Saving Seafood

New study highlights private-public partnership advancing coastal resilience in Woods Hole

April 24, 2026 — The following was released by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institutions:

A new paper published in Frontiers in Marine Science presents lessons learned and practical strategies for how small coastal communities can respond to increasing risks from sea-level rise and coastal flooding through coordinated actions, as outlined by the ResilientWoodsHole (RWH) initiative.

Coastal communities worldwide are facing accelerating impacts from rising seas and intensifying storms, yet many lack the resources, technical capacity, and frameworks needed to respond effectively. The new study provides a roadmap on how RWH, a partnership of 13 organizations including the scientific institutions Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL), and the NOAA Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC), local government, businesses, and residents, developed a phased approach to move from identifying risk to implementing actionable solutions.

“The hamlet of Woods Hole is an extraordinarily unique, world-class center of excellence for marine science,” said Rob Munier, Vice President of Marine Operations at WHOI, a participating member of the RWH leadership team, and an author on the publication. “It is also vulnerable to sea level rise. It is only fitting that WHOI, MBL, and NEFSC have pooled their considerable expertise to understand the risks and to develop actionable solutions that will benefit the whole community.”

RWH brings together scientific modeling, regulatory analysis, adaptive planning, pilot projects, and sustained community engagement. Using tools such as the Massachusetts Coast Flood Risk Model (MC-FRM), the team identified key flood pathways and vulnerabilities across Woods Hole, where projections show that as soon as 2070, a one-percent annual chance storm could impact approximately 30% of buildings and critical infrastructure.

Beyond technical assessments, the study emphasizes the importance of aligning policy and community priorities with resilience goals. Researchers found that existing regulatory frameworks designed to protect environmental and historic resources can create barriers to timely adaptation if not updated to reflect climate resilience.

The paper also highlights the role of community engagement in shaping effective resilience strategies. Through neighborhood working groups, public workshops, and tools such as the RWH Climate Walking Trail and an interactive 3D model, RWH  has helped translate complex scientific data into an accessible, shared understanding, enabling residents and stakeholders to prioritize actions collaboratively.

“Early on, we recognized the importance of engaging the community through events, workshops, and participation on RWH’s Steering Committee,” said Paul Speer, retired Chief Operating Officer, MBL, a participating member of the RWH leadership team, and an author on the publication, “For example, we conducted a study to evaluate whether MBL’s Stoney Beach, an important community resource, could be made more resilient to flooding through dune restoration. As the project progressed, we kept the community informed through meetings and shared results widely through presentations and the RWH website.”

While Woods Hole benefits from the local presence of major scientific institutions, the study shares transferable strategies that can be applied in other communities, including the use of publicly available flood models, incremental pilot projects, and participatory planning approaches.

About the authors

The paper was authored by collaborators from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the Marine Biological Laboratory, the NOAA Northeast Fisheries Science Center, and technical consultants Woods Hole Group.

Funding for this project was provided through institutional support (WHOI, MBL, and NOAA NEFSC) and grants from the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management Coastal Resilience Program.

Northern Shrimp Population Collapse Linked to Warming Ocean Temperatures, Squid Predation

September 29, 2021 — An extreme heatwave in the Gulf of Maine in 2012 resulted in the warmest ocean temperatures in the region in decades. By 2013, the Atlantic northern shrimp population in the gulf had experienced a stock “collapse.” That is what fishery scientists call a rapid decrease in numbers that is not a natural fluctuation in stock size. Scientists studying the collapse have found that during this time, warmer temperatures were linked to increases in longfin squid, a major shrimp predator. They arrived in the Gulf of Maine sooner than usual and in more areas where shrimp occur.

”Our results suggest that longfin squid may have been a major player in the collapse of Gulf of Maine northern shrimp during an extreme heat wave event,” said Anne Richards, a biologist at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center’s laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.

Richards co-authored the study with Margaret Hunter from the Maine Department of Marine Resources Division of Biological Monitoring and Assessment. They recently published their conclusions in the online journal PLOS ONE.

Read the full story from NOAA

Fisheries Survival Fund: HabCam Failure Threatens 2019 Atlantic Sea Scallop Survey

June 12, 2019 — The following was released by the Fisheries Survival Fund:

The loss, recovery, and now electrical failure of the NOAA Northeast Fisheries Science Center “HabCam”habitat mapping camera means that the all-important 2019 Northeast sea scallop survey now continues as a dredge-only survey. The federal survey will thus conclude on June 15 without crucial sampling instruments, including cameras that photograph the ocean bottom. The HabCam, towed just above the ocean floor, provides a non-invasive, extensive, optically-based survey of the Atlantic scallop resource and ocean floor. NOAA Fisheries is working to make the HabCam a centerpiece research and survey tool.

For its part, the scallop fishery is one of the nation’s most valuable and sustainable. On average, over a half billion dollars of scallops are landed each year in New England and Mid-Atlantic fishing ports. The fishery has prospered in large part due to NOAA Fisheries and scallop-industry funded cooperative research teams from universities and foundations obtaining and using real-time data and information regarding scallop growth and abundance. Federal scientists use the HabCam and a dredge survey, and the federal surveys are supplemented with cooperative dredge and optical surveys, conducted in partnership between the fishing industry and its research partners.

On June 6, the HabCam was being towed by the Research Vessel Hugh R. Sharpin the area known as the Great South Channel and hit an uncharted object in about 130 feet of water. The HabCam separated from the ship when the weak link in the tow cable broke. According to NOAA, this is “intended when tension is too great [in order to limit] damage to both the instrument and the ship’s tow winch.” Four days later, on June 10, commercial divers recovered the instrument. “The vehicle was inspected and minor repairs made, before deploying this morning. The HabCam initially operated as usual, but soon encountered power problems,” NOAA reported.

This disruption will hamper the survey, especially in the Great South Channel, which is a vital scallop harvesting area. The optical survey is particularly important due to the presence of numerous boulders in this area, which make dredge surveys difficult or impossible. This is an area with high yield to the fishery, and one dredge survey is inadequate to determine the size of the biomass in the area.

Government researchers charter the Research Vessel Hugh R. Sharpfor only a specific numbers of days each year, so any day lost has an impact. As a result of this failure, the survey will be conducted for fewer days, and we will therefore have less data to manage the scallop resource.

No matter how staunchly officials protest to the contrary, the HabCam’s loss and electrical failure willimpact our ability to manage the resource.

Sadly, this is the second time in just three years that the $450,000 HabCam has been lost and recovered while operating. On May 20, 2016, scientists aboard the Hugh R. Sharpresearch vessel were conducting scallop surveys about 75 miles southeast of Delaware Bay, between New Jersey and Delaware, when, according to NOAA, the HabCam “separated from the tow cable and the vessel” in about 80 meters of water.

Considering that this is not the first time this has happened, and bearing in mind that by the NOAA Science Center’s own declaration, the weak link is inserted intentionally to limit potential damage to the instrument, it is difficult to understand why no contingency plan is in place to address a loss situation that is both predictable, and known to arise if or when the weak link does its job.

Despite the seriousness of this equipment failure to the survey’s success, NOAA did not inform the public or the industry about this failure until it was directly and publicly asked about the status of the survey at this week’s New England Fishery Management Council meeting, a full five days after the incident occurred. The industry stands ready to partner with the NOAA Northeast Fisheries Science Center, and asks that the science center improve its dialogue and communication with the industry and the taxpaying public.