legacy of integrity, cooperation, and public confidence. Protecting the East Coast’s largest menhaden nursery will help the species recover in the Chesapeake Bay and return to abundance in its full historic U.S. range, from Florida to Maine. Only then should the commission consider increasing fishing of this vital species in its primary nursery.

Joseph Gordon is the senior manager for mid-Atlantic ocean conservation at The Pew Charitable Trusts.

International Respect For Chickens Day Celebrates Compassion for Chickens

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United Poultry Concerns Urges Positive Action for Chickens in May

Machipongo, VA, USA – On May 4, animal advocates celebrated International Respect for Chickens Day. Launched by United Poultry Concerns in 2005, International Respect for Chickens Day celebrates chickens throughout the world and protests their suffering and abuse in cockfighting, agribusiness, experimental research, and other cruelties.

“We urge everyone to do a compassionate ACTION for chickens, on or around May 4th,” says Karen Davis, president of United Poultry Concerns which promotes the compassionate and respectful treatment of chickens and other domestic fowl.

“A library display, a vegan open house, an informative blog post, or simply talking to family and friends about the plight – and delight – of chickens are great ways to stick up for chickens,” Davis says.

To honor International Respect for Chickens Day, activists are organizing creative actions across the U.S. and the world including an International Respect for Chickens Day at Good Earth Natural Foods in Fairfax, CA andInternational Respect for Chickens Day at the White House in Washington DC on Saturday, May 5th. In May, we are advertising for chickens on Philadelphia’s commuter rail line into New Jersey featuring a mother hen protecting a rescued chick under her wing proclaiming “What Wings Are For.”

Chicago activists will celebrate International Respect for Chickens Day with a Rally to End Slaughter at a Chicago live poultry market in a “hipster” neighborhood, and in Minneapolis a special event will Celebrate International Respect for Chickens Day at Chicken Run Rescue with award-winning independent documentary filmmaker Sam Sprynczynatyk and Producer Medora Frei, who will show clips and give a brief presentation about their upcoming film, Kindred Creatures, featuring several Minnesota/Wisconsin sanctuaries including Chicken Run Rescue.

“Happy chickens are cheerful birds,” says Karen Davis, who maintains a sanctuary for chickens in Virginia. “Chickens love the earth and sun, yet millions are sitting in filthy dark buildings on crippled legs breathing polluted air, as documented in my book Prisoned Chickens, Poisoned Eggs. My article ‘The Social Life of Chickens’shows who chickens truly are – vibrant, personable, earth-loving, friendly birds.”

United Poultry Concerns urges people to celebrate chickens on the planet instead of the plate. For information, visit United Poultry Concerns at http://www.upc-online.org.

Brain in a Bucket: Researchers restore brains of decapitated Pigs

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A team of researchers led by Yale University neuroscientist Nenad Sestan have restored circulation to the brains of decapitated pigs and kept the reanimated organs alive for as long as 36 hours.

The feat offers scientists a new way to study intact brains in the lab in stunning detail. But it also inaugurates a bizarre new possibility in life extension, should human brains ever be kept on life support outside the body. There was no evidence that the disembodied pig brains regained consciousness. However, in what Sestan termed a “mind-boggling” and “unexpected” result, billions of individual cells in the brains were found to be healthy and capable of normal activity.

“These brains may be damaged, but if the cells are alive, it’s a living organ,” says Steve Hyman, director of psychiatric research at the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who was among those briefed on the work. “It’s at the extreme of technical know-how, but not that different from preserving a kidney,” Hyman says the similarity to techniques for preserving organs like hearts or lungs for transplant could cause some to mistakenly view the technology as a way to avoid death. “It may come to the point that instead of people saying ‘Freeze my brain,’ they say ‘Hook me up and find me a body,’” says Hyman. Such hopes are misplaced, at least for now. Transplanting a brain into a new body “is not remotely possible,” according to Hyman.

Dubbed the “brain in a bucket,”, the process would quickly raise serious ethical and legal questions if it were tried on a human.

For instance, if a person’s brain were reanimated outside the body, would that person awake in what would amount to the ultimate sensory deprivation chamber, without ears, eyes, or a way to communicate? Would someone retain memories, an identity, or legal rights? Could researchers ethically dissect or dispose of such a brain?

In the journal Nature, 17 neuroscientists and bioethicists, including Sestan, published an editorial arguing that experiments on human brain tissue may require special protections and rules.

North Carolina adds Three to its Wolfpack

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Last the weekend, three eagerly awaited red wolf pups were born at the Museum of Life and Science in Durham. Tentatively named “A,” “B,” and “C,” the pups will live at the museum’s Explore the Wild exhibit, a six-acre woodland habitat, with their mom and dad at least through the summer, where visitors can watch them play and grow.

A trio of new red wolf pups. (Photo courtesy of the Museum of Life and Science)

Native to the Southeast, the red wolf is one of the rarest wolves in the world, with fewer than fifty remaining in the wild. The wolves at the Durham museum are part of the Red Wolf Species Survival Plan, a conservation effort among a collection of zoos and nature centers around the United States. Stay well, and welcome to the world, pups A, B, and C.

Stormwater permits approved for three Accomack County poultry houses

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Virginia Department of Environmental Quality regulators have approved stormwater permits for three Accomack County poultry houses.

The State Water Control Board voted 5-0 on Thursday.

The poultry farms are located in Atlantic, Withams, and New Church.

View the permits on the Eastern Shorekeeper web site here.

According to Virginia Department of Environmental Quality spokeswoman Ann Regn, “The applicants have been responsive to making changes resulting from inspections, and we expect them to comply with these additional requirements for environmental management.”

While the permits put more onus on farmers to monitor stormwater discharges, environmental groups such as  The Chesapeake Bay Foundation voiced oppositon, and noted that the current regulations continue to leave the health of the Chesapeake Bay at risk.

The CBF said in comments filed with DEQ, regular monitoring of surface and ground water will be essential to protecting the Bay’s water quality. Monitoring would show if pollution is leaving these facilities, which could be addressed by requiring pollution reductions through conservation practices.

Virginia poultry operations produced about 28.3 million more birds in 2016 than in 2010—a 12 percent increase—according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Over the same time the weight of birds produced increased 27 percent, meaning the average bird is now larger and produces more manure. Much of this growth is taking place on the Eastern Shore.