Tag Archives: University of Massachusetts

Ropeless fishing gear: Georgia researchers work with commercial fishermen to test equipment

NOAA has identified two areas critical for right whales: off the coast of New England, where the whales forage for food in warmer months; and off the southeast coast from North Carolina to Florida, where the whales reproduce between November and April. Fluech is collaborating with Kim Sawicki, project lead and doctoral student at the University of Massachusetts,, In summer 2020, the research team secured a permit from the National Marine Fisheries Service to test eight different ropeless gear systems with black sea bass pots off the coast of Georgia. It was the first time the ropeless gear had been tested in the South Atlantic. >click to read< 08:37

Gloucester – Fishermen, scientists to assess stock

The most incendiary divide between groundfishermen and fishing regulators in the past two years has been the discrepancy between what NOAA Fisheries says its stock assessments show and what fishermen are seeing on the water. The groundfish assessments by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — particularly for the iconic Gulf of Maine cod stock and certain flounders — have been uniformly dire, leading to the virtual shuttering of cod fishing in the Gulf of Maine and scant quotas for other species. Fishermen — including commercial groundfishermen, charter captains and even lobstermen — paint a very different portrait of what they are seeing on a daily basis: cod, cod everywhere, and not a one they can catch. On June 20, the city’s Economic Development and Industrial Corporation and fishing stakeholders will host a presentation by a team of University of Massachusetts scientists on their current findings and methodology for fish population counting in the Gulf of Maine. Read the rest here 10:09

Study: Leatherbacks stay near Cape

With a blunt nose and arched shell, up to 8 feet in length and weighing 2,000 pounds, a leatherback turtle is the marine equivalent of a Volkswagen Beetle. Propelled through the water by enormous front flippers, leatherbacks,, Read more here capecodonline 05:23