For the past several years, the New England Aquarium has participated in a joint expedition to Fiji, along with the Monterey Bay Aquarium and other conservation-minded groups and individuals. The last expedition took place in Spring 2012. 

Today's post and pictures about the first dives of the joint Fiji's expedition comes from former scientist with Monterey Bay Aquarium Steve Webster.

More than 10-foot gorgonian (sea fan) | Photo: K. Ellenbogen

4AM on the NAI'A (I’m still on California time). Four days into the charter, and a good time to edit trip video and contemplate where we are and what the day is likely to bring. Of course, while Bailey and the others see a grand array of Fiji’s reef fishes, I can do an entire dive and not see a single fish. But the adhesive anemones, popcorn shrimps, Bonelia worms, sea cucumbers, sponges, corals. Forests of colorful soft corals, sea slugs, cleaner shrimps, feather stars – they’re everywhere! Actually, I take it back. In approaching a goby shrimp in its burrow, the associated goby managed, as usual, to get in the way. So I did see a fish.

Coral residing hermit crab (Paguritta corallicola), site: Heidi’s Hideaway Photo: K. Ellenbogen

I’ve been lucky to visit two areas in Indonesia this year – Raja Ampat and Sulawesi. [Aquarium explorers visited sea mounts in Raja Ampat and the pictures were stunning.] Wonderful critters in both locations, but I enjoy Fiji’s reefs better no matter where we anchor for the day the variety of spectacular bommies and reefs is just outstanding. Massive reefs that stretch for hundreds or even thousands of yards, with nearby bommies shaped like 100-foot high silos. The bommies are capped with beautiful healthy corals and sponges, and a spectacular array of (yes!) fishes. These bommies tops are usually between just ten and twenty-five feet of the surface, so the sunlight (the sun came out yesterday!) makes these areas as spectacular as any reef site in the world. And at that depth we could stay all day, but for having to return to the NAI’A for another terrific meal–fuel to keep us going for the 3rd, 4th or 5th dive of the day.

Anker’s whip coral shrimp Pontonides ankeri, site: NAI’A Fly’a

The reefs this year are healthy in Fiji. No evidence of any recent coral bleaching events. But as the ocean warms they will come, and will be more frequent and more severe. If the reefs are here 20 years from now, it will be only because Humankind decided to get its collective act together and get serious about slowing the pace of climate change. Coral reefs, like polar bears, are the “canaries in the mine.” They will be among the first to go as the ocean warms just a very few more degrees. So let’s get serious, folks! To paraphrase one of my favorite quotes from nature writer Barry Lopez: “One of the great dreams of Mankind must be to find a place between the extremes of nature and civilization where we can live without regret”. Amen. I hope your grandchildren will be able to enjoy these reefs just as we do.

 
Matt Thompson is a senior aquaculture specialist with the Aquarium’s Sustainable Seafood Programs (SSP). He is blogging from the Seafood Summit in Hong Kong. The Seafood Summit brings all those concerned with sustainable seafood together in a conference to identify challenges and look for solutions.  


From local markets, through small-scale marine cage aquaculture, we finally arrived at the production of America’s favorite seafood item – shrimp. Around two thirds of the shrimp we eat is farmed  and the majority of that is raised in Asia and primarily imported to the U.S. from Thailand.



Unlike the marine fish farming we saw yesterday, this was in no way small-scale. The company that had open its doors to us was both large-scale and vertically integrated, meaning that they owned their own shrimp farms, shrimp hatcheries, feed manufacturing plants, and processing plants. These behemoths of the seafood industry have an abundance of control over their farming practices and the ability to invest in their operations.



We began with a tour of the company’s impressive processing plant. I’m sorry that I don’t have photos of this part of the trip - we weren’t allowed to bring cameras or any other items in for food safety reasons. The positive side of which means there are no embarrassing photos of me donning the hair net, face mask, overcoat, and boots we had to wear to walk around the plant. These companies go to great lengths to ensure your raw and cooked shrimp are safe to eat. Once reacquainted with our cameras, we headed to the hatchery.



In long concrete raceways, the broodstock or parents of the shrimp we actually eat swim (which sounds rather grim when put that way), ready to hatch a new batch of shrimp for farming. Interestingly, these broodstock were Hawaiians, raised on the islands then imported to China due to their “specific pathogen free” or SPF status. Viral diseases (which affect shrimp not humans), have played, and continue to play, havoc with the shrimp farming industry, thus it’s critical that farming begins with disease-free stocks.



Leaving the hatchery, we arrived at a good example of a modern shrimp farm. Globally, shrimp farming has had a difficult history; including the conversion of ecologically important mangrove forests into shrimp ponds, chemical abuses, an overuse of fish in feeds (both direct and in commercial diets), pollution from waste leaving the farms, and viral diseases – just to name a few of these issues. However, the industry is maturing with some practices, particularly mangrove conversion and are becoming more of a thing of the past.



Globally, the industry covers the whole range, from ocean-friendly operations to those still engaged in the more damaging practices. On the whole the shrimp we eat in the U.S. is increasingly coming from improving operations. We still have a way to go, particularly regarding feed, but positive signs are there. My role at the Aquarium is principally focused on working with our corporate partners to drive improvements in the sources of farmed shrimp they buy.


Although, I didn’t have time to do a detailed assessment of this operation, what I did see here is that this farm had lined its ponds, which can help reduce the seepage of salty water into the surrounding environment. They also filtered the waste water leaving the farm, reducing its potential to pollute.



The infrastructure was also very strong, so strong in-fact that this was the first time I’ve ever been on a farm with pond walls strong enough to drive a coach full of people over them! Aside from keeping us in air-conditioned goodness (it was probably 100F with 100% humidity outside – good for shrimp, bad for me), this also reduces the potential for pond walls to fail and release what is a non-native shrimp species into the surrounding environment.



Personally, I’d have liked to have spent all day on the farm and really got into the weeds of its environmental performance, looking for those opportunities for improvement, but it was not to be and soon enough we were back on the coach and on the way.