February 21, 2025 — Offshore marine development is impacting several of our long-standing fishery-independent surveys. To maintain data continuity, support sustainable fisheries management, and continue improving and modernizing data collections/streams, we’re working with fishermen in our region to develop and test a brand new survey!
Trials and Tribulations
What goes into designing a new survey? Well, a lot of trial and error. The earliest trips, called “shake-down” trips, were dedicated to separating the theoretical from the practical. Sometimes things in theory don’t always work in practice. So, in April, October, and November 2024, we conducted shake-down trips out of Ocean City, Maryland, and Virginia Beach, Virginia. That’s when I got to see a bunch of interesting ways to test out our ideas and adapt to challenges. Here are a few of the things we worked on and tested during our shake-down trips.
One item we’re testing is automatic jigging machines. They consist of fishing reels the size of a large coffee can, a computer screen, and analog buttons. The machines have programmable options for standardization of gear deployment and retrieval including jig pattern and speed, height off the seafloor, and sensitivity to detect fish on the line.
Fine tuning the machine’s fish sensitivity was tricky. The sensitivity function tells the machine how much tension is required before the line is automatically reeled back to the surface. If we set the sensitivity too high, the machines may misinterpret the bobbing lead sinkers or fish nibbles as an actual hooked fish and reel the line up prematurely. If we set the sensitivity too low, they won’t detect small, hooked fish.