SavingSeaFood - Fisheries crew tagging sturgeon to learn about their movements

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Fisheries crew tagging sturgeon to learn about their movements

Standing on the deck of a small fishing boat, Joe Facendola plunged one hand into a 90-gallon rubber tub and grabbed the swishing tail of the 4-foot, 25-pound Alantic sturgeon.

Using a pair of surgical scissors, Facendola snipped a small piece of fin on the fish's stomach.

"There will," he said, "be blood."

But just a little, and ultimately, the process could help protect the rest of the Cape Fear River's sturgeon population. Facendola, a technician with the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries, has spent the past year catching Atlantic sturgeon, collecting their DNA, then tagging the fish and releasing them to track their movements.

Read the complete story from Star News Online.

MELISSA WOOD, NATIONAL FISHERMEN: Meting out the meager

May 22, 2012 - Listening to the New England Council's Groundfish Advisory Panel talk about how that industry is going to pay for monitoring costs is kind of like trying to figure out how to pay your bills when you've just lost your job. Though monitoring is important keeping costs down is critical. As Panel Member Gary Libby pointed out, "If we had 100 percent monitoring we probably wouldn't have an industry."

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