Tag Archives: Conference

New Instrument Unveiled at AGU

wp_altabet_GTDSMAST Professor Mark Altabet is part of a multi-institutional team that introduced a novel oceanographic instrument to the scientific community at December’s fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU). Researchers from the University of Washington’s Applied Physics Laboratory and SMAST/UMassD developed the instrument to monitor the biogeochemistry of oxygen minimum zones (OMZs) in the ocean on time scales impractical for shipboard studies.

The new Teflon-membrane-based “gas tension device” (GTD) measures the excess nitrogen gas microbially generated in OMZs, with a depth range from the surface to 550 meters, a significant advancement over previous GTD models. Continue reading

Rothschild Named Hjort Scholar

wp_brian_rothschild_7sep1SMAST Prof. Emeritus Brian Rothschild has been appointed a Hjort Scholar by the Hjort Centre for Marine Ecosystem Dynamics, Bergen, Norway. According to the appointment letter, recipients of Hjort Scholarships are “… scientists whose research is deemed to promote scientific innovation and understanding of marine ecosystem dynamics.” The award includes a grant in the amount of 50.000 krone (~US$7000), which will be directed to research collaboration and proposal development with Centre scientists.

The center is named for Johan Hjort, widely considered to be the father of fisheries science.

In October, Dr. Rothschild delivered an invited address at the Johan Hjort Symposium on Recruitment Dynamics and Stock Variability in Bergen. The occasion for the symposium was the 100th anniversary of the publication of Hjort’s seminal book, Fluctuations in the Great Fisheries of Northern Europe. According to the symposium organizers, “The importance of [Hjort’s] volume cannot be overstated, particularly Hjort’s new conceptual ideas about the formation of strong year classes based on age determination from fish scales.”

Dr. Rothschild is Professor Emeritus and founding Dean of the UMass Dartmouth School for Marine Science and Technology. He is currently President and CEO of the Center for Sustainable Fisheries (CSF), a science-based, non-profit organization “devoted to the onservation of our fisheries resources and the economic development of our fishing communities.”

O’Keefe to Address AAAS

wp_cate_podium_320x240SMAST Research Associate Dr. Catherine O’Keefe has been invited to address the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in San Jose, California, in February. Cate’s presentation is entitled “An Incentive-Led, Dynamic Communication Program in the U.S. Atlantic Scallop Fishery.”

Cate is the principal architect of the SMAST Bycatch Avoidance Program, which since 2010 has helped prevent bycatch-related closures of New Bedford’s $600 million scallop fishery.

When the scallop fleet reaches their limit of flounder bycatch, areas are closed to the fleet, preventing full harvest of scallops. In fact, from 2006 to 2009, the scallop fishery was closed early because it approached the flounder bycatch limit, costing the industry approximately $60 million.

Cate and other SMAST researchers worked with scallop fishermen to develop an information sharing system that enables fishermen to avoid bycatch hotspots. The program was implemented in 2010, and the fleet was able to catch their entire scallop allocation, while only catching one third of their bycatch limit, thus making the program a conservation success as well as an economic success. The program has grown over the last five years to include over 70% of the scallop fleet, and the fishery has not exceeded their bycatch limits since the program was introduced.

During the past year, Cate has been working with a group of researchers from both the east and west coasts of the U.S. to advance real-time ocean management. Along with colleagues from the group, she’ll be presenting results from that work at the conference.

Eddy Wins “Best Student Paper” at AFS

wp_corey_and_sharkPh.D. student Corey Eddy (Biology/SMAST) won the “Best Student Paper Presentation” award at the American Fisheries Society annual meeting last month in Quebec City for “Capture-Related Mortality and Post-Release Survival of Pelagic Sharks Interacting with Tuna Purse Seines in the Eastern Pacific Ocean.” Corey’s advisor, Prof. Diego Bernal, was co-author of the paper.

At the same meeting, UMass Dartmouth scientists and students authored or co-authored some three dozen oral and poster presentations. In addition, SMAST scientists organized and/or moderated technical sessions on Fishing Gear Selectivity and Selective Fishing; Marine Mammal and Fisheries Interactions; Fishing down the Food Web; and Modeling and Statistics.

The Society’s 144th annual meeting was sponsored by Fisheries and Oceans Canada, and the Northeastern Division, the Atlantic International Chapter, and the Canadian Aquatic Resources Section of the American Fisheries Society (AFS).

See a complete list of UMassD contributions at the AFS meeting.

SMAST Out in Force at OS14

wp_lou_and_sudipSMAST faculty, staff and students authored or co-authored some three dozen posters and oral presentations at Ocean Sciences 2014 last month (February 24-28) in Honolulu, Hawai’i.

In addition, three SMAST faculty co-chaired technical sessions: Dean Steven Lohrenz co-chaired session 068 – “Understanding biogeochemical and ecosystem responses to natural and human-induced interactions, drivers and pressures in coastal regions”; Prof. Mark Altabet co-chaired session 008: “Revising biogeochemical stoichiometry: The oceans beyond Redfield on a changing planet”; and Prof. Miles Sundermeyer co-chaired session 012 on “Oceanic submesoscale processes.”

Co-sponsored by the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography, the American Geophysical Union, and The Oceanography Society, Ocean Sciences is the world’s premier conference of marine scientists and oceanographers. The biennial meeting is believed to have set an attendance record this year, estimated at more than 5000, based on preregistrations.

SMAST Largest Delegation at ICES

wp_bergen_dougzSMAST researchers joined colleagues from twenty countries last week in Bergen, Norway, for the Annual Science Conference of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES). The event facilitates the sharing of the latest ocean research and its implications for marine ecosystems and ultimately fisheries. SMAST’s participation in ICES meetings has grown steadily over the years, culminating last week in the largest delegation at the conference from a U.S. university. SMAST Department of Fisheries Oceanography personnel authored or co-authored fourteen papers and posters and co-convened two of the conference’s theme sessions. (Photo courtesy Doug Zemeskis.)

Prince Charles Addresses World Fisheries Congress

wp_wfc2012“Sustainable Fisheries in a Changing World” was the theme of the 6th World Fisheries Congress last week in Edinburgh, Scotland, and Prince Charles’ address to the congress was right on theme: “urgent and collective action” is required, he said, to rescue world fish stocks. A delegation from SMAST’s Department of Fisheries Oceanography joined colleagues from 65 countries in presenting reports of research and strategies relevant to that goal. The congress is convened every four years by the World Council of Fisheries Societies, a non-profit, nongovernmental organization that includes scientific and professional fisheries societies and affiliated organizations world-wide.

SMAST in Full Force at Ocean Sciences 2012

wp_os2012_venueSMAST personnel authored or co-authored a total of 43 posters and oral presentations at Ocean Sciences 2012 in Salt Lake City last week. Convened every two years, the meeting is an international gathering of more than 4,000 attendees, jointly sponsored by The Oceanography Society, the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography and the American Geophysical Union. It is one of the primary means by which the marine science community shares information about new or in-progress research. (Photo courtesy Marco Pedulli.)

Chen, Brown Report at MIT Forum

wp_brown-chenThree of the five research reports delivered at last week’s MIT Sea Grant Forum were authored or co-authored by SMAST scientists. Wendell Brown (left in photo), head of SMAST’s Ocean Observation Laboratory, reported on studies of tidal eddies in the Great South Channel and their possible relation to scallop abundance there. Robert Beardsley (WHOI) and Changsheng Chen (SMAST) reported on a computer model system that predicts coastal inundation from storms and is being tested at Situate, MA. Chen and Beardsley, along with members of Chen’s modeling group at SMAST, also presented a study to design the optimum system for monitoring dissolved oxygen in Massachusetts Bay. The Forum was part of a seminar series to provide input to MIT Sea Grant staff for “outreach programs that deliver economic, societal and environmental benefits from our funded research.”

Sigma Xi Highlights UMassD Research

wp_SigmaXi2011_007SMAST was well-represented this week at the 17th annual research exhibit sponsored by the UMass Dartmouth chapter of Sigma Xi, the scientific research society. Research projects by eight SMAST graduate students and two Physics graduate students in marine science were among the nearly 100 faculty/student presentations in a poster session that filled the main hall of Woodland Commons and spilled out into the lobby. SMAST Interim Dean John Farrington concluded the exhibit with a seminar entitled “Oil Pollution in the Marine Environment: Previous Scientific Knowledge Informing the Response to the 2010 BP-DWH MC252 ‘Macondo’ Oil Spill.”