November 8, 2013 — The black hull of owner Danny Eilertsen's fishing vessel Justice emerged in the distance on Tuesday as a half dozen marine researchers from UMass Dartmouth waited on Union Wharf in Fairhaven.
Eilertsen's boat is playing host to the second round of testing of a radically different method of counting fish, a notoriously difficult thing to do, but the thing that everybody says they want and need.
The 82-foot Justice tied up and a truck from New Bedford Ship Supply unloaded 10 days' worth of provisions, one of many in-kind contributions that fishing-related businesses make for the sake of science.
Among those climbing aboard was Dr. Kevin Stokesbury, who had been making refinements to the first experimental gear that was tried out in April.
The idea is simple but the execution is difficult: Lower a net to the bottom equipped with lights and video cameras, then get video of the fish as they pass through the net and escape the other end, which has been kept open.
Then count the fish via the video.
Now lower the net again and this time actually catch the fish.
Then count the actual fish on the boat and compare results with the video method.
Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times