Our 2023 Fall Bottom Trawl Survey has finished. This year marks the 60th anniversary of the survey, which left on its first-ever leg in November 1963. Our staff and crew aboard the NOAA Ship Henry B. Bigelow completed resource survey tows and temperature and salinity sampling at 89 percent of the planned stations. They also completed plankton samples at 92 percent of the planned stations. The survey got underway on September 10 and concluded on November 17 and occurred in three legs, moving from south to north. 

This survey monitors fishery stock abundance and distribution on the Northwest Atlantic continental shelf from the Scotian Shelf off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada, to Cape Lookout, North Carolina. Data collected include fish age, length, weight, sex, maturity and food habits information. These are critical inputs to regional fish stock assessments helping inform management decisions by the New England and Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Councils and Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.

Staff participating in the fall 2023 Bottom Trawl Survey continue to celebrate the survey’s 60th anniversary through their blogs highlighting the survey, their work on the survey, the survey’s history, and more. The most recent blogs were created by NOAA’s National Systematics Lab’s research zoologist Katherine Bemis and science center equipment specialist Rob Alexander. In Katherine’s blog, she shares her team’s work and 60 of their favorite marine species in celebration of the 60th anniversary. In Rob’s blog, he shares how he and our net loft team standardize, inspect, and repairs nets to ensure a scientifically sound survey. Watch this space for additional 60th anniversary blogs!

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission and our Cooperative Research Branch seek commercial hook-and-line fishermen and for-hire charter fishermen to conduct a pilot Hook-And-Line Survey in the spring of 2024. The Commission will issue funding contracts to three vessels to conduct the pilot survey in three regions. Six survey trips will be conducted in the Mid-Atlantic Bight and Southern New England regions. Nine survey trips are desired in the Gulf of Maine region. Each vessel will be compensated at a daily rate of $5,000. The deadline for proposals is January 5, 2024. 

’Tis the season for holiday craft fun! Enjoy an all new set of paper snowflake templates inspired by the ocean and celebrate these four Woods Hole Science Aquarium residents:

• American lobster
• Atlantic salmon
• Northern pipefish and Irish moss
• Scrawled cowfish

Decorate your walls, windows, ceiling, holiday tree, and even your holiday cakes with these four designs. Want to create your own snowflake? We’ve got you! There’s a blank template for you to create your own. Happy cutting!

A recently published study found that copepods in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence are more nutritious than in other foraging areas. Copepods, which are the primary prey for endangered North Atlantic right whales, are larger and more lipid-rich in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. That means they provide a higher quality diet for right whales compared to copepods in the Gulf of Maine and off Nova Scotia, even though they may be less abundant.  

The lead authors of the paper are from the Department of Fisheries And Oceans Canada. Scientists from our science center and colleagues at the University Of Maine are also among the authors publishing their study in the Journal of Plankton Research.

A team of scientists from eight countries, including three NOAA Fisheries scientists, recently published their genetic research on Atlantic bluefin tuna. They found that Atlantic bluefin tuna from the Gulf of Mexico, Slope Sea, and the Mediterranean Sea spawning grounds are more genetically interconnected than previously thought. The Slope Sea is an area of the ocean that is bounded to the north and west by the northeast Continental Shelf and to the south by the Gulf Stream. This study was led by Spain-based AZTI Technology Centre. International collaborations are vital to studying and conserving highly migratory species like bluefin tuna because these fish migrate long distances and cross international boundaries.

To age sharks, scientists would count the rings in shark vertebrae to estimate the age, much like counting the rings on a tree. That was until 2018 when now-retired shark researcher Lisa Natanson and her colleagues reported that rings on shark vertebrae weren’t always deposited annually. That meant each ring may not equal 1 year. That also meant ageing keys for many shark species needed revising. Enter Michelle Passerotti, shark biologist in our Apex Predators Program. She’s developing techniques to revamp how sharks are aged and correct age estimates. Improved, validated ageing methods means better management of shark populations and overall ecosystem sustainability. 

Michelle was highlighted in our Women’s History Month series and Lisa was highlighted in our Faces of the Northeast Fisheries Science Center series. Read all about who they are, their career journeys, why they became scientists, and more in their profiles.

The NOAA Fisheries Inclusive Fisheries Internship Program has begun to announce the 2024 projects and mentors. Students interested in applying for a 2024 IN FISH internship are encouraged to visit the 2024 project page to find mentors or projects that might interest them most, then list those in their internship application. This page will be updated as more mentors and projects become available. The deadline to apply for a 2024 internship is February 10, 2024. 

This program was established by NOAA Fisheries in 2021 to increase diversity in its scientific and management communities. It’s a paid, 10-week summer internship for diverse undergraduates interested in careers in marine science.

Our Cooperative Research Branch will host a cooperative research summit on February 5, 2024, in Cape May, New Jersey. Register by December 22.

The summit brings scientists, managers, fishermen, and industry representatives together to: 

• Share the approaches and results of new cooperative research projects or those that have recently been concluded
• Identify opportunities for expanding the contributions of the fishing industry to research
• Facilitate regional coordination of cooperative research
• Develop new partnerships between the fishing and science communities
• Identify priorities for near-term science and management challenges that can be addressed by cooperative research

We recently made the difficult decision to suspend our Atlantic Northern Shrimp Survey (pdf, 2pg). This survey has been going for 40 years. A continued moratorium on the northern shrimp fishery meant this survey was a lower priority for us relative to our other surveys. 

That said, we completed the 60th Fall Bottom Trawl Survey last month. This is a major accomplishment for a survey that provides relative abundance indices and biological data for stock assessments in the region and data used by scientists and managers in a wide range of activities from ichthyology to fisheries to ecosystems to climate change. 

What I find more remarkable is that this is but one of a number of long-term surveys we conduct. These include: 

• 55 years for the Spring Bottom Trawl Survey
• 46 years for the EcoMon/MARMAP Surveys
• 43 years for the Atlantic Sea Scallop Survey
• 41 years for the Atlantic Surfclam and Ocean Quahog Survey
• 28 years for the Aerial Right Whale Survey
• 10 years for the Cooperative Gulf of Maine Bottom Longline Survey 

The decision to suspend the Northern Shrimp Survey was necessary and we remain committed to our other survey activities. Our dedication to marine resource surveys has made the U.S. Northeast Shelf Ecosystem one of the best understood marine ecosystems in the world.