Tag Archives: Workshop

Stokesbury to Keynote Pectinid Workshop

seafood_fest_2014 016_320x240Prof. Kevin Stokesbury, Chair of SMAST’s Department of Fisheries Oceanography, has been chosen ‌to deliver a keynote address at the 20th International Pectinid Workshop in Galway City, Ireland, in April.

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. Continue reading →

Port Recovery Plan Unveiled

wp_hogan_croppedAn SMAST-led research team unveiled a “Groundfish Port Recovery and Revitalization Plan” for New Bedford and Fairhaven at a workshop on Friday, February 27, at the School for Marine Science and Technology. UMassD Chancellor Divina Grossman welcomed participants to the workshop, and New Bedford Mayor John Mitchell provided the introduction.

Led by SMAST economist Dan Georgianna, the research team has been conducting interviews and gathering data since November. The draft report quantifies the status and trends in the groundfish fishery and the effects on the economic health of the port.

Economist and former UMassD Arts & Sciences Dean Bill Hogan discussed the decline of the groundfish fishery, and Prof. Georgianna reported on the effects on shore-side businesses. The report’s recommendations for recovery and revitalization were presented by Steve Cadrin (SMAST, improvements in stock assessment), Kevin Stokesbury (SMAST, improvements in data collection), Kate Kramer (Center for Sustainable Fisheries, reauthorization of the Magnuson Act) and Jeff Stieb (Harbor Development Commission, improvements to the port).

A final report is expected in about a month.

Experts Huddle to Bolster Fisheries Management

wp_env_chng_wkshp_may13_002Academic 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.

Cadrin Leads Sustainability Forum

wp_AIFRBSMAST Professor Steve Cadrin chaired the third annual Science and Sustainability Forum last week at the International Seafood Show in Boston. The Ocean Trust, an ocean conservation foundation, working with the American Institute for Fishery Research Biologists, convened a panel of top fisheries scientists and managers to lead a three-day workshop to provide a global review on the status of stocks and to address misconceptions about seafood sustainability.

Seafood consumers are barraged these days by various advisories as to what species to buy and not buy, the merits of farmed fish vs. wild-caught, what fisheries are “sustainable” vs. unsustainable, etc. The Sustainability Forum is organized to replace misconceptions with the best scientific knowledge available, for the particular benefit of seafood buyers. (A summary of the forum’s conclusions is available on line.)

Scientists Huddle on High-Performance Computing Applications

wp_MGHPCCTeams of marine scientists led by MIT, UMass Dartmouth, and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution gathered at SMAST last week to match new computing resources with questions related to the oceanography of the continental shelf and slope. The two-day workshop was made possible by a seed grant from the new Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center in Holyoke. The MGHPCC is the first facility of its kind in the nation: a collaboration of state government, private industry, and five of the state’s most research-intensive universities. The workshop was motivated by the advent of the Pioneer Array ocean observatory, which will be generating ocean data of unprecedented density just off our shores. “We are planning how best to take advantage of the simultaneous arrival of a significant new data stream and the computing power to understand and interpret that data,” said UMassD workshop organizer Prof. Amit Tandon (Physics/SMAST). (See workshop program and related presentations here.)

Cannulation Workshop

wp_cannulationDavid Berlinsky of the University of New Hampshire (UNH) visited SMAST on February 8 to demonstrate cannulation, a method of determining cod gender, to SMAST students. Gender determination is important because some genetic material is only inherited through maternal lines, and it is thought that male and female cod behave differently throughout the year. SMAST is working together with UNH, Great Bay Aquaculture of New Hampshire, and New York University to study genetic differences and movement patterns in spawning groups of cod in New England. The study will hopefully elucidate the pattern of interconnectedness among cod runs throughout the region.