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Towing Two Nets At Once
Researchers and fishermen are at sea experimenting with the scientific survey net used for the world's longest-running bottom trawl survey to improve what we know about how well it captures flat fish like flounders. Scientists and fishermen boarded the F/V Karen Elizabeth on September 12 with a joint mission: conduct a study of the NOAA Ship Henry Bigelow’s trawl net used for the twice-yearly scientific survey of the Northeast shelf. The Karen Elizabeth can tow two nets at once, making it the perfect platform for examining net performance under different conditions.
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New England Groundfish in a Warming Ocean
Waters off the Northeastern United States are among the fastest warming and most studied in the world’s ocean. Armed with decades of data and a strong appreciation of what climate change could mean for fisheries, Northeast Fisheries Science Center researchers are focusing on science to help navigate this rapidly evolving future. In 2018 and 2019 Congress provided funding for us to pursue this study area more intensely. We’re looking at everything from getting more climate data into stock assessments, to what environmental factors might be disrupting fish egg transport and survival, to how cod stocks have changed since the 17th century.
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Science Provides Insight to Salmon Recovery
When it comes to endangered Atlantic salmon recovery efforts, where you release hatchery fish for stocking purposes makes a big difference. Scientists from our Northeast Fisheries Science Center created a computer model that evaluates the impact of dams on smolt survival during downstream migration in the Penobscot River in Maine. They found that young Atlantic salmon smolts released at lower-river stocking sites are more likely to survive and enter the ocean than those released higher in the river system.
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Summer Ecosystem Monitoring Survey Completed
Thanks to a combination of favorable weather and a well-run vessel, the 2019 Northeast summer ecosystem monitoring (EcoMon) survey August 14-30 aboard NOAA Ship Gordon Gunter sampled at 136 stations. Together, the oceanographic and plankton samples collected by EcoMon cruises help researchers understand and predict changes in the Northeast ecosystem and its fisheries. Researchers set out on the fall EcoMon survey October 15 - November 1 aboard NOAA Ship Gordon Gunter.
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Fisheries Observers 2018 Highlights
2018 was a busy year for our fisheries observers and monitors. They completed 4050 trips in 102 ports from North Carolina through Maine, collecting scientific data on 53,872 hauls/tows. Fisheries observers and monitors also spent 10,472 days at sea collecting data used in a variety of ways, including fisheries stock assessments. Our fisheries observers and monitors play a critical role to ensure the best available data are collected and available to support the long-term sustainability of our fisheries.
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Electronic Monitoring
To improve support for electronic monitoring in the region, Northeast Fisheries Science Center staff are collaborating with CVision AI to create a library of images of common species. Our hope is to use the image library to automate species identification and length estimation by training machine- learning algorithms to do it. Electronic monitoring of regional commercial fisheries means many thousands of images will need to be read to derive these data. Automating this process will ultimately help reduce labor and other costs of reviewing video. Are you interested in electronic monitoring? Sign up for one of our upcoming workshops in November and February.
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Breeding a Better Oyster
A consortium of shellfish scientists from universities and government agencies has won a five-year, $4.4 million grant from the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission to accelerate selective breeding for oyster aquaculture on the east coast. The Northeast Fisheries Science Center is a partner, with our Milford lab director Gary Wikfors serving as the NOAA Fisheries representative on the consortium. This project demonstrates the power of collaboration to tackle complex scientific challenges in support of sustainable seafood.
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Leatherback Turtles Tagged in Cape Cod
Surveying East Coast Marine Life
Finding out how many marine mammals, sea turtles and seabirds are in U.S. waters, where they are located at different times of the year, and how they may be changing over time is the focus of a multi-year federal effort now in its tenth year. The Atlantic Marine Assessment Program for Protected Species, in which NOAA Fisheries is a research partner, allows researchers to put all the information about abundance, distribution, ecology and behavior of marine life into an ecosystem context so resource managers can use it for conservation measures and decision-making.
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Summer Interns Research Atlantic Salmon
This summer we had the pleasure of hosting eight student interns who worked with the Atlantic Salmon Ecosystems Research Team at our Science Center’s Woods Hole Lab and Maine Field Station in Orono, Maine. The interns spent their summer on rivers, at fish hatcheries, and in labs from Massachusetts to Maine, including facilities of Maine Department of Marine Resources. Combined, their research is helping NOAA Fisheries advance its mission of protecting endangered fish species and the habitats they depend on.
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Microplastics in Oysters
Erika Bernal, a Montclair University graduate student has been selected for the Tibor T. Polgar Fellowship. Erika was mentored this year by Northeast Fisheries Science Center scientist Beth Sharack at the NOAA Sandy Hook Laboratory. Erika completed her project earlier this year on the effects of four polymer plastics on Eastern Oyster (Crassostrea virginica) filtration and retention. Another of Beth’s students, Nadia Serghis of Monmouth University, contributed to several projects on microplastics in shellfish. Erika and Nadia, with Integrated Contractor Rita Hjelm, became so passionate about the plastic pollution issue that they have started their own non-profit, The Plastic Wave Project.
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Upcoming Events
October 19 Visit the NOAA Fisheries Milford Laboratory at our annual open house, Milford, CT
October 19-20 Visit our NOAA booths at this year’s Wellfleet OysterFest, Wellfleet, MA
November 1 Abstracts due for the 40th Milford Aquaculture Seminar (January 13-15, 2020)
November 13 2019 Ropeless Consortium Annual Meeting, Portland, ME
November 13-14 Join us at one of our workshops on electronic monitoring, New Castle, NH
November 14-15 North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium Annual Meeting, Portland ME
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