Projects Share Results, Advice at Forum

Rockport, ME - The 2006 Maine Fishermen's Forum began on Thursday, March 2nd, with a day-long session titled, "New Fishing Gear: Cutting Edge or a Waste of Time?" Thanks in part to the participation of several Northeast Consortium-funded projects, "Waste of Time" received few if any votes.

The session consisted of talks - including one by Northeast Consortium Director Chris Glass - and static displays of gear research projects, which provided fishermen and scientists with a hands-on look at the latest experimental gear, and the opportunity to interface with the project participants.

The sheer size of the cod pot brought by Mike Pol of the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries drew a lot of attention. Pol and fishermen such as Bob Marcella have been testing the feasibility of cod potting in Massachusetts Bay, with funding from the Northeast Consortium. They hope to establish an effective way to harvest fish suitable for live markets with less ecosystem impact than other fishing methods.

Jason Wells (left) and Jim Manning (right) discuss the drifters released in the eMOLT project. VIDEO (8mb): Mike Pol (right) discusses cod pot modifications with Linda Mercer (of Maine DMR). Click image to view video.

If Pol's cod pot was at one end of the size range, the gear technology on display at Jim Manning's table was at the opposite extreme. Manning (of NOAA Fisheries Northeast Fisheries Science Center ) was showing attendees the temperature loggers that have been attached to lobster traps as part of the eMOLT project funded by the Northeast Consortium. At about the size of a bottle cap, these data recorders do not interfere with the functionality of the lobster trap, and have gathered nearly 2 million hourly temperature readings from over 200 sites around the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank. The eMOLT project also involved releasing drifters to assess currents in the Gulf of Maine. Using a projector, Manning displayed temperature data showing tidal, seasonal, and interannual variation at specific sites, along with movies of the drifter tracks. He also held a seminar on the results of the eMOLT project on Saturday March 4th.

Bill Lee (F/V Ocean Reporter) has been designing, building, and using underwater cameras for years and has participated in several cooperative research projects. He is the man to go to if you want an underwater assessment of fishing gear operations, but instead of hording his knowledge to corner the market, he brings it all to events like the Forum for show and tell. Most recently funded by the Northeast Consortium with John Williamson (F/V Sea Keeper) on a project titled, "Development of Video Exploration and Mapping Capability, Tools and Methods," Lee enjoys sharing what he has learned to such an extent that he participated in the New Fishing Gear session, led a seminar with Williams the next day, with an encore performance the day after.

Lee provided purchasing and construction advice and CD-ROMs with plans, along with a table full of various cameras and lights for a first-hand look at how simple they can be to build. He noted that on another Consortium project, "A Biological Study of Sand Lance in the Southern Gulf of Maine," the configuration and testing of a sand lance dredge was completed in one day.

Several other cooperative research projects shared results at the Forum. These included a session on the Maine-New Hampshire Inshore Trawl Survey led by Maine Department of Marine Resources scientists Sally Sherman and John Sowles. Funded by the Northeast Consortium in 2000, 2002, and 2005, the project now has enough results to impact management decisions and is hoping to find more permanent funding for following sampling seasons. The session also afforded a chance for industry members to provide feedback on the methodology and impact of the project.

Other sessions included results from yellowtail, haddock, and herring tagging studies; pelagic ecosystem monitoring; and effects of trawling on the sea bed. For additional information on these and other projects visit the Northeast Consortium project information database at http://northeastconsortium.org/projects.shtml or by clicking the "Projects" link at the top of the page.

-Chris Manning