November 10th, 2016 — This winter, a small fleet of Maine fishermen will head out to hunt for northern shrimp, even though the fishery itself has been closed for three years.
They won’t be landing the New England delicacy so it can be eaten. The fishermen will use acoustic transducers, and a few nets and traps, to help the Gulf of Maine Research Institute learn where these small pink crustaceans congregate in our near-shore waters over the winter, where they lay their eggs. Using sound waves to survey a species as small as shrimp is a new challenge for scientists.
“We have found low-frequency sound waves are good at detecting big fish, like cod, and high frequencies are good at detecting small organisms like shrimp,” said research associate Adam Baukus of GMRI. “The technology allows us to cover a lot more of the ocean than we can with trawls or traps alone. With sound, we can do 40 miles at a time. … Traditional (trawl) surveys are lucky to cover a quarter mile.”
To collect the data, GMRI has outfitted 10 lobster boats with echosounders, high-tech fish finders, to conduct monthly surveys of near-shore waters from Kittery to Cutler in January, February and March, which is the height of what used to be a $70 million fishing season. The lobstermen, who receive small stipends to cover fuel costs, will survey the same 40-mile-long stretch of water each time.