NOAA awards to advance scallop research

06.03.13 The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has announced the funding of three research proposals submitted by principal investigator Prof. Kevin Stokesbury and co-investigators from the faculty and staff of SMAST’s Department of Fisheries Oceanography. The funded work includes survey studies on Georges Bank and the Mid-Atlantic Shelf as well as a study of the role of persistent aggregations of scallops that may play a disproportionate role in recruitment to the fishery. The three projects total nearly $2.5 million, but Prof. Stokesbury emphasizes that the dollar total includes the value of harvest from the Atlantic Scallop Research Set-Aside Program, which is awarded to compensate the commercial scallop fleet for its substantial contributions to the cooperative research. “Only about one-third of the funded amount actually comes here,” Stokesbury notes. Stokesbury and company are also subcontrators on two NOAA-funded scallop research projects led by the Coonamessett Farm Foundation: a seasonal bycatch survey on Georges Bank, and a study of factors that may enable managers to “buffer” the resource against natural fluctuations. An additional NOAA award to Prof. Steve Cadrin will fund the continuation and expansion of SMAST's Scallop Fishery Bycatch Avoidance System.

$225 K awarded for SMAST-Navy collaboration

05.24.13 A new award from the Office of Naval Research will “enhance the close ties” between SMAST and Navy research interests, according to recipient Dr. Louis Goodman, Professor and Associate Dean of SMAST. The award, $225K over three years, will primarily support the ongoing research of Dr. Goodman’s graduate student Dana Brown. The funding, through the ONR University/Laboratory Initiative Program, involves the student conducting collaborative research with the university and a Navy laboratory—in this case, the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, NUWC, in Newport, RI. The collaborating NUWC scientist is Dr. Andrew Green, who is also an Adjunct Professor at SMAST. Brown’s research involves modeling and measurements of the onset and spatial structure of ocean stratified turbulence.

Students weigh in on int’l fisheries management

05.23.13 Since 2009, SMAST students have been participating directly in international fisheries management through the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES). Each year, students from the Department of Fisheries Oceanography, with a faculty co-chair, undertake to review stock assessments of a variety of species and geographical locations. This year, the group has reviewed 25 stock assessments from the Arctic and Northwest Atlantic. As student co-chair, Greg DeCelles is presenting the group’s review to ICES this week in Copenhagen. The student reviews are taken into account as ICES advises member countries on fisheries management. The student reviewers this year are Greg DeCelles, Dan Goethel, Adam Barkley, Cate O'Keefe, Judith Rosellon-Drucker, Erin Adams, Sean Lucey and Ben Galuardi. Prof. Steve Cadrin co-chairs the group. In exchange for their efforts, students will receive a travel award from ICES to partially fund their attendance at the ICES Annual Science Conference in Reykjavik, Iceland. ICES is an intergovernmental organization of more than 4000 scientists whose main objective is to increase the scientific knowledge of the marine environment and its living resources and to use this knowledge to provide advice to management.

SMAST prof to chair int'l group

05.20.13 SMAST Prof. Pingguo He has been elected to chair the ICES/FAO Working Group on Fishing Technology and Fish Behavior (FTFB) at their recent meeting in Bangkok, Thailand. The FTFB is the preeminent group working on fishing technology and fish behavior, providing advice to ICES and its member countries on fishing gear, bycatch reduction measures, ecosystem survey gears, and technical measures supporting fishery management. The chair serves for a three-year term starting this September. SMAST, together with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries and NOAA's Northeast Fisheries Science Center, will host next year's FTFB working group meeting in New Bedford in May 2014. The FTFB is co-sponsored by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.

Experts huddle to bolster fisheries management

05.17.13 Academic and agency fisheries scientists gathered at SMAST last week to consider the issue of incorporating environmental change into fisheries stock assessments and management. A summary of the workshop's recommendations is posted online. The two-day workshop, and two others to follow, will constitute the Massachusetts Marine Fisheries Institute's "end-to-end" review of New England groundfish stock assessments. The intent of the review is to produce a series of recommendations to improve the scientific basis of management for groundfish fisheries. The Massachusetts Marine Fisheries Institute is a cooperative venture between the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs and the University of Massachusetts to promote sustainable fisheries through education and research.