Prof. Kevin Stokesbury, Chair of SMAST’s Department of Fisheries Oceanography, delivered the keynote address “Marine protected areas and the US sea scallop fishery” at the 20th International Pectinid Workshop in Galway City, Ireland, on April 25.

In the words of the workshop organizing committee, “We are very fortunate to have Dr. Kevin Stokesbury attend and be a keynote speaker at this year’s IPW. Dr. Stokesbury, from the UMass-Dartmouth School for Marine Science and Technology (SMAST) in New Bedford, USA, is well respected for his innovative work in surveying scallops and groundfish by developing the SMAST Scallop Video Survey. SMAST’s creative, cooperative, and cost-effective approach to improving stock assessments through pioneering science was essential to transforming scallop surveys in the 1990s.”

Two other SMAST scientists presented research papers at the workshop. Research Associate Susan Inglis spoke on “Apicomplexan infection and gray meat in Atlantic sea scallops, Placopecten magellanicus . Dr. David Bethoney, also an SMAST Research Associate, presented “Extreme recruitment events in the United States sea scallop fishery.”