Saving Seafood

Tuna lab leaving Gloucester, Mass.

Lutcavage, colleagues to work out of UMass Boston

October 6, 2017 — For the first time in almost seven years, the highly-regarded Large Pelagics Research Center affiliated with the University of Massachusetts no longer has a Gloucester address.

The center, which has performed groundbreaking and internationally acclaimed research on the spawning habits and habitats of Atlantic bluefin tuna, closed up shop Thursday at its most recent home — the Americold-owned building at 159 E. Main St. in East Gloucester.

Americold has been actively shopping the site for months and recently informed the center it would have to vacate its office space by the end of October. Molly Lutcavage, the founder and executive director of the center, and Tim Lam, an assistant research professor, didn’t bother waiting until the end of the month.

“It’s sad to think that we won’t have a Gloucester presence anymore,” Lutcavage said. “For now, I guess we’ll be working out of our houses and garages.”

The center has been forced to navigate some rough seas in the past few years, changing its affiliation within the University of Massachusetts system and being forced out of its original facility at Hodgkins Cove, where it had been housed since 2011.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

Tagging Ahi Tuna in the Western Pacific

July 5, 2016 — A respected research professor, scientist and part-time resident has been on Kauai for several weeks coordinating the latest phase of a tuna tagging project launched on Kauai and the Big Island three years ago.

Dr. Molly Lutcavage is a research professor at the University of Massachusetts Boston’s School for the Environment. She is also director of the Large Pelagic Research Center and is renowned for her extensive work with the Atlantic bluefin tuna fishing community.

The Ahi Satellite Tagging Project of the Pacific Island Fisheries Group is a joint venture that uses state-of-the art technology and partners fisheries organizations, policy makers and local fishermen in the effort to gather much-needed baseline data on ahi and other pelagic fish that live and migrate in waters surrounding the main Hawaiian islands and beyond.

“There’s very little information on these patterns for ahi in this region,” Lutcavage said.

“Most of PSAT or data logging tags on ahi were deployed in the eastern and western Pacific, so the Hawaiian islands remain a ‘data poor’ area as far as high-tech tag results,” she added.

Last week, six large yellowfin tuna (ahi) were tagged with pop-up satellite tags and released in waters off Kauai. If all goes well, the tags will collect data that will help identify their migration routes and behavior for one year, Lutcavage said.

Read the full story at the Garden Island

GLOUCESTER DAILY TIMES: Loss of Research Center a Blow to Gloucester

September 29, 2015 — GLOUCESTER, Mass. — It is difficult to think of the departure of the Large Pelagics Research Center as anything less than a great loss for Gloucester.

Officials from the facility, associated with the University of Massachusetts at Amherst since 2010, announced earlier this week that the center will move from Hodgkins Cove to Boston, and change its affiliation within the university system.

The research center will join UMass Boston’s School for the Environment, allowing founder and director Molly Lutcavage to work with researchers from that school as well as those from the New England Aquarium.

“It’s kind of like starting over again,” Lutcavage told reporter Sean Horgan. “But it’s a really exciting time and we’re really looking forward to working with an incredible cross-section of ocean and research scientists within the School for the Environment. This is really exciting for us to be affiliated with them.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times