Fish fecal pellets collected from the Santa Barbara Channel off California. Credit: Grace Saba
New research has shown that carbon in feces, respiration, and other excretions from fishes make up about 16% of the total carbon that sinks below the ocean’s upper layers.
Ecosystems provide a huge range of benefits and services to humans – one of these is the extraction of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and its burial either in sediments or in the deep ocean.
Now a team of scientists lead by Dr. Grace Saba at Rutgers University and including Dr. Clive Trueman from Southampton have amalgamated their existing knowledge to estimate the contribution of fish to the global export of carbon.
Dr. Trueman, Associate Professor in Marine Ecology at the University of Southampton who was part of the research team said, “Measuring the amount of carbon that is captured and stored by different kinds of animals and plants is very important as we try to reduce the total amount of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere. Disrupting ecosystems that actively store carbon could reverse some of the progress made in reducing carbon emissions. Similarly, protecting these natural carbon capture and storage services maintains our planet’s self-regulating systems.”
“Marine fishes can capture carbon through feeding and then export that carbon to the deep ocean as they excrete. Understanding just how much carbon is pooed into the deep ocean by fishes is challenging, however. Scientists argue about the number of fishes present in the world’s ocean, exactly where they live, how much they eat, and how much, and where, they poo.” he explained.
Carbon dioxide absorbed by the ocean is taken up by phytoplankton (algae), small single-celled plants at the ocean’s surface. Through an important process called the biological pump, this organic carbon can go from the surface to ocean depths when algal material or fecal pellets from fishes and other organisms sink. The daily migration of fishes to and from the depths also contributes organic carbon particles, along with excreted and respired material. Another factor is mixing of ocean waters.
Better data on this key part of the Earth’s biological pump will help scientists understand the impact of climate change and seafood harvesting on the role of fishes in carbon flux, according to this study, published in the journal Limnology & Oceanography. Carbon flux means the movement of carbon in the ocean, including from the surface to the deep sea – the focus of this study.
“Our study is the first to review the impact that fishes have on carbon flux,” said lead author Dr. Saba, an assistant professor in the Center for Ocean Observing Leadership at Rutgers University, New Brunswick. “Our estimate of the contribution by fish – about 16 percent – includes a large uncertainty, and scientists can improve it with future research. Forms of carbon from fish in ocean waters where sunlight penetrates – up to about 650 feet deep –include sinking fecal pellets, inorganic carbon particles, dissolved organic carbon and respired carbon dioxide. My guess is that fecal carbon from fish is 15 to 20 percent of the total carbon they release, similar to some zooplankton.”
“Moreover, carbon that makes its way below the sunlit layer become sequestered, or stored, in the ocean for hundreds of years or more, depending on the depth and location where organic carbon is exported,” Saba said. “This natural process results in a sink that acts to balance the sources of carbon dioxide.”
Reference: “Toward a better understanding of fish‐based contribution to ocean carbon flux” by Grace K. Saba, Adrian B. Burd, John P. Dunne, Santiago Hernández-León, Angela H. Martin, Kenneth A. Rose, Joseph Salisbury, Deborah K. Steinberg, Clive N. Trueman, Rod W. Wilson and Stephanie E. Wilson, 17 February 2021, Limnology and Oceanography. DOI: 10.1002/lno.11709
Scientists at multiple institutions contributed to the study, funded by the National Science Foundation’s Ocean Carbon and Biogeochemistry Program.
In case you missed it, we had more than 275 nominations in the first 24 hours after announcing our search for Michigan’s Best Fish Fry last week. They came from all over the state, from the classic Lenten Fish Fry to bars and restaurants known for making great perch, pollock, walleye and even smelt dinners.
Obviously, we’re well over that number as of this morning, but we still want to give you one last opportunity before we open our polls on Tuesday, and you can start voting for your favorites. (Please use the “official” form below to make your nomination.)
On Friday, Michigan’s Best Reporter Amy Sherman and I spent some time getting to know organizers of the “Drive By Fish Fry” at St. Mary Catholic Church in Pinckney. In our interview with organizers we were impressed how they made the transition from dine-in to takeout only, and how they had to find new volunteers to make this year a success.
Look for Amy’s story and our Podcast later this week.
How to nominate
Using the nomination form, please fill out it completely. It’s the best way to make sure your favorite place makes it into one of our regional polls. Voting begins Tuesday.
As always, if you have questions about this search or suggestions for future searches, feel free to email us:
Jack's Place in Roscommon is well known for its fresh cod dinner. We featured Jack's Place in 2019 when Michigan's Best traveled to three restaurants in Northern Michigan.John Gonzalez
Michigan’s Best Fish Fry 2019
We found some great places when we did this search in 2019, and Amy Sherman selected her Top 21 picks in 2020.
MLive.com's John "Gonzo" Gonzalez takes a sample of a pepperoni and mushroom pan pizza at Bilbo's Pizza during the search for Michigan's Best College Eats in Kalamazoo, Michigan on Monday, Nov. 5, 2018. Joel Bissell | MLive.comJoel Bissell | MLive.com
The state Department of Fish & Wildlife is drafting rules related to a state law that applies to fish passage in rivers, streams and lakes in an effort to make more clear how the law aids in the recovery of salmon and orca whales.
“One of our big objectives for this rulemaking is taking the program that we already have ... and making it as transparent as possible,” Fish & Wildlife Habitat Program Director Margen Carlson said. “We have a lot of good rules on the books and making sure that those are clear for people ... can do a lot for environmental outcomes.”
The rule-making process began in 2019 at the direction of the state Legislature based on recommendations from the state’s orca recovery task force recommendations in 2018. The new rules are anticipated to take effect in 2022.
A draft of the rules was published this month.
“We are really early in the draft rule process,” Fish Passage Rules Coordinator Gabrielle Stilwater said. “The draft, it’s just the first blush, if you will.”
The intent is to make more clear existing rules that are in place to ensure all fish species — at all life stages — can freely move through and around structures such as dams and culverts.
State law — as passed in 1949 and updated several times since — requires that such infrastructure be passable for fish.
Yet thousands of these structures remain fully, partially or possibly impassible, according to Fish & Wildlife data. And the problem areas are found on lands under private, local government and state ownership.
“It’s a massive challenge to look at fish passage comprehensively in the state of Washington,” Carlson said.
As of February, Fish & Wildlife data showed 627 known barriers throughout the Skagit River watershed. The majority are culverts that are too far above the stream bed or too clogged with debris for adequate water flow.
Statewide, culverts account for 84% of known fish barriers, according to Fish & Wildlife.
Another problem is inadequate screening on water diversions. Diversions include piped water for farm irrigation and municipal water supplies, as well as water funneled into ponds for livestock or into hatcheries for raising fish.
For those, it’s important to prevent fish from getting into pipes or sucked up against screens. Carlson said Fish & Wildlife knows there’s room for improvement when it comes to diversions.
“There are definitely diversions in Western Washington that don’t have adequate screens on them right now,” she said.
That’s particularly concerning for chinook salmon — the primary food for endangered Southern Resident orca whales — when the young fish are migrating downstream.
A newer concern that will be integrated into Fish & Wildlife’s rules is the effect climate change will have on the flows and sizes of streams.
“How are the changes in rainfall and snowpack and snowmelt going to change stream widths?” Carlson said.
The agency worked with the University of Washington’s Climate Impacts Group to develop a model for what is called the bankfull width. For Skagit County, the model suggests the widths of most streams could increase anywhere from 5% to 40% by the end of the century.
That means infrastructure, including culverts and bridges, should take into account that streams will be getting wider.
“Our info about climate change is getting certain enough and specific enough now to bring into the regulatory process,” Carlson said.
Carlson said Fish & Wildlife aims to help landowners accomplish fish passage improvements on their land by making the law clear through the rules, and by connecting property owners with technical and financial assistance programs.
“The focus is on helping people,” Carlson said. “We really have always leaned on the technical assistance and working cooperatively with landowners.”
At a kitchen for a St. Bernard's bingo hall in Kaisertown, Shirley Paluszynski puts a freshly fried piece of breaded haddock into a take-out container. (Sharon Cantillon/Buffalo News)
Joe Battaglia handled the key job of "dropping the fish" at St. Bernard's. (Sharon Cantillon/Buffalo News)
Betty Rost had to make a decision. In January, she put a notice about a meeting in the St. Bernard’s church bulletin, then had it announced for the distanced congregation just before Mass in Kaisertown.
She wanted to figure out if there was enough volunteer passion to hold a couple of fish fries during Lent, despite the obstacles imposed by Covid-19. Eight people showed up to offer help. For Rost, seeing who they were, that was enough.
As long as these friends were on board, she knew the church could pull it off.
Joseph Surdyk, left, joins fish fry coordinator Betty Rost in keeping track of the orders and collecting proceeds at the St. Bernard's fish fry. (Sharon Cantillon/Buffalo News)
Friday, Rost sat behind a folding table in the old St. Bernard's school, checking off customers with fellow parishioner Joe Surdyk, near the linoleum floor of an empty hall where there has been no shout of “Bingo!” for almost a year.
My wife and I met almost 40 years ago. She was from greater Rochester. I was living in Dunkirk, in a house my parents rented. We both attended SUNY Fredonia State, at a time when it was not so typical for students who lived on campus to date students who lived nearby, a nice way of describing a classic
Rost has a few tattoos on her arms, including a “Betty Boop” inspired by her name, a rose for her mother and a yellow ribbon of solidarity with families facing childhood cancer. She had that one done after Tim Rost, a grandson, went into treatment as a 3-year-old at the Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, while the family rallied and offered every prayer you could pray.
Friday, the-now-16-year-old Tim – joined by sisters Kali and Meaghan, cousin Bret and Brand Battaglia, 15 – served as a "runner" at the fish fry, toting fragrant meals to the parking lot, where maintenance supervisor Jerry Skiercyznski joined Dave Hyla in shepherding a line of drive-up customers.
“We’re here,” Meaghan explained, “to help our grandma.”
This is what the team of volunteers at St. Bernard's turned out Friday, 150 times and more. (Sharon Cantillon/Buffalo News)
Really, for that matter, so was the entire crew, including Rost's daughter Amy. Skierczynski pitched in even though he will soon need aortic valve surgery on his heart, while Hyla, a fellow volunteer, recalled a Kaisertown childhood in which so many restaurants and taverns offered haddock that Clinton Street smelled like one giant fish fry during Lent.
That seasonal mainstay was revived only two years ago at the parish. For decades, until the routine faded away, the old Holy Name Society held monthly fish fries. Rost – who is church secretary, runs bingo and serves as kind of informal parish quarterback for the pastor, Rev. Marcin Porada – helped bring them back in 2019. There will be one more at St. Bernard’s on March 26.
Last year, the fledgling tradition was shut down by the pandemic. The ongoing loss of bingo was another giant financial hit, and church volunteers – essentially the hard core that came to the meeting – thought about ways to raise a little money for St. Bernard's.
In Buffalo, fish on Fridays is never an unwise bet. Rost and her friends ordered about 150 pieces of haddock and sold $14 tickets in advance. Things got underway at 4 p.m., and Rost’s lingering worry was whether a last-minute surge would be enough to make it all worthwhile.
Janet Sheret, left, an 80-year-old volunteer, led Patrice Hyla and other friends Friday in putting together the fish fries for 150 customers. (Sharon Cantillon/Buffalo News)
Her companions not only did what they had to do, but – masked and gloved – reveled in long-awaited human company. The joke-cracking team of Shirley Paluszynski, Patrice Hyla, Debbie Skierczynski, Jeannie Melock and Nancy Crull arrived early and got busy, funneling the fish to Joe Battaglia, Brand's father and a parish maintenance guy who stepped in for Chris Ruda, a loyal volunteer who was ill.
Battaglia did the central honors, deep frying each piece just long enough to bring about that oh-my-God-box-that-up-right-now golden hue.
A few weeks ago, I wrote a piece recalling my own fish fry memories of Western New York, and just how embedded the scent and taste and aura of that entire experience became within my sense of being part of this region. I asked readers if they felt the same way, and if they had their own powerful memories
The kitchen was under the stewardship of sneaker-wearing Janet Sheret, 80. She spoke casually of going through various procedures for knee, shoulder and hip replacements, which led the wisecracking Paluszynski to shout out, "The bionic woman!"
Certainly, Sheret managed to play a graceful pivot on the line, spinning to hand assembled fish fries to Melock and Crull, who quickly bagged them up. Packed in each container: A slab of fish, so big it had to be folded to make it fit. Macaroni salad. Cole slaw. Topping it off were roasted potatoes, the St. Bernard’s fish fry signature, made with a lot of this and some of that, which everyone knows but no one writes down.
Sheret said she and her late husband Raymond left Buffalo 40 years ago for Phoenix, where Raymond accepted a job in manufacturing. Told by the doctors they could not have children, they became foster parents to three kids. Before long they had adopted their two sons and their daughter, leaving them missing just one key thing in life.
“In Arizona,” Sheret said, “they don’t know what a fish fry is.”
OK, they did not move back just to find a decent fish fry. They moved back because they ached for Buffalo. Sheret is now a widow, but two of her kids live with her and her other son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren are right next door, in Kaisertown. Sheret wakes up at 4 a.m. – try as she might, she cannot sleep any later – and she spent three days at St. Bernard’s helping prepare everything for Friday night.
Dozens of readers responded to a column asking for reflections about Friday fish fries in Western New York. Among the favorites: Mazur’s Grill in Lackawanna, a favorite with Bethlehem Steel
She made a point of noting that another 80-year-old regular, Stephanie Gerasimowicz, broke her femur not long ago and could not be at the fish fry, but showed up in her cast on one of the set-up days.
As for Rost, the organizer, she spoke of how her husband died nine years ago. "I didn't know what I was going to do with myself," she said, until the job at the church offered warm community. She uses a walker, the aftermath of sepsis, while her grandson Tim – the same guy she once comforted at Roswell – now stands by her side, ready to help when needed.
Cars line up to pick up their preordered fish fries, while a customer banters with Jerry Skierczynski, in charge of St. Bernard's maintenance. (Sharon Cantillon/Buffalo News)
Outside, waiting customers traded one-liners or stories with Sierczynski and Hyla. Lala Markut offered ultimate witness to a great Buffalo tradition: She was there on specific request of her 100-year-old father, Stanley, who still likes his fish on Fridays.
While the event had the feel of a quiet celebration, many regulars expressed sadness and alarm about some news announced this week: The longtime KeyBank branch on nearby Clinton Street is one of eight being closed in Western New York as part of a larger consolidation. In a statement, bank officials said they made the move because the pandemic accelerated many trends toward online banking, and alternative branches are available a short distance away.
In Kaisertown, any sudden gap in a fragile but resilient commercial district comes as a blow. Several retirees in line for fish at St. Bernard's noted they routinely reach the bank “by just walking across the street,” where they recognize clerks and often bump into old friends. It becomes an everyday way of living out fundamental community planning principles for residents on foot, of varied circumstance, who would struggle without that easy proximity to a bank.
At St. Bernard's, Joe Battaglia handles the key job of deep frying slabs of haddock. (Sharon Cantillon/Buffalo News)
“It’s part of living here, part of this neighborhood, just like this,” said Gene Siejack, wrapping the bank and fish fry into the same fabric while offering a dream about next year:
In the same way as such neighbors as Janice McLaughlin and her brother-in-law, Ronald Kipler, he spoke wistfully of a day when the event might again be a place for families to settle comfortably at folding tables in the hall while shouting hello to old friends they might know from seeing them at church or at Wiechec's Lounge or, well...
Inside the bank.
"The thing about the fish fry," Rost said of St. Bernard's, "is that it says we're here, we're part of the neighborhood and we're not going away."
In the pandemic, a Lenten drive-up seemed the best available option. The plan was to hand out fish until 8 p.m. Friday if necessary, and then to decide what to do with what was left. Yet before long, when one of the “runners” hurried in with a handful of tickets, Rost and Surdyk both dropped their pens and looked up.
It was 6:21 p.m., and they were sold out.
Sean Kirst is a columnist with The Buffalo News. Email him at skirst@buffnews.com.
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) – The line for fish was long Friday evening at Youngstown’s St. Brendan Parish.
One person said that at one point, the line was one mile long.
This is the first year St. Brendan’s fish fry has been drive-thru only.
More food was even ordered this week and they still sold out.
“So this week, we made more extras but no, we ran out of fish. We thought 650 pounds would be enough but we could have probably used another 100 pounds,” said church helper Patty Infante.
The church plans on ordering even more fish for next week.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, 2020 will go down as an especially significant year in American history.
That includes the COVID-19 effect on conservation programs. In a nutshell, it was a boon.
The latest data to support that conclusion emerged Thursday from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The agency reported it would distribute a record $1.09 billion this year to state natural resources agencies through the Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Programs (WSFR).
Wisconsin's share of the funding, to be received by the Department of Natural Resources, is $32.4 million, including $19.6 million in wildlife restoration and $12.8 in fish.
The money is generated through excise taxes and fees on firearms, ammunition, certain fishing and hunting gear and motorboat fuel.
The 2021 WSFR apportionment is $121 million higher than last year due to substantial increases in firearm, fishing equipment and fuel revenues in 2020.
“The WSFR partnership among states, industry and the Service is a keystone conservation program in the United States because it creates a relationship between outdoor recreationists and the natural resources they enjoy,” Martha Williams, USFWS principal deputy director, said in a statement.
The programs are part of one America's best ideas for conservation and can be traced to the Pittman–Robertson Act of 1937.
Even as the country struggled to emerge from the Great Depression, hunters and manufacturers rallied to create a self-imposed tax on firearms and ammunition to be used to fund conservation programs.
The "user pay, user benefit" strategy was later embraced by the fishing industry through the Dingell–Johnson Act of 1950 and the boating industry through the Wallop–Breaux Amendment of 1984.
The wildlife restoration program collects its funds through excise taxes on the sale of shotguns and rifles (11%), ammunition (11%), archery equipment (11%) and handguns (10%). The sport fish restoration program obtains its money through a 10% excise tax on fishing rods, reels and lures as well as a motorboat fuel tax.
The revenue is made available to all 50 states and five U.S. protectorates, including Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Shares are determined by formulas that include geographical size and sales of hunting and fishing licenses.
States and territories must provide 25% matching funds for grants issued through the programs.
The money can only be used for certain activities, including habitat restoration, fish and wildlife management, hunter and angler education and recruitment, research and some facilities, such as boat ramps.
In Wisconsin, the funding has become a lifeline to the DNR, which was subjected to budget cuts and staff reductions under the administration of former Gov. Scott Walker and the Republican-controlled Legislature.
On the wings of excise taxes from rising sales of firearms and ammunition, the wildlife restoration fund has helped the DNR fill budgetary holes in its wildlife programs over the last decade.
The rise in national revenue of the programs was mostly related to an unprecedented surge in sales of firearms and ammunition. Background checks exclusively related to the sale of firearms reached a record 21 million in 2020, 60% higher than the previous year, according to firearm trade organization National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF). Ammunition was often sold out at retail stores.
The 2021 Wisconsin share of the funding represents a 10% increase from last year, when it received $29.4 million ($17.6 million in wildlife restoration and $11.7 in fish) from the programs. The record high was $36.5 million in 2015.
Railroad bill may return
An effort to restore the right of anglers, hunters and other pedestrians in Wisconsin to directly cross railroad tracks is being resurrected in the Legislature.
A law passed in 2006 made it illegal to pass over tracks at any place other than established crossings. The law has inhibited legal access to public lands along the full length of the Mississippi for hunting, fishing and trapping, as well as many other sites in the state.
A bill to change the law is being circulated by State Sen. Kathy Bernier (R-Chippewa Falls) and Rep. Gae Magnafici (R-Dresser). The authors will accept signatures in support through Friday.
The proposal has already drawn support from a wide range of conservation organizations, including the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation, Safari Club, Wisconsin Conservation Congress, Wisconsin Bear Hunters Association, Trout Unlimited, Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, Ducks Unlimited, Wisconsin Trappers Association, Wisconsin Waterfowl Association, La Crosse County Conservation Alliance, Buffalo County Conservation Alliance, Alma Rod and Gun Club and Mondovi Conservation Club.
Three recent attempts to undo the 2006 law failed.
The legislature approved a measure in the 2015-17 state budget to allow the public to legally cross railroad tracks, but it was vetoed by then-Gov. Scott Walker.
A 2016 bill to restore public access across railways passed the Assembly but was not given a hearing in the Senate. And a similar bill in the 2019-20 legislative session failed to get a hearing.
The railroad industry has opposed the bills each time.
With Republicans still in control of both houses of the Legislature, it remains to be seen if the bill will succeed this time.
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