SavingSeaFood - Sonar-like project brings new precision to fish counts

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Sonar-like project brings new precision to fish counts

Last Wednesday, in an old World War II bunker converted into a lecture hall on the campus of the Northeastern University's Marine Science Center here, lead scientists in the OAWRS project briefed a prestigious audience that included U.S. Sen. John Kerry and Congressman John Tierney on the evolution of the science and its potential for reducing uncertainty in fishery regulation.

"What you've got yourself," said Kerry, summing up, "is a fish-finder on steroids."

He and Tierney, however, seemed nonplused when told the research team, led by Nicholas C. Makris of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Northeastern's Purnima Ratilal, did not have funding to return to the field for a third time to validate their belief that the OAWRS technology can distinguish between species.

"NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) should put this in their budget," said Tierney.

"This makes me so angry," said Kerry. "We're going straight to the top."

Read the complete story from The Gloucester Daily Times.

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