Saving Seafood

2022 NOAA Northeast Sea Scallop Survey Results

June 28, 2022 — The NOAA Fisheries Integrated Sea Scallop and Habcam Research Survey is in the books for 2022. Scientists and crew completed their work aboard the University of Delaware’s R/V Hugh R. Sharp on June 13, 2022.

The Atlantic sea scallop population is surveyed every summer by NOAA Fisheries and partnering research groups. This year those partners are the Coonamessett Farm Foundation, the Virginia Institute of Marine Science and the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth School of Marine Science and Technology. Each partner surveys an assigned area using similar methods and a standardized survey design. Here, we are reporting results for the survey areas allocated to the NOAA Fisheries-based effort, led by the Northeast Fisheries Science Center.

Resulting data are used for fishery stock assessments, fishery management, and biological studies. Sea scallops are one of the most valuable commercial fishery species in the nation.

Leg 1 of the survey was conducted May 14 to 23 off the Mid-Atlantic and southern Georges Bank. Researchers deployed the stereo camera and sensor system known as Habcam V4.

Leg 2 was conducted from May 25 to June 3, and Leg 3 operated from June 5 to June 13. On these legs, we deployed both Habcam V4 and a scallop dredge. The dredge is a standardized 8-foot wide New Bedford sea scallop dredge that collects sea scallops for biological analyses.

Read the full story at NOAA Fisheries

UMass invention could cut fish monitoring costs

July 21, 2016 — Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth have been awarded a patent for technology they say could reduce the costs of fishing vessel monitoring, a cost fisherman say threatens their livelihood, the school announced this week.

Dr. Brian Rothschild, the retired founding head of the UMass-Dartmouth School of Marine Science and Technology, and graduate student Glenn Chamberlain said their on-board 3D camera system would reduce costs, ensure accuracy and expand the scope of what information could be collected.

“Broad-based and accurate counting of the fish being caught is critical to our collective efforts to sustain critical fish stocks and thus the commercial fishing industry,” Rothschild said in a statement. “We believe we have found a way to count the fish being caught in a relatively low-cost manner that will increase confidence among the federal regulators and the fishing industry.”

The camera system, which would cost about $500 to install on a vessel, utilizes stereo photogrammetry, a system used by meteorologists to collect information about tornadoes, to capture images of fish either on the deck or passing through a net, according to the university. Those images could then be analyzed to produce “a permanent record of each sampling tow or catch in the fishery and to determine the species and size composition of each tow,” the university said.

Last year, Hampton, New Hampshire, fisherman Dave Goethel and a fishing sector filed a lawsuit challenging the legality of a mandate requiring them to carry at-sea monitors on their vessels and pay the cost of hosting those federal enforcement contractors. The government shifted the cost of paying for monitors from itself to fishermen earlier this year.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times