Saving Seafood

New research suggests cod, New England’s founding fish, may be returning to local waters

May 5, 2022 — “For the first time in about 20 years we’ve seen and are tracking a successful year class of cod, and they seem to be growing at a very good rate,” said Kevin Stokesbury, a fisheries science professor at UMass Dartmouth leading a multi-year survey of codfish in the Gulf of Maine.

Stokesbury has a history of using scientific innovation to produce new findings that upend fishing regulations. In the 1990s, he devised a new way of counting scallops that helped open up a tightly regulated fishery.

A typical government-led survey determines scallop numbers by dredging the ocean floor, counting the scallops it pulls up, and estimating what percentage that is of the total scallops in the sample area. Stokesbury’s surveys rely on pictures of the ocean floor instead. A team of his undergraduates count all the scallops in their sample areas one-by-one, eliminating much of the guesswork.

Stokesbury’s method for counting scallops was peer reviewed and eventually incorporated into the government’s periodic stock assessments, which form the basis of fishing regulations in America. In the early 2000s, regulators had already suspected scallops were rebounding to some extent, but Stokesbury’s findings upended what they had been saying for years.

“They thought there were two to three times as many scallops in there,” Stokesbury said, “and there were actually about 14 times as many.”

But the UMass Dartmouth scientist has his own critics when it comes to codfish. One of them has an office down the hall from him.

Professor Steve Cadrin, a fisheries scientist leading a periodic review of how the government assesses cod stocks, said the cod fishery has opened up prematurely once before.

“We’ve seen other year classes that have not survived,” Cadrin said.

Some years, Cadrin said NOAA’s projections have been overly optimistic.

“They led to continued overfishing and the stock hasn’t rebuilt,” Cadrin said. “It’s a lot more than just a heartbreak. There’s been a lot of fishery restrictions because of that.”

Read the full story at The Public’s Radio

Vineyard Wind fisheries study to assess effect of offshore turbines

June 4, 2021 — Cooperative surveys by scientists and fishermen have laid groundwork for the first baseline study of how offshore wind turbine construction will affect southern New England fisheries, and organizers are seeking more advice for fine-tuning the effort.

“We’re really designing this on the fly,” said Steve Cadrin, a professor at the University of Massachusetts School for Marine Science and Technology, during a virtual meeting Thursday with fishermen and scientist advisors. “We’re wide open on how we can do this better.”

With offshore wind development plans surging ahead under the Biden administration, there’s a scramble in the marine sciences to understand how the potential construction of hundreds of turbines off the U.S. East Coast could change regional ocean environments and fisheries.

“Getting a baseline (study) is a real challenge” given the speed of recent developments, and the UMass-Vineyard Wind project is drawing on decades of fisheries survey work in Northeast waters, said Cadrin.

Based on eight surveys since 2019, researchers have determined that protocols used in the Northeast Area Monitoring and Assessment Program (NEAMAP), an integrated, cooperative state and federal data collection program, will be sensitive enough to “detect a moderate change for most important commercial species” such as whiting, longfin squid and summer flounder when the 800-megawatt Vineyard Wind project is constructed, said Cadrin.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Omega Protein Supports ASMFC Decision on Menhaden Reference Points

August 6, 2020 — The following was released by the Omega Protein:

Omega Protein supports today’s decision by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission to adopt Ecological Reference Points (ERPs) for Atlantic menhaden, and looks forward to working with the Commission and its staff on further developing the ERP model and identifying future harvest levels for the fishery.

The ERP working group has worked for many years to develop the ecosystem model, and we will continue to support its development as the model’s accuracy and reliability improves over the next few years. It is now the responsibility of the Commission to accurately estimate the populations of both menhaden and its predators and then make fair and equitable management decisions based upon the model’s findings.

The best available science shows that current management is already doing much to ensure that menhaden meets ecological needs. A recent study by Dr. Steve Cadrin of the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth found that 99.5 percent of menhaden born each year are left in the water to serve as forage for predators and meet other ecosystem roles, with only one half of one percent harvested by the fishery. The latest Commission stock assessment further confirms that menhaden is not overfished, nor is overfishing occurring, with menhaden biomass near record highs. The fishery is also certified sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council.

All these positive indicators should not be surprising, as the menhaden fishery has been operating at the levels suggested by the ERP model for the past two decades.

However, the Commission will also likely need to control fishing on predator stocks, as many key species are currently overfished. This could result in harvest reductions for predator species; the Commission cannot rely on the availability of menhaden alone to rebuild these predator stocks.

As recognized at this week’s meeting and in peer reviews by the Center of Independent Experts, having menhaden in the water at any abundance level is not guaranteed to help predator species reach their target biomass levels. In fact, expert scientists have stated that a moratorium on all menhaden fishing would not enable some predators to reach their target biomass without harvest reductions.

Review Finds 99.5 Percent of Atlantic Menhaden Year Class Stay in Water to Serve Ecological Role

July 30, 2020 — A review conducted by Dr. Steve Cadrin of the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth found that the Atlantic menhaden fishery leaves 99.5 percent of menhaden year class in the water to serve as forage.

Cadrin’s findings are another indication that menhaden is a healthy and sustainable resource, according to the Science Center for Marine Fisheries (SCEMFIS).

Read the full story at Seafood News

99.5 Percent of an Atlantic Menhaden Year Class is Left in the Water to Serve Its Ecological Role, New SCEMFIS Report Finds

July 29, 2020 — The following was released by the Science Center for Marine Fisheries:

The Atlantic menhaden fishery leaves 99.5 percent of a menhaden year class in the water to serve its ecological role as forage, according to a new review from Dr. Steve Cadrin of the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. This finding is one of many indicators that menhaden is a healthy and sustainable resource, according to the review.

“Determining whether or not menhaden is fulfilling its role in the ecosystem has been at the heart of recent debates around menhaden management,” said Dr. Cadrin. “A review of all the available data from the most recent peer-reviewed stock assessment clearly shows that menhaden are conservatively managed and already successful in meeting ecosystem needs.”

The review comes at the request of the National Science Foundation’s Science Center for Marine Fisheries (SCEMFIS). Dr. Cadrin, a professor of fisheries oceanography and former president of the American Institute of Fishery Research Biologists, previously conducted a review of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s (ASMFC) most recent menhaden stock assessment in February.

Read the full release here

Science Center for Marine Fisheries Releases Evaluation and Summary of Latest Atlantic Menhaden Assessments

February 4, 2020 — The following was released by the Science Center for Marine Fisheries:

Dr. Steve Cadrin, Professor at the School for Marine Science and Technology at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and past President of the American Institute of Fishery Research Biologists, has completed an evaluation and summary of the latest Southeast Data, Assessment, and Review (SEDAR) Atlantic menhaden stock assessments.  Dr. Cadrin’s evaluation and summary was commissioned by the Science Center for Marine Fisheries (SCeMFiS).  SEDAR completed two assessments in January, a traditional single-species benchmark assessment, and a first-of-its-kind ecological reference point assessment.

Read Dr. Cadrin’s evaluation here

Among other conclusions, Dr. Cadrin’s evaluation and summary finds that, according to the peer-reviewed assessments, the menhaden population is healthy, with menhaden fishing mortality remaining low. Atlantic menhaden was certified as sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council in 2019. When comparing the two assessments, Dr. Cadrin notes that the single-species assessment “is the best scientific information available for fishery management.”

The evaluation and summary of the Atlantic menhaden assessments was one of the 2020 projects recently approved by SCeMFiS, which is part of the National Science Foundation’s Industry-University Cooperative Research Centers program. The review was commissioned to provide a non-technical summary of the two 400+ page Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) menhaden assessments, so that menhaden fishery stakeholders would have, in an easily-comprehensible format, the information needed to support the best path to science-based management of the fishery.

Single-Species Assessment Remains Best, Most Reliable Information Available

Dr. Cadrin evaluated and summarized both the traditional, single-species menhaden stock assessment, as well as the new assessment that includes a multispecies focused analysis of menhaden and species which prey upon menhaden as part of their diet. This effort is a key part of the ASMFC’s efforts to transition to ecosystem-based fisheries management.

“The single-species assessment includes much more information on size and age composition, fishery selectivity, and recruitment variability than the multi-species models that were developed, but all models provide similar perceptions of menhaden stock trends since the 1990s,” writes Dr. Cadrin.

Other notable points by Dr. Cadrin include the improvements that the single-species assessment made in getting more accurate measurements of menhaden natural mortality, and the assessment’s conclusion that menhaden fishing mortality remains low, while the estimate of the current stock size is high.

Lower Menhaden Fishing Would Not Help Overfished Striped Bass

Dr. Cadrin’s evaluation and summary of the ecosystem-based assessment focuses in part on how it modeled the relationship between menhaden and striped bass. Most notably, he observes the assessment finds that, due to current overfishing and the overfished status of striped bass, decreasing the menhaden harvest would have little impact on striped bass stocks.

“At the current rate of fishing mortality on striped bass, there is little change in the long-term expectation for the striped bass stock from fishing menhaden at a lower rate than the single species target. Therefore, there appears to be negligible benefit to bass from fishing menhaden lower than the single species target,” Dr. Cadrin writes.

The assessments are the culmination of a two-year effort to gather and analyze available data for Atlantic menhaden from the fishery-independent sampling programs of the Atlantic states, commercial purse-seine reduction fishery, and commercial bait fishery.  All those who worked on the single-species assessment and the ground-breaking ecosystem assessment – the SEDAR 69 Panel, the Atlantic Menhaden Technical Committee (TC), the Stock Assessment Subcommittee (SAS), the ASMFC Ecosystem Reference Points Work Group, the Center for Independent Experts (CIE), the technical reviewer and the review panel chair — deserve credit for the completion of this task.

Both assessments will be discussed at this week’s ASMFC meeting.

About SCeMFiS:
SCeMFiS utilizes academic and fisheries resources to address urgent scientific problems limiting sustainable fisheries. SCeMFiS develops methods, analytical and survey tools, datasets, and analytical approaches to improve sustainability of fisheries and reduce uncertainty in biomass estimates. SCeMFiS university partners, University of Southern Mississippi (lead institution), and Virginia Institute of Marine Science, College of William and Mary, are the academic sites. Collaborating scientists who provide specific expertise in finfish, shellfish, and marine mammal research, come from a wide range of academic institutions including Old Dominion University, Rutgers University, University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, University of Maryland, and University of Rhode Island.

The need for the diverse services that SCeMFiS can provide to industry continues to grow, which has prompted a steady increase in the number of fishing industry partners. These services include immediate access to science expertise for stock assessment issues, rapid response to research priorities, and representation on stock assessment working groups. Targeted research leads to improvements in data collection, survey design, analytical tools, assessment models, and other needs to reduce uncertainty in stock status and improve reference point goals.

Members of SCeMFiS include:

  • Atlantic Capes Fisheries………………………………. Massachusetts, New Jersey
  • Bumble Bee Seafoods…………………………………… New Jersey
  • Garden State Seafood Assn……………………….. New Jersey
  • LaMonica Fine Foods…………………………………….. New Jersey
  • Lund’s Fisheries……………………………………………….. Massachusetts, New Jersey
  • NFI Clam Committee
  • NFI Scientific Monitoring
  • Northeast Fisheries Science Center
  • Omega Protein………………………………………………….. Louisiana, Mississippi, Virginia
  • Sea Watch International…………………………….. Delaware, Massachusetts, New Jersey
  • Surfside Seafood Products………………………… New Jersey

SCeMFiS Announces Funding for Two Research Projects Impacting Fisheries Management

November 27, 2017 — CAPE MAY, N.J. — The following was released by the Science Center for Marine Fisheries:

The Industry Advisory Board (IAB) of the Science Center for Marine Fisheries (SCeMFiS) has allocated $26,467 in funding for two research projects during the Fall IAB Meeting held October 31-November 1, 2017 in Cape May, New Jersey. The awards span the broad mission of the SCeMFiS and include research on marine mammals and continued funding for the omnibus stock assessment proposal for Atlantic herring.

Funded projects are as follows:

  • Independent Advisory Team for Marine Mammal Assessments – Phase V – this team addresses uncertainties in slow growing marine mammal populations and the interactions between marine mammals and fishing operations. PI: Paula Moreno, USM
  • Stock Assessment Team – stock assessment teams provide external support to NMFS for benchmark assessment working groups with a focus in 2018 on the Atlantic herring. PI: Steve Cadrin, UMass Dartmouth

This fall marked a trend to include industry sponsorship of social events and hold meetings close to prospective new members in an effort to attract and showcase research projects. The Cape May oceanfront provided a beautiful venue for the Fall IAB Meeting. Lund’s Fisheries Inc. and Atlantic Capes Fisheries, Inc. graciously provided food, beverages and evening social events on the Cape May Whale Watcher as well as Cold Spring Village/Brewery and The Grange Restaurant.

Jeff Reichle, President of Lund’s Fisheries, Inc. commented, “It was an honor to host the Fall IAB Meeting of SCeMFiS in the port of Cape May. The fishing industry in New Jersey, both commercial and recreational, has a huge impact on our coastal communities and we are very pleased to be part of this science based organization focused on cooperative research with NMFS and other fisheries management bodies to ensure that we have healthy, sustainable fisheries now and in the future.”

The Industry Advisory Board of the Science Center for Marine Fisheries (SCeMFiS), supported by the National Science Foundation I/UCRC Program, provides research related to major challenges in fisheries management and brings participants from industry, government, and other organizations in need of science-based solutions into contact with academic scientists capable of providing that expertise.

The SCeMFiS Industry Advisory Board is composed of members from the shellfish and commercial finfish industries and the NMFS-Northeast Fisheries Science Center. The organizational structure provided by the Center permits members to control the science agenda in exchange for financial support under the sponsorship of the NSF.

For a list of the SCeMFiS research projects already underway, please click the following link, http://scemfis.org/research.html. The Industry Advisory Board will review each of its funded projects at its next meeting to be held April 24 & 25 in Ocean Springs, Mississippi.

 

MASSACHUSETTS: ‘A new era’: UMass Dartmouth SMAST building to open

September 29, 2017 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — UMass Dartmouth’s new marine science building is finished, its laboratories gleaming with the promise of new research.

The $55 million School for Marine Science and Technology building, dubbed SMAST East, officially opens today in the South End of New Bedford. At 64,000 square feet, it nearly triples the physical size of SMAST, a graduate school and research center focusing on fisheries, coastal preservation, ocean modeling, and climate change.

The new building reunites the school’s programs in a campus-like setting. For several years, some have been housed in the AT&T building in Fairhaven for lack of space.

“Just to be back together was great,” said Steve Cadrin, a professor and chairman of the Department of Fisheries Oceanography. But more importantly, it’s a world-class facility, he said.

The building also helps cement the school’s relationship with the state Division of Marine Fisheries. The agency leased the third floor for its New Bedford office, and it will have a first-floor office for permitting.

The Division of Marine Fisheries works hand-in-hand with SMAST on research and sometimes hires its Ph.D. graduates. Recent hires have represented the agency on New England Fisheries Management Council committees, helped the state understand fish surveys, and studied algae blooms.

The agency’s director, David Pierce, is an adjunct professor.

“We are now in a far better position to collaborate,” he said.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times