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Reaching Out to Fisheries Stakeholders
The future and sustainability of our region’s fisheries depends on collaboration. To this end, our Cooperative Research Branch will host a series of public engagement sessions to seek input from fishing communities on how fishermen and scientists can work together to develop effective cooperative research projects. Engagement sessions will take place in VA, NJ, RI, NY, MA and ME in August-September of this year.
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Partnerships Advance Fish Aquaculture
We are partnering with marine aquaculture operations around the region to expand production. Scientists from our lab in Sandy Hook, NJ recently visited Manna Fish Farms in Hampton Bays, NY on Long Island to discuss how to better support permitting and monitoring for marine aquaculture operations. We are also leading a regional pilot project with Manna Fish Farms, assessing how marine aquaculture activities interact with the environment. Other partners include St. Joseph's College and SUNY Stony Brook. Manna plans to farm striped bass or other species in cages set off of Eastern Long Island, and permitting is in its final stages. Our scientists are also finalizing a collaborative project with Manna and SUNY Stony Brook to test new high-capacity filters for recirculating aquaculture systems to advance this project.
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Fishery Stock Assessments are Kicking Off
To ensure the long-term health of our marine fisheries, resource managers need to know a great deal about a fish stock’s composition and health. Fishery stock assessments provide that information, as well as insights about the likely future condition of that stock. Assessments use data from a variety of sources: from research surveys in state and federal waters, commercial and recreational fishermen, and seafood dealers. The 2019 assessments for several Mid-Atlantic species began on May 20, and the assessments for selected New England species will begin June 20.
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2019 Spring Bottom Trawl Survey Completed
On May 14 we completed our 2019 spring bottom-trawl survey aboard the NOAA Ship Henry B. Bigelow. Northeast Fisheries Science Center scientists conducted resource survey tows and temperature and salinity sampling at 356 of 377 planned stations (95% completion); and plankton tows at 106 of 116 planned stations (91% completion). The Northeast Fisheries Science Center bottom-trawl survey merges science and technology at sea. It provides critical information for monitoring the region’s fishery resources, and is the longest running fisheries survey of its kind in the world.
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Big Fish (and Sharks!) in the Gulf of Maine
The Cooperative Research Branch finished the spring bottom longline survey on May 10. The two commercial fishing boats involved encountered several big fish and sharks during the survey’s last few trips. Our main data collection focus is on surveying rocky habitats, but we also “piggyback” other scientific projects onto our work when possible. We are often able to tag various species for internal and external research partners. One notable tagging effort this year occurred on the last leg of the survey, when we caught, tagged, and released three large porbeagle sharks. Two new survey records were established this year; the FV Mary Elizabeth hauled in a 1 meter long cusk, while the FV Tenacious II captured and sampled a 55 pound halibut--both are the largest of their species caught to date.
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Monitoring Our Ocean: the Only Thing Constant is Change
Our researchers keep a watchful eye on the rapidly changing conditions in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean. One of our scientists, Dr. Paula Fratantoni, represents the United States at the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) Working Group on Ocean Hydrography. This group meets yearly to update and review decades of data that help us track ocean conditions which affect fish and other marine life. Paula and her team track six U.S. areas in our region, and through ICES, we integrate this information with other measurements made across the North Atlantic.
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Cruise Science LIVE!
Two of our scientists, Chris Orphanides and Betsy Broughton, sailed on the annual interactive cruise aboard the University of Rhode Island’s research vessel Endeavor with students and faculty from the university’s honors program and the Inner Space Center. The students learned to conduct plankton and oceanography research while surveying for North Atlantic right whales. The ship’s deck cameras were live-streamed on YouTube, where viewers could see the deck conditions, scientific gear deployment, and safety measures that are a part of every research cruise. On Earth Day, the students conducted five live question-and-answer sessions with elementary school, middle school, and Facebook audiences. At the end of the cruise each participant was asked to sum up their experience in one word.
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Ecosystem Monitoring Cruise Completed
This week we completed the Spring Ecosystem Monitoring Survey, also known as EcoMon, on Georges Bank and in the Gulf of Maine aboard the NOAA Ship Henry B. Bigelow. Our scientists spent sixteen days at sea collecting important data about plankton, hydrography, seabirds, marine mammals, ocean water chemistry, and more. Read some of their memorable experiences and stories shared while they were underway at sea.
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Straight Out of Montana: Woods Hole Science Aquarium Biologist Is at Home on Ocean’s Edge
Alison Brodet, a biologist at our Woods Hole Science Aquarium in Woods Hole, MA, is the most recent of our staffers to be featured in our monthly series that introduces readers to a new "face" from one of our five laboratories. Alison was born and raised in Montana, and is now a marine biologist working in the nation’s oldest operating public aquarium far from her natal Big Belt Mountains. How did that happen? Find out when you meet Alison Brodet.
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Upcoming Events
June 13 NOAA Fisheries research vessel public tours in Nantucket, MA.
June 11-13 New England Fisheries Management Council meeting in Portland, ME
June 14-27 Remotely Operated Platform for Oceans Sciences, Deep Sea Coral Research Cruise
June 15 Family event, Juneteenth Celebration, 11-1, Peg Noonan Park, Falmouth MA
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