February 19, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:
Abundance, distribution, age, and other data are vital for assessing and managing important fish species. To obtain these data, the Northeast Fisheries Science Center’s Cooperative Research Branch works with commercial fishing vessels to conduct annual spring and fall bottom longline surveys in the Gulf of Maine.
The longline survey uses random stratified sampling to detect the abundance and distribution of fish species and how they are changing over time. It focuses on areas where researchers know less about some species and the rougher terrain makes it harder to sample with trawl gear.
The team spent several days this fall staging the 50-foot F/V Mary Elizabeth in Scituate, Massachusetts and 40-foot F/V Tenacious II in East Dennis. In just over 3 weeks, they completed the planned 45 stations on November 2, in a typically breezy New England autumn.
Weather was also on their side in the spring. On May 7, they had completed the 45 stations in the survey in about 2 weeks. To take advantage of the limited fair weather windows that occur during seasonal transitions, each vessel makes multiple 2–4 day trips.