New science designed to
improve management of scallop and flounder fisheries
UMassDartmouth
OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS
EDITOR'S NOTE: Scientic research programs of this type are an endangered species under Trump's and the Republican Congress's budget priorities.Researchers at UMass Dartmouth’s School for Marine Science & Technology (SMAST) have been awarded$1,049,044 in research funds through the NOAA Fisheries Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) and the New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) Sea Scallop Research Set-Aside (RSA) Program.
Projects
will address sea scallop research priorities established by the NEFMC for 2017
and 2018. Among these are resource surveys to estimate scallop biomass,
projects addressing bycatch reduction, and work to improve understanding of
scallop biology and recruitment.
SMAST
received three awards to conduct surveys using its drop-camera array. High
resolution surveys of Closed Area I, Closed II, and the Elephant Trunk will be
completed, as well as a broad-scale survey in the Mid-Atlantic Bight and
Georges Bank. The scallop survey research is led by Dr. Kevin
Stokesbury.
Expanding
on previous sea scallop gray-meat research, SMAST will attempt to delineate the
southern range of gray-meat occurrences and assess the growth, meat weights,
and reproductive potential of animals found with gray meat in scallop
populations. This project, led by Dr. Daniel Georgiana, will
complement ongoing lab-based research funded last year.
SMAST,
in collaboration with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, will develop a
predictive model for scallop recruitment to improve the understanding of
spawning and recruitment dynamics. Results could assist managers making
management decisions. Dr. Changsheng
Chen is the principal investigator for the project.
SMAST
will explore how environmental, management, and behavioral factors influence
sea scallop landings-per-unit-effort (LPUE) in an attempt to improve the
accuracy of LPUE estimates. These estimates are used to help set overall
fishery allocations, as well as the number of fishing days allocated for the
Limited Access scallop fishery. Dr. Steven Cadrin and
his team of researchers will collaborate with the sea scallop assessment
working group so that information can be used in the 2018 sea scallop
assessment.
Additionally,
researchers at SMAST will study the swimming capabilities and behaviors of
yellowtail and windowpane flounders in a new seawater tank facility. Dr. Pingguo He and his team will
evaluate various aspects of swimming physiology, including speed and endurance,
in an attempt to inform potential bycatch mitigation strategies and
conservation engineering designs.
