Tag Archives: Northeastern University

Seafood Processing: How robots can help local fisheries

New England is known for being an excellent source of lobster and other seafood. But while fishing is done locally, much of the processing is outsourced to other countries.,,, Northeastern University professor Taskin Padir is hoping to change that. He was selected to lead a new project to bring collaborative robots developed at the university into processing plants at America’s busiest fishing port, located in New Bedford, Massachusetts. The goal, he said, is to increase production and efficiency, keep workers safe, and stimulate local job growth. Called Collaborative Robotics to Foster Innovation in Seafood Handling, or the FISH project, this is one of 14 robotics-related challenges recently announced Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing (ARM). <click to read<17:09

S-K Fund: Salem profs win $296K for Cape Ann project to developing to mussel aqua-farm

Two Salem State University marine researchers will receive just over $296,000 in Saltonstall-Kennedy grant funds to expand their project aimed at developing offshore commercial shellfish aquaculture, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Thursday. The project by SSU marine biology professor Mark R. Fregeau and SSU colleague Edward Maney Jr. is the only North Shore-based project included among the 38 projects nationally that will receive a slice of the $9 million NOAA is doling out in the 2018 Saltonstall-Kennedy funding cycle. >click to read<19:49

SMAST researchers employ new methods of fish geolocation

CowlesFish-200x215Dr. Geoffrey Cowles and his research assistants, graduate students Doug Zemeckis and Chang Liu, are partners in a multi-institution effort to tag yellowtail flounder, monkfish, and now cod to learn much more than past methods could tell them. Cod are of paramount concern in recent years because NOAA surveys have concluded that they have virtually vanished in the Northeast fishery. Zemeckis said that one of the preliminary findings is that the cod that are there are not migrating north as many believe, but are staying put. Tagged fish are not showing up in Canada, he said. Read the rest here 08:31

Crabs can hear! This is Fish Radio. I’m Laine Welch

FISH-With-Mic-Logo-GRAPHIC-303-x-400-e1360148757522Creepy soundtracks of noises made by predators had crabs running for shelter and proved, for the first time, that the animals can hear. Marine acoustic experts at Boston’s  made the discovery in lab tests on 200 mud crabs during a two year study. Read more here 18:44