September 24, 2024 — Our sea scallop survey has been providing data on population status since 1979. Over that time, the stock has recovered from very low levels to a population large enough to support one of the nation’s most valuable single-species fisheries. The status of the population isn’t the only thing that’s changed. Increasingly sophisticated ways to track sea scallop populations have come along. We have adapted and diversified our survey methods to take advantage of them.
Adding Survey Capacity
While we started with one vessel surveying the entire area with a dredge, the area is now divided among our science center and several partners, including the sea scallop industry, who use both dredges and optical (photographic) instruments deployed from research and commercial scallop vessels. All these data are used for stock assessments and for quota setting.
This year, for the first time, our science center’s survey covered Georges Bank and adjacent waters using a dredge, a towed camera–and–sensor system called HabCam, and our newest sampling device—a long-range autonomous underwater vehicle nicknamed “Stella.” These were deployed off three different vessels: a university-owned research ship, a commercial sea scallop vessel, and a NOAA research vessel.
Stella, the Long-Range Autonomous Underwater Vehicle
The most recent addition to our survey capacity is Stella, our long-range autonomous underwater vehicle. It carries the same imaging package as our towed sampling system, the HabCam, but can be programmed to operate without human supervision. Stella is being developed with partners at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
“Stella was developed for surveying inside the new wind energy development areas,” said Peter Chase, who is in charge of our center’s resource surveys. “It’s one way to capture data to replace towed HabCam sampling in those areas.”
Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries