February 20, 2018 — Last December the New England Fishery Management Council voted to increase the amount of cod available to commercial fishermen in the Gulf of Maine by 39 percent for the 2018 fishing year.
This is welcome news. New England fishermen have endured some lean years since 2013 when the cod quota was slashed by 78 percent after new data incorporated into the 2011 assessment indicated that the stock was lower than previously estimated — obviously a great deal lower.
Estimating how many codfish might be out there at any given time is the greatest challenge facing fishery managers and the numbers have been the subject of much controversy, with fishermen continually decrying the “best available science” as inadequate.
The quest for better fisheries data has been receiving invaluable assistance from SMAST here in New Bedford.
UMass Dartmouth’s School for Marine Science and Technology has developed a groundfish sampling survey using video technology. A deep sea camera, with lights, is mounted inside the net on a commercial fishing vessel and provides a live feed to the wheelhouse while towing. At the same time, four GoPro cameras in the net capture and record images of every fish passing through. The cod end of the net is left open, allowing the fish to swim away unscathed — a huge bonus — and without the necessity to haul the net back, a much larger area can be swept on each tow. During the survey, a small number of tows were also made with the net closed to verify the video data.
Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times