August 14, 2023 — Growing up on the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia, Kevin Stokesbury spent as much time as possible swimming, searching for sand shrimp, and soaking up the sun with his siblings.
Now as dean of the School for Marine Science and Technology (SMAST) at UMass Dartmouth, he’s finding practical applications for his passion with the sea. Stokesbury has played an integral role in revitalizing the scallop industry in New Bedford, inventing a drop camera in 1999 that snapped photos of scallops living on the seafloor, giving scientists and fishermen much more precise estimates of scallop numbers than previously available. The location map and information accompanying the photographs have proved vital.
Stokesbury’s invention has greatly boosted the local economy. Before the drop camera, scallop boats brought in an annual harvest valued around $89 million. In 2021, it was $670 million, according to a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) commercial landings report.
Stokesbury has dedicated his career to fisheries sciences, specifically fisheries oceanography. His work involves studying sea scallops and looking at technological innovations to examine stock assessments and resources on the seafloor. He also researches groundfish and recently has been delving into the impacts of offshore wind turbines on fisheries and the environment.
As an undergraduate at Nova Scotia’s Acadia University, he studied marine biology before transitioning to marine ecology as a master’s student. In addition to his studies, Stokesbury ran his own diving company and worked with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada. Then, he relocated to the University of Laval to pursue a PhD in marine ecology.
In 2008, he was awarded the Friend of the Fishing Industry Award, which was read into the congressional record later that year. In 2013, he received the David H. Wallace Award from the National Shellfish Association, and in 2018 he was named The Standard-Times Southcoast Man of the Year. More recently, Stokesbury has been appointed to The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine committee for “Assessment and Advancement of Science in the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s Environmental Studies Program,” and he is the president-elect of the National Shellfisheries Association.