May 12, 2013 — We plan to continue to work with Dr. Stokesbury and his colleagues on survey research, which includes the active participation of industry partners. Video technologies have been used to investigate fish behavior elsewhere in the U.S. and worldwide. I congratulate Dr. Stokesbury for building on this work, and for demonstrating the potential for this approach here in New England.
I am writing in response to Steve Urbon's May 3 article ("Watch out, NOAA — SMAST is innovating again") regarding recent research led by Dr. Kevin Stokesbury and his colleagues at the UMass School of Marine Science and Technology using video to count fish in a trawl net.
Your readers should know that we are enthusiastic about this work and helped to support it. We plan to continue to work with Dr. Stokesbury and his colleagues on survey research, which includes the active participation of industry partners. Video technologies have been used to investigate fish behavior elsewhere in the U.S. and worldwide. I congratulate Dr. Stokesbury for building on this work, and for demonstrating the potential for this approach here in New England.
This work is also particularly timely. As I announced at the April New England Fishery Management Council meeting, the Northeast Fisheries Science Center is planning a joint research effort this year on survey gear catchability and development of a pilot industry vessel-based flatfish survey. We will be working with SMAST and industry partners on this project and will be informed by the results of Dr. Stokesbury's recent video-trawl experiment.
I am committed to seeking new opportunities to develop positive and effective partnerships with our industry and academic colleagues. Here at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center, we have many talented, creative and productive scientists. We also greatly value strong and constructive collaborations with many academic and industry research partners. We face many significant scientific challenges in this region, and it is only through investment in these partnerships and building new collaborations that we can hope to be successful.
Read the letter at the New Bedford Standard-Times