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(upbeat music continues) (video transition swooshing) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) From NJ PBS studios, this is "NJ Spotlight News" with Brianna Vannozzi.

- Good evening and thanks for joining us this Thursday night.

I'm Brianna Vannozzi.

Tonight on "NJ Spotlight News", we're bringing you a special broadcast, taking a look at two ways climate change is affecting the Garden State's valuable agriculture industry with a pair of our award-winning short documentaries.

First up, examining the risk posed by extreme heat to farm workers, most of whom are migrants who lack the same protections as other workers in other industries.

Take a look.

(uplifting music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) - We are at the end of Sarah's Neck road.

This is all bell pepper around here.

It was asparagus up to last year and we took the asparagus out, which had been in there for 15 years and we took it out and planted pepper.

If we didn't have the Mexican harvesters, we'd have to grow crops that were machine harvested.

(upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) Sweet corn can be machine harvested.

It's a real expensive machine, but then it would've to be packed inside.

There's very few born and raised people in this country that would do that.

When I was a kid, we did it, but no more.

So if we didn't have the imported labor, we couldn't do what we do (farm machine whirring) - [Bernabe] We work outside cutting peppers.

- [Interviewer] Of all the vegetables you grow, which one is your favorite to cultivate?

- Well, pepper.

It's not as heavy as cucumber and corn.

We get up around 5 to 5:30 am to make some food to take something to eat and we start at 6:45 am.

It's six hours, sometimes seven, eight, nine hours daily.

Well, we take a break at 9:30 am, lunch at 12 pm, and then at 3 pm, we take another break.

- [Interviewer] And how long do you work?

- Well it depends on what the boss says, usually until 5 pm.

That's normal, until 5 pm.

We shower, cook, and everything.

- [Interviewer] Sometimes you play football?

- Sometimes when we're not too tired.

- In the summer when it's 100, 102, we try to start 'em as early as we can in the morning and get 'em done by noon so that they don't, not out in the worst part of the heat in the day.

- My husband and I started working with farm workers in 1982 during summers of our, of medical school.

So I've been working with farm workers in federally qualified health centers and then also in my own private practice since the early eighties.

- Corn, because it stands up so high that there's not a breeze running through there, so it gets really, really hot in there.

And the peppers, they have to lean over.

So there's a lot of squatting and you know, cucumbers were, all our cucumbers now are on stakes, but not quite as high as the corn, but, so that's a little easier, but it, you still have to search for the cukes.

So it's all hard.

- I had five patients that I know of that died of heat stress or heat stroke.

(gentle music) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) - Well you get used to the weather, and for me, I'm used to being outside.

It's normal, the heat.

Sometimes when it gets really, really hot, then you start to feel unwell.

- [Interviewer] What do you feel?

- [Bernabe] Like you feel like you have high pressure.

- Heat stress is a preventable illness if they wear their hats and they drink their water and the farmer provides shade for them and provides them a break in the middle of the day, it's a preventable illness.

And it was just really sad when people died of heat.

- [Bernabe] When it's hot, you get weaker, you lose energy.

- [Interviewer] More energy?

- [Bernabe] More energy, you sweat too much, all that.

And that's what makes you weaker.

- [Farm Worker] Well we work slower, much slower.

- [Bernabe] Sometimes when it's very, very hot, we don't go out.

The boss tells us not to work.

When one of us feels bad, we talk to the boss.

And if we don't feel well, they take us back to the house to rest.

(dirt crunches) - People didn't usually complain to me about heat.

It was one of the known factors of the kind of work that they were doing.

And they wouldn't come to me with that as a complaint.

They would come to me with their blood pressure or their rash or their back pain and I would always bring heat into the conversation 'cause I wanted to prevent them from having trouble down the road but that wasn't usually their complaint.

- Definitely the last two years have been hotter than normal, but we have an ice machine at the packing house, so the guys put ice in all their water cans.

So, and they go get it anytime they need it.

And if they need to stop earlier in the day, the guys will say so.

- [Interviewer] Okay.

- The crew policies are right out there with 'em.

They're not anywhere else.

(gentle music) (gentle music continues) - [Bernabe] We have two bathrooms, washer, dryer.

- [Interviewer] And air conditioning?

- [Bernabe] And air conditioning.

- [Interviewer] And what difference does it make to have air conditioning?

- Inside or outside?

- [Interviewer] Inside.

- Well, you're more comfortable.

You are fresh.

- [Interviewer] Do you like having air conditioning?

- Well, yeah!

Anyone would in this heat.

(laughs) - [Interviewer] And what if you didn't have it?

- Well, we'd be toast.

- We bought various farms over the years and they had migrant labor housing on them.

A lot of it was concrete block construction and it was built 50, 60 years ago.

So it was what it was, you know, it's the concrete block can be cooler because of what it is.

But then we decided in the 2000s that we wanted to start building modern camps and they're all air conditioning.

They've got satellite TV, they've got washers and dryers in the place.

So, you know, we try to make it good for them.

(gentle music) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) - The housing is really important because they have to be able to rest and rehydrate at night, but that's not when they die.

People are gonna have more and more issues from heat because we need to eat, we need to grow food, they need to work, and we need to figure out how to work within the limits that the heat, extra heat is causing.

We have to be more cognizant.

We have to educate them better.

We have to provide water in the field.

We have to give them breaks.

Yeah, I'm concerned.

(gentle music) (gentle music continues) - That piece was filmed in partnership with WNYC, New York Public Radio.

Since its original release, legislation has been introduced in Trenton that would create workplace heat protections for all workers, though business groups have strongly opposed it.

The Biden administration's proposal for similar rules on the federal level have also moved forward, but they're still far from finalized.

Next up we turn to the seafood sector and the Atlantic Surf clam, a sought after shellfish that New Jersey is a hub for.

Today, the wild clam population is being squeezed by changing ocean temperatures and chemistry and by the budding offshore wind industry.

Here's what we found.

(upbeat transition music) (gentle music) (gentle music continues) - I've been in the industry since 1983, got in when I was 21 years old, so just about 40 years ago.

I just fell in love with it.

I took one trip and that was it.

I was hooked.

I just fell in love with the freedom, the comradery of the crew, the competition between boats.

It's just, it's a great living.

- I like to tell people that New Jersey's not just the Garden State, it's also the Shellfish State.

A lot of people don't realize just how important shellfish are to the economy of the state.

There's shellfish fisheries that are major, major commercial fisheries and there's also a lot of aquaculture that happens in the state.

- So annually the industry is, the industry's bringing in 2 million bushels out of a quota of 3.2 million.

So for the fishery annually coast wide, we're talking about a $30 million fishery.

(gentle music) (seagulls caw) (gentle music continues) So this is Atlantic surf clam.

You've got the tongue along the front.

There's two abductor muscles that keep that shell closed.

And that's a nice looking high value clam there.

- Surf clams is really, it's a species of clams and there are species that lives in the ocean so if you're standing in Ocean City, New Jersey and you're looking out at the ocean, you're looking out towards where the clams live.

These are clams that have been a major part of the commercial fishery in the state for a long, long time.

They're a species that is converted into all kinds of food products that you might know.

Clam chowder for example, or chopped sea clams that you get in a can or even clam strips that you might get at the, at your favorite pub on the shore.

(gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) - We're seeing clams move offshore because of the warming waters, because of global warming.

So New Jersey actually had a very vibrant inshore fishery, which when I say inshore, we're talking from the coastline out three miles.

That fishery is gone.

- A lot of the research questions that we address in my lab come from conversations with both fishermen and farmers who either want to know about how they're these animals are responding to changing climate conditions or how the ecosystem is interacting with these species.

You know, the health of a surf clam matters to these guys.

We actually know quite a bit about surf clams and from what we've known, we think that they're sensitive to stressful temperatures.

We think that they may be responding also to ocean acidification in certain negative ways.

And so some of what we're doing here now is to try to really understand the mechanisms of what's happening there.

We also don't know if maybe they have the capacity to adapt to these changing environmental conditions.

- So this species has a calcium carbonate shell, so it's really susceptible to changes in pH.

If waters are too acidified, it's really difficult for juvenile organisms to be formed in their shell or it can affect things like shell strength.

Ocean acidification is certainly one thing that often we predict to be more extreme in the future, but something that's already happening right now and specifically this year is changing ocean temperatures.

And so this is why for this project we're really entrusted in the combined effects of thermal stress.

So water that's getting warmer and also ocean acidification stress pH going down.

And we know that this warming effect is already happening this year.

We have some extremely warm ocean temperatures even compared to more recent years.

And we believe that the changings in water temperature, that's already changing the distribution of the surf plan.

So the range of actually where they're occurring is already thought to be changing into a more northward and offshore location.

(gentle music) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) - There's a big transition going on right now in New Jersey as far as sustainable energy production, right?

Green energy.

And one of those things is offshore.

The development of offshore wind.

Offshore wind will be in particular off the coast of New Jersey occupying habitats that are surf clam habitat.

These turbine foundations and some of the other infrastructure that's gonna be put in are going to be put in where surf clams live today.

It's also areas where the surf clam fishery goes out to catch surf clams.

And so it's really important for us to try to understand how that nexus is going to work.

The nexus of climate change, offshore wind energy development and surf clams, both the fishery and the biology.

And I'd say right now we don't really have a very good way of understanding what that will look like.

- [Tom] I mean, it's hard for people to imagine what it's like operating a large boat in the open ocean, but you are in the open ocean.

And if you put these turbines, whether it's every seven tenths of a mile or every mile, and you ask this fishermen to fish around those, those are hazards, right?

And when he fishes around those hazards, there is a consequence that if he comes into contact with that high voltage cable or his vessel comes into contact with that structure, there's a consequence to that, right?

- There'll also be a certain interaction with the fishing vessels that will prevent them from going out and getting clams in some of these areas because of cables and other infrastructure.

And so there's certainly going to be intersections.

There's no question that there will be interactions and impacts.

What those will look like and the consequences of those are very uncertain at this point.

- I'm very concerned and I'm very optimistic, all right.

I'm concerned that the regulators aren't gonna get it right.

I'm hoping that they can.

Through Rutgers and some of the developers are actually chipping in for research to see if we can come up with mitigation where we enhance the stock by actually planting seeds outside of the wind energy areas to replace what we're losing access to with inside the wind energy areas.

This is something that through the proper research we can figure it out.

We just need the regulators and the developers to come along, put the right amount of money into the research, give this a go, include mitigation for the surf clam industry as stock enhancement in their construction and operation plans.

Everybody get on the same page so that these two industry can really coexist and maybe we can do it.

(gentle music) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) - There's interest in farming surf clams and that would mean a very different way of producing surf clams as food.

In the wild fishery, when the boats go out to collect the clams and fish them, they're fishing on very big old clams.

These clams live to 40, 30, 40 years.

And so that product is a very different product than something that would be produced on a farm over the course of one to two years, which would be a much smaller clam.

So an aquaculture surf clam might look very different than a fished surf clam.

But nonetheless, there's a great deal of interest in trying to find a way to grow that species sustainably on farms in the ocean and in the back bay.

- We are standing at my shellfish nursery in Great Bay Marina, Little Egg Harbor.

The family business goes back in 1909 and in the early days natural resource was abundant and it was a derby fishery.

Anybody, you or anybody with a license could go out and earn a pretty good day's pay and you would bring that catch in to my great-great-grandfather, my great-grandfather, and my grandfather and that day unload your boat, get paid, and go home.

Things have changed dramatically.

The natural resource is very much depleted.

There's some remnant of wild recruitment, but it's nothing like it used to be.

So to meet the demand of the market we farm raise the majority of our shellfish, being hard clams, oysters, we've grown a few scallops, and now we're trying to grow surf clams.

So water's pumped in from the marina.

These tanks are called upweller tanks.

The water manifold supplies water to each tank.

The tanks constantly fill and constantly drain.

It runs in through the oysters or clams and runs out.

We don't use it twice.

Just one single use water.

Surf clams are right here.

This one's all surfs, this one's all surf.

That one's all surf.

We had, we did the math, there's about a million, got about a million surf clams here.

- A couple of the big advantages that a farmer might see in growing a surf clam is they're very fast growers.

They grow very, very quickly.

They're easy to handle in the hatchery.

So the seed production side is quite easy and they're a delicious product.

They look really great on a plate and they're very, very tasty meat.

They taste very different than what a consumer might otherwise expect as a clam that they might get at a restaurant.

And so there's a number of things that make them a potentially desirable farm product.

And there are a number of farmers interested in trying it.

And so we're kind of at this early stages of developing surf clam aquaculture.

- So a wild surf clam that you would see like wash up on the beach, it's probably six or seven years old.

And that clam is, gets harvested and processed for fried clam strips.

It goes through some machinery, it gets steamed, sliced, and frozen in a block and it goes out to a fryer to get fried into strips.

What we're trying to do is grow 'em to a steamer size where the whole clam gets steamed and the whole meat of the clam goes into a can as whole clams can.

It's a different product, same species, same meat, a different product.

They're very sensitive thermally.

You know, they react to drastic temperature changes.

So as they grow larger and they become more prone to those temperature changes, we have to look at what we expose them to.

And again, that's part of selecting the brood stock that we're gonna use for the next generation.

In the bay, we can select for clams that could tolerate more of a temperature change, more of a salinity fluctuation versus those that have adapted to live out in the ocean indefinitely.

They're fast, they grow fast.

So as a farmer, when I look at, when I purchase my oysters, my hard clams, whatever I'm farming, it's your investment, it's money out.

The faster that shellfish is gonna grow, the sooner you get a return.

There's a very strong market.

And if we can manage to produce enough of the right size surf clam, it'll be the first farm raised surf clam to get canned.

- When I think about the future of shellfish, both farming and fishing, I'm optimistic.

I think that there's a lot of interaction between managers who are responsible for sustaining the resource and making good decisions, scientists who are, and not just me, there's a number of really amazing scientists in this field who are doing work to support sustainable decision making.

And then there's the stakeholders, like the farmers and the fishermen who are really, they're at the table doing the hard work and don't question for a second whether shellfish farming is hard work.

It's very, very hard work, fishing, very, very hard work.

And these people are are there doing that hard work because they believe in the product they're fishing for.

And so it makes me optimistic about the future.

I think there are certainly challenges related to other user groups like offshore wind or climate change, environmental change.

But I think that there's ways to overcome these challenges and I am optimistic about the future.

(gentle music) - That piece was reported and filmed in partnership with Climate Central.

Fishing regulators have now moved towards loosening rules on catching surf clams and quahogs together.

That's something fishermen say they need in this new reality.

And Rutgers researchers have found some good news off the coast of Virginia where surf clams have reappeared.

It's a hopeful sign that the animals might be able to adapt to climate change.

That does it for us tonight.

I'm Brianna Vannozzi, for the entire team here at "NJ Spotlight News", have a great evening.

We'll see you right back here tomorrow.

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Look at these kids.

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I became an ESL teacher to give my students what I wanted when I came to this country.

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