Saving Seafood

A sea of choices confronts Biden admin in ocean protection

October 5, 2021 — When it comes to meeting its aggressive conservation pledge, the Biden administration appears to have a head start on protecting the United States’ oceans — after all, on paper, the nation is already more than two-thirds of the way to the goal.

But as the administration puts together a tracking mechanism for its pledge to conserve 30 percent of the nation’s lands and waters by 2030, environmental activists warn that frequently cited statistics provide a misleading picture of ocean conservation.

At the same time, advocates for the fishing industry question counter the nation is much closer to the final objective — if not already there. They argue that conservation shouldn’t always mean activities like fishing are banned and say their industry has shown itself willing to help protect vulnerable species.

Managed waters

Opponents of new marine monuments, however, argue that managed waters are sufficient to meet the conservation goals.

“If it’s not conserved unless it’s in a marine sanctuary that excludes fishing — which is a fairly radical and extreme point of view — then I think you get into a very different set of calculations about how you get to 30 percent,” said Roger Mann, a marine sciences professor at the College of William & Mary’s Virginia Institute of Marine Science.

Mann pointed to language in the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, the nation’s primary fisheries law, that calls for “conservation and management” of the oceans.

“If you’re conserving sustainable resources … then all of the area that is managed under Magnuson is already a conservation area,” argued Mann, who previously served on the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council.

“The councils can all sit there and scratch their heads and say, ‘We’re not 30×30. We’re 100 percent by 2021. What’s the problem?’” he said.

Former Garden State Seafood Association Executive Director Greg DiDomenico said he is optimistic that the Biden administration will adhere to its vow for scientific integrity, but remains staunchly opposed to the idea of new monuments.

“What we expect from 30×30, ultimately, is that it be conducted under rigorous science and an open, transparent policy,” said DiDomenico, who is now with Lund’s Fisheries.

DiDomenico pointed to the creation of the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument during former President Obama’s tenure, which closed the area to commercial fishing.

Former President Trump reversed that closure in 2020, and the New England Fishery Management Council subsequently implemented protections for deep-sea corals in more than 80 percent of the monument (E&E News PM, June 5, 2020).

“The proof is in the pudding,” DiDomenico said, pointing to what is formally known as the Omnibus Deep-Sea Coral Amendment.

He added that: “No one is running from this. We’ve been here before.”

Read the full story at E&E News

 

Close Quarters: Ocean zoning pushes fisheries to the brink

September 23, 2021 — The following is an excerpt from an article published in National Fisherman by Dr. Roger Mann, professor of Marine Science at the College of William and Mary’s Virginia Institute of Marine Science. It is based on an article published by the Journal of Shellfish Research. That paper, “An Ecosystem is Not a Monument, and Other Challenges to Fishing in the 21st Century,” is based on a talk given by Dr. Mann at the annual meeting of the National Shellfisheries Association.

Managing fisheries is no longer simply about [the Magnuson Stevens Act’s] directives to “conserve and manage” a sustainable resource to serve the “social and economic needs of the States.” It is about managing fisheries in a changing landscape of competition for ocean resources, where the environment is changing faster than in living history, and species footprints are on the move.

Part of this changing landscape is the creation of large, no-take MPAs, like the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Monument off the coast of Cape Cod. Designated by President Obama with the sweep of a pen using the Antiquities Act of 1906, the 4,913 square miles of the monument are now managed by multiple federal agencies under a bewildering patchwork of legislation, including Magnuson, the Endangered Species Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the National Wildlife Refuge System Administration Act, the Refuge Recreation Act, Public Law 98-532, and Executive Order 6166. Then there is the National Marine Sanctuaries Act, through which the government can designate and protect marine areas of national significance.

This plethora of confusing legislation lacks uniform definitions. It is not clear on how — or even if — MPA designations are required to be revisited, even when species move. In addition, it does not state who has precedent over whom in the management hierarchy.

Even as questions remain over existing MPAs, activists are pushing for more with a “30×30” campaign to protect 30 percent of our nation’s land, inland waters and oceans as conservation areas by 2030. But what is “protected” in this context? Is a region protected only by excluding fishermen through a no-take MPA? Or does the Magnuson Act directive to “conserve and manage the fishery resources” and “exercise sound judgment in [their] stewardship” rise to the level of protection? If so, then is not the entire exclusive economic zone already protected?

MPAs are far from the only competition fishermen are facing in the ocean. Environmental advocacy, communications corridors, mining, national defense, and shipping all threaten fishermen’s access to ocean resources. Perhaps the biggest incursion of all is offshore wind development: the U.S. East Coast continental shelf already has 1.7 million acres of federal bottom under lease for offshore wind, with the Biden administration seemingly poised to expand such efforts along the Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf coasts. Offshore wind projects have a projected lifespan of 50 years, with turbine spacing restricting access for both commercial fishing vessels towing mobile gear and federal survey vessels. Stock assessment surveys will be compromised, resulting in reduced quotas for fishermen.

With so many competitors muscling their way into the ocean, who will be the winners and losers? Over what time frames will winners emerge? Where does preservation of the fishing industry sit in the pecking order? At the bottom?

The “space” for fisheries is shrinking. Commercial fishing won’t be the largest economic player as development of our oceans continues, but it is historically an important part of the economic and social structure of coastal communities. Fisheries are based on moving species distributions that do not function well within fixed boundaries, like those being zoned for MPAs and offshore wind.

Read the full article at National Fisherman

Study finds existing forage fish management is working

July 9, 2021 — Efforts to ratchet down fishing effort on species like herring and menhaden in the name of “extra precautionary management” in most cases are unlikely to bring additional benefits for stocks of predator species that eat them, according to a new study.

“Our results indicate that predator productivity was rarely influenced by the abundance of their forage fish prey,” wrote authors Christopher Free of the University of California-Santa Barbara, Olaf Jensen of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Ray Hilborn of the University of Washington. “Only 6 predator populations (13 percent of the total) were positively influenced by increasing prey abundance and the model exhibited high power to detect prey influences when they existed,” according to their paper titled “Evaluating impacts of forage fish abundance on marine predators,” originally published in the journal Conservation Biology.

“These results suggest that additional limitation of forage fish harvest to levels well below sustainable yields would rarely result in detectable increases in marine predator populations.”

The findings were released July 6 through the Science Center for Marine Fisheries, a cooperative effort to improve sustainability of fisheries and reduce uncertainty in biomass estimates with work by university partners led with the University of Southern Mississippi Virginia Institute of Marine Science, College of William and Mary, as academic sites.

“Our work suggests that the sustainable limits that we already employ are sufficient for maintaining forage fish abundance above the thresholds that are necessary for their predators,” Free of UC Santa Barbara in a statement describing the findings. “Predators are highly mobile, they have high diet flexibility, and they can go and look for forage fish in places where they’re doing well, switch species for species that are doing well, and have often evolved to breed in places where there’s high and stable forage fish abundance.”

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Dr. Derek Aday chosen to lead VIMS

July 8, 2021 — The following was released by the Virginia Institute of Marine Science:

William & Mary has named nationally renowned ecologist Dr. Derek Aday as its next dean of the School of Marine Science and director of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science.

Aday, who will begin in this role at VIMS September 1, is head of the Department of Applied Ecology at North Carolina State University, university director of the Southeast Climate Adaptation Science Center, a fellow of the American Fisheries Society, and editor-in-chief of the society’s flagship journal. His selection follows a national search to succeed Dr. John Wells, who is retiring after 17 years at the VIMS helm.

“William & Mary welcomes warmly Dr. Aday to the university community,” says President Katherine A. Rowe. “Following the exceptional leadership of Dr. Wells, VIMS and the School of Marine Science are positioned to expand the university’s reach globally in the coming decades. And for Virginia, VIMS is vital to ensuring the continued prosperity of the Commonwealth’s ecology, economy, and coastal communities. Derek Aday’s talents and experiences perfectly match these challenges and opportunities.”

For his part, Aday says he embraces leading VIMS into the future and the continued interdisciplinary work required to solve complex problems facing the waters of the Commonwealth, the nation, and the world.

“VIMS and William & Mary have incredible histories and traditions and I’m very much looking forward to becoming a part of the future of both organizations,” Aday says. “I’ve followed the great science and scientists at VIMS from afar for many years, and I’m humbled by the opportunity to join a community of talented scholars and educators that is making a real difference in the world.”

Provost Peggy Agouris says he’s been equally followed by VIMS scholars and students. Aday has written numerous articles in peer-reviewed publications on topics ranging from the ecology of fresh- and saltwater fishes to the impacts of mercury pollution on aquatic ecosystems.

“Dr. Aday is a remarkable scientist in marine science and ecology,” says Agouris, “and we are fortunate to have him lead VIMS and our School of Marine Science. He impresses on the academic and the leadership fronts, both of which are necessary to lead one of the most important and impactful marine science schools in the world. Under his leadership, I am confident that VIMS’s advisory, educational, and research arms will flourish.”

Aday’s 16-year career in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at NCSU has provided leadership experience in all three facets of VIMS’ mission of research, education, and advisory service. He said he looks forward “to the opportunity to lead a cutting-edge marine research institute with a strong tradition of student education and a vibrant connection to an outstanding university.” He also relishes the challenge of guiding VIMS in its role as a technical advisor to the Commonwealth of Virginia for coastal and marine issues, across what he called “an impressive scale and breadth of disciplines.”

Dr. Carl Friedrichs, Glucksman professor of Marine Science at VIMS and chair of the Dean & Director Search Committee, notes that Aday articulated an “inspiring vision for an innovative future for VIMS.”

“The search committee was struck by Derek’s proven leadership across a broad range of relevant roles,” Friedrichs says. “He cited ideas that built on, but also went beyond, our current strengths to enhance more ambitious, interdisciplinary research, advisory service, and educational initiatives on issues such as climate change and coastal resilience.”

An interdisciplinary worldview has been central to Aday’s success, both in research and administration. He currently chairs an academic department he described as “interdisciplinary at its core,” with researchers exploring many of the same topics studied at VIMS, including aquatic ecology, biodiversity, conservation biology, fishery science and aquaculture, applied toxicology, and global change.

Under his leadership, the department earned approximately $9 million in annual grant funding, created a unique outreach and engagement program and doubled the number of women and historically under-represented, tenure-track faculty members. He also played a leading role in strategic plans recently developed by both his department and college, an experience that will serve him well as VIMS initiated its latest strategic planning process just last year.

Aday also brings experience in managing the type of multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional partnerships that have long animated and strengthened the VIMS mission. As university director of the Southeast Climate Adaptation Science Center, he led a consortium that included five academic institutions of higher education; federal collaborators from the U.S. Geological Survey; state climatologists and tribal partners from four nations. Aday’s leadership portfolio at VIMS will likewise include a wealth of institutional, state, and federal partners.

Read the full release here

Science Center for Marine Fisheries Recognizes Its Women Scientists in Celebration of Women’s History Month

March 31, 2021 — The following was released by the Science Center for Marine Fisheries:

As Women’s History Month comes to a close, the Science Center for Marine Fisheries (SCEMFIS) is celebrating the contributions of the women students and staffers who are a driving force behind the Center’s current success, and who are essential to our important fisheries science research.

SCEMFIS operates two main research centers, the Gulf Coast Research Lab at the University of Southern Mississippi and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science at the College of William and Mary. This year, we have an amazing team of PhD and Master’s degree students working at both sites, contributing to our work on finish and shellfish.

Here are the stories of the students and scientists that are part of the SCEMFIS team, who will make up the next generation of leaders in marine science.

Kathleen Hemeon is a 3rd year PhD candidate at the Gulf Coast Research Lab at the University of Southern Mississippi. In her second year as a PhD student, she participated in a National Science Foundation non-academic internship, which funded a six-month collaborative research study at the Population Biology Branch of the NMFS Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Woods Hole, MA. As an intern, she worked to develop age-error estimations and protocols that arise when aging the commercially harvested ocean quahog (Arctica islandica), the longest-lived bivalve on Earth. These data will help researchers identify age-reader bias and precision to report with age estimations, in addition to standardizing aging procedures for an animal that is notoriously difficult to age.

Kathleen will continue her work on ocean quahog with her dissertation, which will better explain the population dynamics of two, Mid-Atlantic quahog populations. This dissertation follows Kathleen’s previous work with green sturgeon, inland fisheries, and natural resource management, in addition to an earned B.S. from Western Washington University and M.S. from James Madison University.

Jill Sower is a second year Master’s student at the Gulf Coast Research Lab. Her work at GCRL focuses on examining population dynamics for ocean quahogs off the coast of New Jersey in comparison to different quahog populations from along the coast of New England.

Jill received a B.S. in Wildlife Conservation and a B.A. in Spanish from Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, VA. She hopes to graduate in Spring 2022, and after finishing her degree, she would like to continue working in a research position at a coastal university along the East Coast.

Alyssa LeClaire is a Master’s student at the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory. Working in collaboration with Virginia Institute of Marine Science, her work includes collecting samples from archived ocean quahog shells found offshore of the Delmarva Peninsula. Carbon dates will be used to determine the time scale of the ocean quahog’s range shift across the continental shelf in Mid-Atlantic Bight, coinciding with fluctuation of the Cold Pool and historical climate events. She has sampled shells that are over 4000 years old.

She is applying for an NSF nonacademic internship to work with NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) and Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL). This five-month internship would be to determine if the Cold Pool has significantly changed, in terms of size and location, and if this change is impacting the available habitat of ocean quahog. Alyssa received her BS in Marine Science at Coastal Carolina University in South Carolina.

Laura Solinger is a PhD student in the Gulf Coast Research Lab. Her work focuses on developing a risk-based approach to assess the effectiveness of different management strategies on fisheries resources, including summer flounder and Atlantic surfclam. Laura was awarded an NSF non-academic internship to collaborate with the stock assessment lead for Atlantic surfclam, Dr. Daniel Hennen, at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center, and she has also collaborated on projects for management of gulf oysters, abalone disease transmission, and forecasts of clam fisheries given projected offshore windmill construction.

Laura received her BS in Biology with a focus on Marine Science from the University of South Florida, and is currently finishing her MS in Fisheries Biology with Humboldt State University. After her PhD, Laura hopes to work with private and public fisheries organizations to develop stock assessment models, assess their effectiveness and continue advancements to incorporate new data sources and environmental variables into models.

Alexis Hollander is a Master’s Student at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science in Dr. Roger Mann’s Molluscan Ecology Lab. For her Master’s research, Alexis is investigating the impacts of climate change on the growth and distribution of Atlantic surfclams (Spisula solidissima). The moving footprint of the range of exploited surfclams in these regions over the past four decades is now well documented in both Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) stock assessment surveys and the gradual northeasterly movement of harvest activity. This project is developing a 33-year retrospective, spatially explicit time series of growth rates in surfclams collected over the surveyed range to both document the moving footprint in terms of population productivity and provide an explicit forward projection of future productivity.

Alexis has a career goal of serving as an educator and mentor to college students.

Alexandria Marquardt is an ecologist and PhD student in the Department of Fisheries Science at Virginia Institute of Marine Science studying Eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) biology and population dynamics in the Chesapeake Bay. Her work focuses primarily on marine invertebrates and addresses applied questions that directly inform management and restoration of harvested species. Alex’s PhD research investigates post-settlement growth and mortality in oysters in the Chesapeake Bay and compares existing and fossil oyster reefs. Alex is collaborating with SCEMFIS this spring, assisting with ocean quahog and surf clam research, while searching for fossilized oysters.

Her career goals are to work on research and monitoring programs that engage local communities and stakeholders to share knowledge, build relationships, and facilitate participation in scientific research. Alex completed her BS in Fisheries and Wildlife Science at Oregon State University and MS in Biological Sciences working with Dr. Ben Ruttenberg at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.

About SCEMFIS

SCEMFIS utilizes academic and fisheries resources to address urgent scientific problems limiting sustainable fisheries. SCEMFIS develops methods, analytical and survey tools, datasets, and analytical approaches to improve sustainability of fisheries and reduce uncertainty in biomass estimates. SCEMFIS university partners, University of Southern Mississippi (lead institution), and Virginia Institute of Marine Science, College of William and Mary, are the academic sites. Collaborating scientists who provide specific expertise in finfish, shellfish, and marine mammal research, come from a wide range of academic institutions including Old Dominion University, Rutgers University, University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, University of Maryland, and University of Rhode Island.

The need for the diverse services that SCEMFIS can provide to industry continues to grow, which has prompted a steady increase in the number of fishing industry partners. These services include immediate access to science expertise for stock assessment issues, rapid response to research priorities, and representation on stock assessment working groups. Targeted research leads to improvements in data collection, survey design, analytical tools, assessment models, and other needs to reduce uncertainty in stock status and improve reference point goals.

New Study Finds Strong Currents Off Nantucket Prevent Development of Stable, Biologically Diverse Benthic Communities

February 22, 2021 — The following was released by the Science Center for Marine Fisheries (SCEMFIS):

Complex ocean environments, full of features such as cobble, rocks, and boulders, are usually home to a diversity of marine life; as a result, fisheries managers have often sought to preserve these areas from outside interference. But one such area off the coast of Nantucket may be a significant exception to this rule, according to a new study from the Science Center for Marine Fisheries (SCEMFIS).

The study, from Eric Powell, Jeremy Timbs, and Kelsey Kuykendall of the University of Southern Mississippi and Roger Mann and M. Chase Long of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, analyzes survey data from the Nantucket Shoals area of the Great South Channel in the Atlantic, an area of considerable substrate complexity and home to the Great South Channel Habitat Management Area (HMA). But the study found that, due to the area’s strong currents and seafloor activity, much of the faunal diversity expected from substate complexity has failed to develop.

Specifically, the study found few examples of the kind of charismatic marine life—such as tunicates, sponges and anemones—that usually attach themselves to prominent features like boulders and rocks in habitats where they occur. The study attributes this to the high-energy currents that frequently run through the area, as well as the sand on the seafloor regularly scouring the rocks as a result of the currents. The absence of mussels attached to hard bottom features, and the presence of barnacle scars where barnacles have been eroded off the rocks, show clear evidence of the rigor of the benthic environment that minimizes the use of these substrates by attached bottom creatures.

According to the study, the tidal activity and strong currents “minimize the importance of cobbles, rocks, boulders, and shells in community structure in some subtidal high-energy regimes, defying expectations from their contribution to substrate complexity.”

“You’d expect the type of environment you see in Nantucket Shoals to support a significant amount of life on its rocks and bottom features, but that’s just not the case here,” said Dr. Eric Powell, one of the authors of the study. “These findings show that we need to consider the whole range of factors when determining which habitats are most likely to support biodiversity.

”The findings are significant for future management of the Great SouthChannel area. Much of the region has been part of a HMA since 2018, which prohibits bottom-tending fishing gear. It is also home to important fishing grounds for surfclams, and is one of the most resilient areas for surfclam habitat. Surfclam fishermen have lost access to these grounds since the HMA went into full effect.

Most notably, the Nantucket Shoals area within the HMA was critical for smaller clam vessels fishing out of Massachusetts; several surfclam companies caught up to 90 percent of their harvest from the area. Since it was first established, members of the surfclam industry have argued that this habitat area does not contain enough complex habitat to justify the number of restrictions in place, especially considering the cost to the industry. The study indicates that the area may not be a good candidate for habitat protection.

“It’s important that conservation efforts target areas that are most likely to benefit them, especially if these efforts would interfere with important fishing grounds,” said Monte Rome a member of the SCEMFIS IAB. “This study helps us better identify areas that do not particularly benefit conservation efforts.”

Read the full release here

Surveys find mixed spawning success for striped bass this year in Chesapeake

October 26, 2020 — Striped bass can’t get a break, it seems. With their East Coast population in decline from overfishing, the migratory species had mixed success reproducing in the Chesapeake Bay this year, surveys show.

The state Department of Natural Resources reported last week that its annual trawl survey of newly spawned striped bass in Maryland waters yielded just 2.5 little fish per net haul — far below the long-term average of 11.5 per sample.

“We just didn’t have good recruitment [of young fish] this year,” said Mike Luisi, the DNR’s director of fisheries monitoring and assessment. “It kind of just goes along with everything else in 2020 that’s just been tough.”

This is the second straight year and the 10th in the last 15 years that the DNR survey found evidence of below-average striped bass reproduction.

A separate study done by the Virginia Institute of Marine Science found an above-average number of juvenile striped bass in that state’s tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay. It was the eighth straight year in which the survey tallied an average or above-average abundance for the species.

Read the full story at the Bay Journal

VIRGINIA: Glimmer of hope for striped bass: Numbers of young fish show stability

October 23, 2020 — The Virginia Institute of Marine Science’s annual count of young striped bass once again yielded a number higher than the historic average.

But the significant increase — 13.89 fish per sample, compared to last year’s 9.54 and the historical average of 7.77 from 1980 to 2009 — may be a fluke of bad weather and the pandemic, VIMS cautioned.

The survey has yielded results above that historic average for eight years running. It counts juveniles — typically 1-1/2 to 4 inches long — that will grow to the size fishermen want to catch in three to four years.

The survey is based on what nets haul from 18 sites in the James, York and Rappahannock river watersheds. Its biologists usually draw samples from July to early September, but this year, Tropical Storm Isaias and COVID-19 precautions mean 19% of samples weren’t completed. Other indices suggest juvenile striped bass populations are fairly stable, VIMS said. The Maryland Department of Natural Resources, for instance, reported a below-average count in its 2020 survey, but the pattern of below average Maryland and above average Virginia counts has been seen in 2013, 2016 and 2019.

Read the full story at The Virginian-Pilot

New study: Northeast squid fishery lands $99 million income, 2,500 jobs

May 7, 2020 — An economic study from the Science Center for Marine Fisheries shows the East Coast squid fishery lands more than $30 million in direct income annually but generates some $243 million in total economic output for New England and the Mid-Atlantic states.

The study, conducted for the center for science and industry research by Andrew Scheld of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science is welcomed by industry advocates, who say there have been few attempts to quantify the fishery’s total economic impact.

His work pulled in data “collected from seafood processors and independent vessels, combined with well-established economic impact models to determine the fishery’s employment, revenue, and overall economic contributions,” according to a statement from the science center announcing the findings.

The report could be critical to the squid fleet and processors who are trying to get a bigger say in how offshore wind energy is developed off southern New England and the Mid-Atlantic. Early on as the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management began considering wind developers’ proposals, fishermen pointed out the NOAA landings data going into that analysis lowballed the squid sector’s real value to the economy and jobs.

“It just goes to show the regulators, the folks making the decisions and the wind industry that you cannot rely on ex-vessel value (of squid landings) alone,” said Meghan Lapp, fisheries liaison for Seafreeze Ltd. In North Kingstown, R.I.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

New Study: Squid fishery responsible for over 2,500 jobs, $240 million in economic impact

May 6, 2020 — The following was released by the Science Center for Marine Fisheries (SCEMFIS):

Fishing for longfin squid brings in tens of millions of dollars in annual revenue and supports thousands of full-time jobs, according to a new study from the Science Center for Marine Fisheries (SCEMFIS). The study finds that the fishery is responsible each year for over $30 million in direct revenue, over $99 million in total income, over 2,500 full-time jobs, and $243 million in total economic output in New England and the Mid-Atlantic region.

The study comes as the squid fishery faces new challenges, and was performed primarily to address potential conflicts with the growth of offshore wind energy, with many proposed developments interfering with important fishing grounds.  Like many fishing communities across the country, squid fishermen are also dealing with the effects of the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, with demand for squid products like calamari crippled by the closure of restaurants across the country.

Accurately measuring the value of the fishery—and the many jobs that it supports—is crucial not only for managing the future of the fishery from competing ocean development, but also for helping fishing communities understand the value of the fishery lost as a result of the current economic shutdown.

“Loligo squid is a significant part of our business and is also a Marine Stewardship Council-certified, sustainable fishery with its products in demand in the U.S., Europe and Asia,” said Jeff Kaelin, Director of Sustainability and Government Relations for Lund’s Fisheries, in Cape May, New Jersey. “This study shows the extent to which our fishery has grown in size and economic importance, which needs to be considered by both fishery and wind-energy regulators making decisions impacting our future.”

Despite its importance as an East Coast fishery, there have been few attempts to quantify the squid fishery’s total economic impact. The study, from Dr. Andrew M. Scheld at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, relies on data collected from seafood processors and independent vessels, combined with well-established economic impact models to determine the fishery’s employment, revenue, and overall economic contributions.

“The squid fishery has long been an important fishery for us in New Jersey, and for fishing communities across the region,” said Greg DiDomenico, Chairman of the SCEMFIS Industry Advisory Board. “It’s important, especially as we look for ways to support the industry during these current challenges, to know what’s at stake, how many people depend on this fishery, and its economic impact, from the boats to the table.”

According to the study, fishing for longfin squid occurs primarily in Rhode Island, New York, and New Jersey, with most of the employment impact coming from the restaurant and seafood harvesting sectors. The study found that longfin squid has a significant international and domestic market; it represents 21 percent of the volume and 78 of the value of U.S. market squid landings.

SCEMFIS is part of the National Science Foundation’s Industry-University Cooperative Research Centers Program, supporting fisheries research improving the future of finfish and shellfish productivity, from the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of Maine. Lund’s Fisheries and the Garden State Seafood Association are original members of the Center’s Industry Advisory Board.