"NOAA" news and stories

While officials have been feverishly trying to keep the dreaded Asian carp from making its way into the Great Lakes -- using tactics that range from poisoning to electric blockades -- scientists now say that the tiny quagga mussel has already done the damage. The mussel is causing unprecedented changes in the lower food web in Lake Michigan, perhaps making the territory inhospitable to the voracious carp.

"It's estimated that there are over 500 trillion dreissenids (freshwater mussels) currently in Lake Michigan," says Gary Fahnenstiel, senior ecologist for NOAA's Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory in an interview with Slashfood.

The thumbnail-sized striped quagga mussel is a filter feeder. They were first spotted in Lake Michigan in the early 2000s, likely finding their way there in the ballast tanks of ships originating in the Caspian Sea. As their population continues to grow, quagga mussels have significantly decreased the amount of phytoplankton in the water. That plankton forms the basis of the food chain, which supports native species like lake whitefish, deepwater sculpin and alewives.

"The water has never been clearer in Lake Michigan," says Fahnenstiel.

There are plenty of signs that chefs and seafood lovers continue to wrestle with whether to serve and eat fish from the Gulf of Mexico. Many consumers have safety concerns, despite repeated assurances by the federal government and seafood promotion officials. Stories of illegal fishing haven't helped to bolster confidence either. According to FoodSafetyNews.com, more than a dozen catches have been dumped at sea because fishing had been taking place in closed waters. The result? Once bustling restaurants like Snapper's Seafood in Biloxi, Miss. are now painfully short on customers.

But many say that Thursday's move by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association will go a long way to ease the safety concerns of eaters.

NOAA announced it was reopening over 26,000 square miles of the closed Gulf area to commercial and recreational fishing. Why? Because according to their data, no oil spill has been observed in the area since mid-June. Additionally, fish caught in the area and tested by experts have shown no signs of contamination. The reopened area is approximately 190 miles southeast of the Deepwater/BP well, with most fishing occurring 220 miles from the BP site.

The nose knows. Or at least officials from NOAA and the FDA are counting on it as an inexpensive, reliable way to detect oil-tainted seafood and to keep it from reaching the public. The agencies have pooled resources with Michigan-based International Food Protection Training Institute (IFPTI) and have been busy training seafood inspectors from Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida at the National Seafood Inspection Laboratory in Pascagoula, Miss.

Training sessions include plenty of hands-on sniffing of finfish, shrimp and oysters. Different stations are set up where students participate in blind whiff tests. Some samples are spiked with varying levels of oil, while other items were left untouched.

"Inspectors are taught not to let their sight confuse them. To just go by the smell, because oil can be washed off or masked with something else," says Joan Bowman, spokesperson for IFPTI.