November 9, 2012 — Today, NOAA conducted a Fishermen’s Northeast Groundfish Science Forum in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, allowing fishermen and members of the public to interact with NOAA officials on groundfish science.
The following is a summary of the morning session. A summary of the afternoon session can be found here.
Throughout the summary below are links to audio highlights of the day's meeting.
Introduction
• Bill Karp, NMFS/NEFSC Science & Research Director
• John Bullard, NMFS/NERO Regional Administrator
• Rip Cunningham, NEFMC Chair
In his opening remarks, Dr. Bill Karp, the Director of NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center, stressed the importance of a close working relationship between NOAA scientists and members of the industry.
“Fishermen are scientists much as we at the Science Center are scientists,” Dr. Karp said. “Every one of you goes to sea every day, and has to draw on your understanding of how the ecosystem works, and the biology and ecology of the fish that you depend on to support yourself and your families.”
NOAA Northeast Regional Administrator John Bullard made a similar point when discussing the forum, noting that, during his listening tour of the region, there was much skepticism within the fishing community about the validity of the stock assessment science. “Any time a person from the government comes into your life, skepticism is warranted. Skepticism is a good thing,” Bullard said. He said that the goal of the forum was to make sure that the skepticism was constructive. “Scientists and fishermen can learn from one another, if we can find ways to talk to one another, in a way where we’re also, as Bill [Karp] said, listening to one another,” Bullard added.
Dr. Karp noted what he saw as several bright spots in the collaborative relationship between scientists and fishermen. He mentioned that, after the controversy over the most recent assessment of Gulf of Maine cod, several workshops were developed, involving a broad audience and bringing in new perspectives to be incorporated into the assessment. “I think it’s a model, and I think it’s a model that we can build on,” he said.
Dr. Karp mentioned working with institutions such as the School of Marine Science and Technology (SMAST) to develop the capacity to conduct collaborative surveys with the industry, as well developing long-term strategies for improving the survey process. He also mentioned working with the industry to address their concerns about NOAA stock assessment science, particularly concerns raised by fishermen over the NOAA Research Vessel Bigelow .
Dr. Karp addressed earlier calls for an “end-to-end” survey of the scientific process of the NOAA Science Centers, as a result of the Sissenwine-Rothschild report. He announced that, next year, there would be an independent peer review of the data collection process at all of NOAA’s Science Centers. The year after, a similar review would examine the stock assessment process itself.
“We have designed a process, we are moving forward with that process,” Dr. Karp said. “We are sensitive to the concerns that your community has about the data collection issues about the stock assessment processes themselves, and this is how we’re going to move forward to respond to that.”
Current groundfish status and stock assessment process
Dr. Steve Cadrin of the University of Massachusetts School for Marine Science and Technology gave an overview of the stock assessment process and concluded with his perspective and opinion on the current state of the assessment science.
Dr. Cadrin reviewed the dynamics of fish populations, monitoring, surveys, assessment data, population estimates and projections and the determiniation of biological reference points. He concluded with a discussion of his concerns.
Dr. Cadrin noted that, given their experience in the field, fishermen often understand some of the fundamentals of stock assessments better than some scientists, and that stock assessments in the last decades have performed very poorly. They have been unable to provide fisheries managers the information they need in order to achieve goals such as ending overfishing and rebuilding stocks.
In order to find the common causes of the stock assessment problems, Dr. Cadrin said that stock assessments need to be approached differently. He noted that tools that worked during the 1990s are currently failing fisheries managers, and that different resources, including academic science and cooperative research with fishermen, need to be considered as part of a broader approach to fisheries management.
Resource surveys and other data used for assessments
• Robert Johnston, NMFS/NEFSC Ecosystems Surveys Branch
• Jim Gartland, VIMS and NEAMAP
• Jeremy King, MA DMF
• John Williamson, F/V Seakeeper
• Amy Van Atten, NMFS/NEFSC NE Fisheries Observer Program
Russell Brown, NMFS/NEFSC Deputy Director introduced the topic providing general information about different types of surveys and what fishery dependent and fishery independent data contributes to the stock assessment science respectively. He also spoke on the different types of collaborative research that goes into stock assessment science, coming from academic institutions, historical data, and input from the industry.
Dr. Brown introduced the panel for this section, each of whom spoke briefly on their respective roles in surveys and assessments:
Rob Johnston of the Echo Systems Survey Branch at the Northeast Science Center spoke on the multispecies bottom trawl surveys for the New England area. He described the data currently being used to perform the surveys including the Henry B. Bigelow research vessel, which he acknowledged has encountered criticism for its size and inability to sample inshore areas. He explained that although the net does not catch all species at the highest efficiency possible, the survey needs to sample all habitat types and effectively catch about 50 different species. He also addressed concerns about the net design, which he explained was designed over a period of three years with input from industry representatives, gear researchers, and the center scientists.
Jeremy King of the Massachusetts DMF discussed the Massachusetts Trawl Survey and its contribution to stock assessments. An old survey, dating back to 1978, the trawl survey has used the same net and tow times and speeds to produce a great source of standardized time series of data. The data has been used in many assessments and was included in the Massachusetts Ocean Planning Process.
Jim Gartland of VIMS discussed the NEAMAP Inshore Trawl Survey for the Mid Atlantic and Southern New England. This multispecies survey started in 2007, and because of its young age, has only contributed to a few assessments, including winter flounder, squid, and sturgeon. Because the Bigelow is unable to sample inshore, the NEMAP has filled in some data gaps for the New England area. It is a fishery independent survey conducted on a commercial vessel captained by Jimmy Ruhle. Though the tow times are short (about 20 minutes), each tow brings in about 1000 pounds, which is a great amount of catch data.
Amy Van Atten of the NMFS/NEFSC Northeast Fisheries Observer Program discussed how her program operates at the Science Center. The Observer Program collects fishery-dependent data, and is included in numerous surveys, such as the scallop survey. The program trains individuals to work with fishermen to collect the best data in fields like species verification. Ms. Van Atten acknowledged how difficult it is to have an observer aboard a commercial vessel, but thanked those who do because the program is an essential part of the management process and monitoring for Annual Catch Limits.
Before John Williamson of the MREP program spoke, Russell Brown asked him questions involving recent concerns of fishermen. He explained that the commercial industry has little faith in the science programs, citing the lag time in the Observer program, and a reporting process that appears to be redundant and inefficient to industry members.
Williamson answered that all of the scientists working on the stock assessments need to be in the field working with the industry to better understand the complete picture.
John Williamson, Captain of the Seakeeper, discussed the Marine Resource Education Program (MREP) run through the Science Center. He explained that the program is intended to educate industry fishermen in the complexities of stack data, and the encourage cooperation between the commercial vessels and the assessment science. He discussed that most of the fishermen who are involved in the program are surprised that the scientists that they speak with greatly respect them for all of their experience and knowledge.
Q and A Session
After the first set of presentations had concluded, the floor was opened for questions from the audience and from the online webinar.
One question concerned the use of a rockhopper sweep, as opposed to a cookie sweep, on the NOAA research vessel the Bigelow during its groundfish surveys. This led to a detailed series of questions and answers regarding gear used on the Bigelow, and a commitment from NOAA officials to conduct further meetings to address concerns of the industry about the accuracy of the vessel and its gear.