Genetic Testing To Help Anglers, Fish

August 15, 2006 - By Jeff Barnard, Associated Press

GOLD BEACH, Ore. - The last time Scott Boley came home from salmon fishing, he had 17 fish to show for three days of work.

"That's pretty skimpy fishing," said Boley, the skipper of a salmon troller, a partner in the Fishermen Direct Seafood market and a member of the federal panel that sets ocean salmon fishing seasons.

But Boley hopes those fish and barcodes tied to their jaws represent a better future for Oregon and California salmon fishermen, who saw their catch cut by nearly 90 percent this summer to protect dwindling returns of wild chinook to California's Klamath River.

As part of a pilot program funded by the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board, Boley and other trollers are clipping a piece of pectoral fin from each fish they catch and sending it to the Hatfield Marine Science Center for DNA testing that shows within 48 hours what river basin it came from.

Using a Global Positioning System receiver, they log into a computer the latitude and longitude of each fish, plus their names, the date, the water temperature and the depth at which the fish was caught.

Then they tie onto each fish a metal tag carrying a barcode, which can be used in the future to access that information from a Web site.

Scientists and fishermen hope the genetic testing and unprecedented detail on where salmon swim will help fisheries managers keep the commercial salmon fleet fishing while protecting struggling runs like the Klamath's wild chinook.

Canada already uses overnight genetic testing to increase the salmon harvest off the coast of British Columbia's Queen Charlotte Islands while protecting weak stocks on the west coast of Vancouver Island.

For the past four years, boats from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans have gone out the week before the season opens to check fish DNA. If too many fish from weak stocks show up, fishermen wait or go somewhere else. During the season, fish landed on shore are checked to make sure not too many weak stocks are being taken.

Queen Charlottes fishermen are now landing an extra $17 million worth of salmon a year, said Terry Beacham, research scientist with the department's Pacific Biological Station. Meanwhile, the harm to the weak stocks from Vancouver Island is less.

The Oregon program grew out of research Oregon State University salmon geneticist Michael Banks started in 1994 to distinguish the winter run of chinook from California's Sacramento River from other runs.

In recent years, a network of labs has developed a salmon genetic database that covers 120 watersheds from Alaska to California.

Using 13 different genetic markers on the salmon genome, known as microsatellites, researchers can spot the native river basin of an individual fish with 95 percent certainty, Banks said. Using 16 microsatellites, they can distinguish between the winter, spring and fall runs of chinook from California's Sacramento River.

Testing of fish caught off Newport in June showed they came from rivers from British Columbia to California, with more than half from the Sacramento, and very few from the Klamath, Banks said. By the end of salmon fishing this fall, he hopes to sample 2,000 fish.

Gil Sylvia, superintendent of the Coastal Oregon Marine Experiment Station, hopes the genetic testing and barcodes will boost marketing opportunities for fishermen and guard against farm-raised salmon being sold as wild-caught salmon.

Source: Associated Press

Loggerhead Sea Turtle

Sea Turtle Nests Numbers Down

By Ed Beckley - Outer Banks Sentinel Correspondent
August 10, 2006

The Network for Endangered Sea Turtles (NEST) has noted a drop in the nest production of loggerhead turtles on the Outer Banks. The group is specifically expressing concern about the effects of nourished sand and its impact on the species.

Millie Overman of Kill Devil Hills is the local volunteer coordinator for NEST, which has 70 local volunteers and a mission to protect the turtles from becoming extinct. The group holds a permit under the NC Wildlife Non-Game Division. The turtles are protected under the Endangered Species Act of 1973.

Overman said that since the group began in 1996, there has been as many as 23 nests from Carova to Hatteras, in a one-year period, with 15 to 20 nests annually being the norm. The lowest number of nests prior to this year was nine. Overman said that typically the nest counts in the southern beaches, such as Nags Head, are higher than the northern areas because reptiles are cold-blooded and prefer warmer climes.

This year, there are three nests along the beaches from Corova and Corolla in Currituck County and Kitty Hawk.

[Editor's note: there are approximately 76 nests on National Seashore property which is located from South Nags Head to Oregon Inlet, and begins again south of Pea Island and runs along Hatteras Island and includes portions of Ocracoke Island. At least part of the reason for the number of nests in those areas is the warmer temperatures in the southern part of the area.]

"Our nests have been low in count for the past three years," Overman said. When asked why, she responded, "Unfortunately, it jumps right in there with the beach re-nourishment." The turtles are avoiding the areas where the man-dumped sand piles angle directly down to the tide, and where there isn't enough beach without wash-over that would submerge the eggs, she said. This is a particularly bad problem in South Nags Head, she added.

Overman made it clear that NEST is a non-profit organization and does not take a political stand. She said she is apolitical and is not bashing supporters of beach nourishment.

However, she said, she has learned the habits of turtles after 15 years of sleeping by them and another problem is "we've created a terrain that isn't conducive to turtle nesting because they cannot climb."

She was referring to embankments in Kitty Hawk and Nags Head, created by non-native sand, imported and placed on the beaches in an effort to save homes from beach erosion. Turtles are forced to lay their eggs at the base of the embankments, closer to the ocean than they would otherwise lay, and the high tides snatch the eggs into the sea. She said the Kitty Hawk nest is so currently threatened.

NEST states that sea turtles thrived in North Carolina waters long before humans occupied the region, and despite the fact that these ancient reptiles have successfully navigated the oceans virtually unharmed for millions of years, today they face a serious threat to their existence, largely because of human activities. Threats include water pollution from oil and gas due to boating and jet skis, poaching, lighted beaches which disorients the turtles and directs them away from the water after laying their eggs, and the loss of nesting habitat, which locally relates to beach nourishment.

Overman said it's not just the embankments that pose a problem. She said non-native inland sand has been used to replace sand on the beaches, which "isn't soft enough to dig out of... We actually had a nest the year before last in Nags Head where the water had run off and collected in the tunnel that the turtles come up out of and the soil formed like an adobe brick, and the turtles couldn't get out. We normally leave it up to nature, but in this case, we had to remove the obstacle so the turtles could emerge."

She also voiced concern that non-native sand may be affecting the temperature in the nest. Gender of the turtles is determined by the nest temperature. "Cooler sand produces more males, and because we are at the northern range for nesting, the fact that we produce more males of the species affects the populations," she said.

"You don't have to re-nourish the beaches for turtles," she said, "they've survived for centuries and know how to adapt to the ebb and flow, but when you make it to where they can't crawl up on the beach, well...."

Asked if the towns are in violation of the Endangered Species Act, Overman said no. "The obstacles that the turtles face now, you can't say one person is responsible for. Yes, I wish we would be a little more cautious about what type of sand we would use, if we are going to do it [nourish the beaches]. They have not violated the moratorium on using heavy equipment during egg-laying periods, and they observe all the CAMA rules, and the type of sand they use is approved."

When asked who approves the sand, when it appears to be problematic, Overman said she did not know but was certain the state wildlife coordinator was looking into it. She also said that NEST has not presented its findings to the local town councils.

"The turtles can't speak for themselves," she said, adding she could not imagine what kind of impact the extinction of sea turtles might have on humanity. Every time there is an extinction announced, however, she said, "I'm afraid the picture is man is more concerned for himself than what will be left behind on the planet."

Relatedly, the Town of Nags Head is looking at a referendum for a $32 million beach nourishment project, for the town's 12-miles of beach. The vote could be held as soon as February.

Source: Outer Banks Sentinel

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                  Karen Sculac

 

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