It’s the end of a long day for bone-tired fishermen returning to this Southern New England village; but for researchers waiting on the dock, the hard work is just beginning.
Buckets are pulled from the hold of each boat, overflowing with slippery, silvery fish, and well-trained eyes and hands begin to search for the telltale gray-green zebra stripes of mackerel and the slim, tubular bodies that distinguish sea herring from river herring. Local lore says that an experienced fisherman can differentiate the two in complete darkness.
But a fishing net can’t tell the difference.
That’s precisely why The Massachusetts Department of Marine Fisheries this has worked with The Nature Conservancy and researchers from the School for Marine Science and Technology at UMass Dartmouth this winter, to sample the catch from small-mesh bottom trawl boats, that fish for sea herring and mackerel out of Point Judith.
Read the complete story from The Nature Conservancy.