May 25, 2016 — Scientists from NOAA’s Alaska Fisheries Science Center will embark from Dutch Harbor May 28 on another busy survey season, off Alaska’s coast, collecting data needed for fisheries managers to determine sustainable fishery harvest levels.
$450K NOAA scallop camera snared by sunken ship; loss could affect scallop catch limits
May 25, 2016 — The following is an excerpt from a story published in the New Bedford Standard-Times today:
NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — Researchers on a NOAA-chartered vessel lost a $450,000 camera that was being towed underwater Friday when a cable apparently snagged on a sunken ship near Delaware Bay, delaying vital scallop surveys and frustrating representatives of scallopers in the northeastern U.S.
Government surveys affect future catch limits for scallops, which is the highest-value species, by far, in New Bedford’s $330 million fishing industry.
Teri Frady, spokesperson for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), said the Hugh R. Sharp research vessel was conducting scallop surveys about 75 miles southeast of Delaware Bay, which separates New Jersey from Delaware, when underwater equipment known as a HabCam “separated from the tow cable and the vessel” in about 80 meters of water.
“The surveying was occurring around a known wreck, that of the Bow Mariner, and it appears likely the tow cable snagged on it,” a NOAA statement said.
Frady said efforts to find the HabCam — short for “habitat camera” — will begin Wednesday, with NOAA crews using an underwater rover to search near the shipwreck.
She said NOAA expects to complete most of its planned scallop survey despite the costly mishap, by relying on dredge surveys — which scoop up portions of the sea floor — and resuming photo surveys after the lost HabCam is found and repaired, or replaced.
Frady said the lost HabCam is insured, and its $450,000 value would be roughly the cost of building a replacement.
The Washington, D.C.-based Fisheries Survival Fund, which represents more than 250 scallop vessels in the northeastern fishery, said the incident has broad implications.
“The loss of a key piece of scallop survey equipment demonstrates the need for an overhaul of how the federal government assesses the species,” said a Survival Fund statement released Tuesday.
Survival Fund attorney Drew Minkiewicz said he was “frustrated, to say the least,” by the HabCam’s loss.
“It’s an accident that shouldn’t have happened — the wreck is well-known and its location is well known, so the captain shouldn’t have been towing in that area,” Minkiewicz said. “It’s going to take them over a week, of the very limited time on the research vessel Sharp, to get back on the survey. …We’re going to lose data.”
Lost NOAA Camera Proves Federal Scallop Surveys Should Not Rely on Just One Vessel or Piece of Equipment
May 24, 2016 — The following was released by the Fisheries Survival Fund:
WASHINGTON — The loss of a key piece of scallop survey equipment demonstrates the need for an overhaul of how the federal government assesses the species. The Fisheries Survival Fund (FSF), which represents the majority of the limited access scallop fleet, calls for reforms to how scallop surveys are conducted to prevent such an incident from derailing surveys in the future.
For the past several years, the New England Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) has chartered the Research Vessel (R/V) Hugh R. Sharp to conduct the Federal scallop survey. NEFSC employees work with the crew of the vessel to conduct dredge surveys and tow the HabCam IV habitat camera to take photos of the ocean bottom. Because the R/V Hugh R. Sharp is part of a university consortium, it must be chartered at significant expense and is only available for a limited number of days.
Last Thursday, May 19, 2016, while on the current scallop survey, the NEFSC crew lost the HabCam when it separated from the vessel. According to initial reports, it was inadvertently driven into the side of a known and charted shipwreck while being operated by a volunteer, losing at least a week of valuable sea time. Several knowledgeable sources have suggested that there could be as much as $100,000 in damage. Accordingly, the researchers must return to port to acquire a remote operated vehicle, which they will use to attempt to find the lost HabCam.
FSF has argued for years that the R/V Hugh R. Sharp is too expensive, and the federal survey should not rely on just one vessel or piece of equipment. FSF has urged the NEFSC to charter commercial fishing vessels at a fraction of the cost of the R/V Hugh R. Sharp. It would thus be able to survey more locations at the same cost, and no longer be reliant on one vessel and one piece of equipment.
The HabCam is an expensive piece of equipment. If the researchers do not find the HabCam, the cost of replacement and an incomplete Federal scallop survey will significantly impact the scallop fishery. Even if the researchers do find the HabCam, valuable days at sea will be wasted, leading to a reduction in the amount of seabed that the survey will be able to sample. This is likely to produce less accurate assessments of the scallop population.
Atlantic Scallop Survey Halted Due to Lost HABCAM; Recovery Planned
May 23, 2016 — The following is from an email distributed this afternoon by the NOAA Fisheries Northeast Fisheries Science Center on behalf of Dr. Bill Karp:
“The R/V Hugh R. Sharp was underway on Friday, May 20 conducting the NEFSC Atlantic sea scallop survey about 75 nm southeast of the entrance to Delaware Bay in 80 meters of water when the survey instrument known as the HABCAM separated from the tow cable and the vessel. We are planning several approaches for recovery, and those efforts should get underway on Wednesday May 25. The surveying was occurring around a charted wreck, that of the Bow Mariner, and it appears likely the tow cable snagged on it, although this is not yet confirmed.”
“Despite this set-back, we expect to complete most of the planned work, which involves both a dredge and the HABCAM. If we are unable to use a HABCAM, the gap is most likely to be in HABCAM coverage for the Mid-Atlantic. We are working now to ensure that dredge sampling is unaffected and to maximize what we can capture using a recovered and repaired HABCAM 4, and/or another HABCAM.”
Woods Hole Researchers ‘Listen’ to the Ocean Floor
May 23, 2016 — WOODS HOLE, Mass. — Listening to the noise of the deep sea.
That’s the intent as researchers with the Northeast Fisheries Science Center, based at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, recently placed a handful of recording devices along the ocean floor from George’s Bank to New Jersey to listen to the sounds of whales, dolphins and other marine life.
It’s part of a national effort to establish a network to monitor long term changes in ocean noise.
Seafood, bioscience get boost from latest Maine tech grants
May 20, 2016 — PORTLAND, Maine — The city of Ellsworth has landed a state grant to support development of bioscience businesses in the region, as part of a series of grant awards that will also give money to support seafood industry initiatives.
The Maine Technology Institute announced Thursday that it awarded $658,765 through its Cluster Initiative Program, aimed at studying or implementing ways to support or grow certain industries in the state.
The state-financed economic development agency awarded $398,306 to the Gulf of Maine Research Institute to advance its study of creating a market and supply chain for sustainable seafood in Maine.
The latest grant round also delivered $134,189 to Coastal Enterprises Inc.’s Maine Scallop Aquaculture Project, which MTI said aims to study the Japanese scallop aquaculture industry and explore how to adapt them to Maine waters.
SMAST founding dean, chancellor medal recipient Brian Rothschild, reflects on state of fisheries science
May 16, 2016 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — Dr. Brian Rothschild already had a stellar career in fisheries and marine science when he came to the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth 20 years ago to head the fledgling Center for Marine Science, now known as the School for Marine Science and Technology.
He built that institution from the ground up, recruiting top talent and developing a strong reputation in the field of fisheries, ocean science, and industry regulations. At 81, he is officially retired, but continues his scientific work unburdened, he says, by the demands of management.
For his contributions to science and his service to the community, Rothschild on Friday was awarded the UMass Dartmouth Chancellor’s Award. He recently sat down for an interview by The Standard-Times.
Q: You said earlier that in your long career you have had some jobs you don’t remember.
A: Yeah, not exactly. I started in 1953 working fisheries for the New Jersey Division of Fish and Game. I’ve always been devoted to marine science, fish and marine science. Underneath that is a much deeper interest in science per se, finding out the unknown. I have been fortunate in my career to produce some classic papers that relate to that.
Q: You have had recognition all around the world, also traveling around the world.
A: Yes, I‘ve been in many countries. I used to consult for the Food and Agriculture Organization at the United Nations. I’ve spent a lot of time in Rome as a result of that. I worked on the Egyptian trawler fleet. I helped write the draft plan for the Indian Ocean Program at the United Nations. I worked on a plan for fisheries in Namibia and many other activities outside the United States.
Puzzling out the red drum: Fish population surveys contradict each other
May 16, 2016 — The sought-after red drum might be severely overfished since 2010 in the Southeast but not the mid-Atlantic, according to the latest survey. Or the reverse might be true.
The problem is in the metrics: Just how do you count all the fish in the sea? That’s what a federal commission in charge of regulating the catch told its staff recently while not approving — yet — an assessment that would suggest the Southeast stock is in trouble again. Improve the metrics.
At stake is whether or how to tighten management, and potentially catch restrictions, on one of the most popular game fish in the Lowcountry.
The bottom line is that some sort of tighter management is expected to be mandated of that stock, said Robert Boyles, S.C. Department of Natural Resources deputy marine resources director and a member of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, the federal group in charge of maintaining the fishery.
“The results basically suggest there are reasons to be concerned. The questions are how concerned should we be and what do we do about it,” he said.
Hilborn: Greenpeace attacks funding issue because science is sound
May 13, 2016 — University of Washington fishery scientist Ray Hilborn has responded to Greenpeace’s accusation that he often fails to disclose industry funding when writing or speaking about the extent of overfishing.
In a letter sent Wednesday to university president Ana Mari Cauce, Greenpeace filed a complaint against Hilborn’s research practices, and asked for an investigation.
Hilborn, over the years, has been a critic of Greenpeace as well as other environmental groups and researchers he accuses of overstating the impacts of fishing on marine resources.
“Greenpeace is unable to attack the science I and my collaborators do; science that threatens their repeated assertions that overfishing is universal and that the oceans are being emptied,” he said in a response on his blog.
“On the contrary it is clear that where effective fisheries management is applied, stocks are increasing not declining, and this is true in North America and Europe as well as a number of other places. Overfishing certainly continues to be a problem in the Mediterranean, much of Asia and Africa.”
Survey delay might hurt fish population research
May 12, 2016 — The following is an excerpt from a story published today by the Boston Globe.
NEWPORT, R.I. – Even before mechanics found deeply pitted bearings near crankshafts in its generators, problems that could have led to catastrophic engine failure, the Henry B. Bigelow was running more than a month behind.
Now, the government research vessel is embarking on its annual spring voyage later than ever before, a delay that could have serious consequences for scientists’ ability to assess the health of some of the 52 fish stocks they survey, from the waters off North Carolina to the eastern reaches of the Gulf of Maine.
Fish migrate and change their feeding patterns as waters warm, which might make it difficult for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientists to compare this spring’s survey of fish populations with previous counts.
The prospect of skewed data could complicate efforts for policy makers to set proper quotas, potentially leading either to overfishing or unnecessarily strict catch limits.
“I worry that this will create statistical noise and more uncertainty,” said Gary Shepherd, a fishery biologist at NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Woods Hole, where he and other scientists recommend quotas based on what the Bigelow catches, along with other data.
As the waters warm, some of the fish, such as herring, migrate out of the survey area and into the region’s rivers. Other species, such as squid, which are short-lived, might not survive in representative numbers through June, when the Bigelow is now scheduled to finish its survey.
“If the survey had started at its normal time, it would have found squid on the continental shelf,” said Robert Vanasse, executive director of Saving Seafood, a Washington-based group that represents the fishing industry. “But now it won’t because the survey doesn’t sample Nantucket Sound.”
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