Testing Sea Urchin Escape Panels

Urchin Harvesters and State Scientists Partner Towards a Cleaner Urchin Fishery

by Rachel Gallant
Northeast Consortium Fisheries Specialist
June 2, 2005

I awoke to the phone ringing in my roadside motel room. 5:00 am…sharp. “Morning Rachel!” It was a gruff, but cheery Downeast voice. “Well, I’ve been down t’ the habah for a while now. It’s a snowin’ and a blowin.’ It’s only getting worse before it gets any bettah. We best stay way on land today. Let’s try again tomorrow.”

That’s early April in Machias for you. Not joining Capt. Steve Patryn for a day of testing urchin gear was a bit of a let down. That passed, however, as soon as I realized that I had left both my rubber fishing boots and warm glove liners back at the Northeast Consortium office the night prior, some five hours back down Route 1. So, I made a new plan for my day, that included a stop at a marine trade store!

The next day, I only awoke to the alarm, a good sign. The morning was crisp but clear, and I found myself at 6:00 am wading out to a skiff in Bucks Harbor (luckily, I did find boots and gloves the day before!) and climbing aboard the F/V Northern Eagle. As we puttered past the islands and the other urchin and scallop draggers moored in Machias Bay, Patryn and his team of scientists and fishermen were expectant of a good day.

Patryn has partnered with the Maine Department of Marine Resources (MEDMR) to find out what is the best way to let undersized urchins and bycatch escape from urchin drag gear. The green sea urchin (Strongylocentrotus droebachiensis) has been one of Maine’s most valuable fisheries in the past few decades, but recent declines in stock biomass and landings have caused concern amongst MEDMR biologists and local harvesters. Various measures have been implemented, many of which were suggested by harvesters, including the use of a 2” square mesh escape panel on the back of all urchin drags.

Until now, however, there had been little science on the effectiveness or the best location of the panel on the dredge. Patryn saw this as a problem and got to work with MEDMR biologists Drew Gowen and Keri Stepanek to turn his ideas into an actual project. They teamed with Maggie Hunter (MEDMR biologist), submitted a proposal to the Northeast Consortium in 2004, and got the funding they needed (about $32K) to get some real data.

So there we were, out in Machias Bay finding answers. With Patryn were Gowen, crew member Lee Gartiner, and Leigh Feeney, another urchin boat captain who had the time to help, since the field work was during the urchin fishery off-season. However, the most eager of the project staff was Toby, the boat’s yellow lab!

Lead by Toby, the team did a series of about 20 tows through urchin beds that day. We tested three configurations of the escape panel: the front half, back half, and full length of the drag against a control of no escape panel, just the standard 4” diamond mesh. We also did a couple tests of escape panel mesh size.

After each tow, Toby was always the first to jump into the pile, taking a prize away (he knew to avoid urchin spines) and allowing the rest of us to sort the urchins from the bycatch.

After Gowen measured the diameter of each urchin with electronic calipers, we let the entire catch go back overboard.

Tow-by-tow, we worked our way through the day. Though the weather was a bit raw at times, it never affected the team’s spirits. They make sure to have a great time out there.

The team has a total of 12 days of tows in Machias and Cobscook Bays. After the field work comes a lot of number crunching back at MEDMR before they can really know which escape panel configuration is best. Even without doing the math though, the participants are seeing that, in areas where there are a lot of small urchins, the escape panel helps the catch be cleaner.

Maggie hunter feels confident that, “this study was well designed to answer a specific question and I believe it will, one way or another.”

Thank you Steve and Drew for providing most of these photos!