Tag Archives: Large Pelagics Research Center
In her garage lab, a scientist looks for answers about skinny tuna
Molly Lutcavage is standing on the State Fish Pier in Gloucester, watching a crane hoist a giant bluefin tuna off the back of a fishing boat. “Look at how skinny she is,” the fisherman, Corky Decker, yells up to her. “That’s how they’ve all been — long, ugly things like you’d catch in June.” Lutcavage nods at the fish, which is 74 inches long but weighs just 174 pounds — very skinny indeed for a tuna — then looks down at the plastic bag in her hands, which is what she’s come for. It contains the tuna’s ovaries,,, >click to read< 07:38
How In Trouble Are Bluefin Tuna, Really? Controversial Study Makes Waves with Enviro’s
A group of scientists is now making the case that Atlantic bluefin may be more resilient to fishing than commonly thought — and perhaps better able to rebound from the species’ depleted state. But the study is controversial. Several tuna researchers we spoke with warned that the results are preliminary, and it’s much too soon to use them to guide how fisheries are managed. In an email exchange with The Salt, Safina writes, “[T]heir main concern is not recovery, not conservation, but how their findings can allow additional exploitation and more stress to be inflicted on a very beleaguered creature.” Read the article here 08:10
Our view: Loss of Large Pelagics Research Center a blow to Gloucester
It is difficult to think of the departure of the as anything less than a great loss for Gloucester. Officials from the facility, associated with the University of Massachusetts at Amherst since 2010, announced earlier this week that the center will move from Hodgkins Cove to Boston, and change its affiliation within the university system. UMass Boston’s gain is Gloucester’s loss. During its time at Hodgkins Cove, the center’s research on bluefin tuna and other highly migratory pelagic species drew international attention. Read the rest here 08:46
Researchers feed on Bluefin tuna’s 5,000-mile odyssey
A huge bluefin tuna caught off Spain is doing plenty to help fisheries biologists better understand the dynamics of stocks on the east and west coasts of the Atlantic Ocean. Angler Di Ortiz of Hampton caught the tuna and Graves quickly inserted a Tag-a-Tiny tag from Dr. Molly Lutcavage’s Large Pelagics Research Center that is supported by the Billfish Foundation. It was measured at 45 inches long and released unharmed. Charlie weighed approximately 40 pounds at the time. Read the rest here 08:09
Large Pelagics Research Center and “Wicked Tuna”s Captain Bill “Hollywood” Muniz – Tracking Atlantic Bluefin Tuna
Large Pelagics Research Center, Molly Lutcavage’s Gloucester-based research team will collaborate with long-term tuna research partners and stars of television’s “Wicked Tuna” series, Captain Bill “Hollywood” Muniz and his spotter, Mark Brochu. Wayne Perryman, leader of a NOAA project using hexacopters to study killer whales off the coast of British Columbia, is advising the UMass Amherst group on this project. Read the rest here 09:55
Study of bigeye tuna in Northwest Atlantic uses new tracking methods
A first-of-its-kind study of bigeye tuna movements in the northwestern Atlantic Ocean led by Molly Lutcavage, director of the Large Pelagics Research Center at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, found among other things that these fish cover a wide geographical range with pronounced north-south movements from Georges Bank to the Brazilian shelf, and they favor a high-use area off Cape Hatteras southwest of Bermuda for foraging. Read more here 07:52
Fish science on table in Pelagics series
They’ll be talking fish and fisheries at Maritime Gloucester on Thursday nights throughout the month of April during the speaker series presented by the Large Pelagics Research Center of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Read more here 07:20
“We’re in danger of closing,” University of Massachusetts’ Large Pelagics Research Center
Storm clouds, at least figuratively, have been gathering, seeded by growing concerns about how much longer the center will be able to do its work in an environment of increased competition among researchers for rapidly diminishing funding. more@GDT 06:17
Seminars planned on fish and fisheries at Maritime Gloucester
Gloucester — The Large Pelagics Research Center will present the 2013 Fish and Fisheries Public Seminar Series on Thursdays in April at 7 p.m. at Maritime Gloucester, 23 Harbor Loop, Gloucester. All lectures are free and open to the public. Space is limited. April 4: Dr. Molly Lutcavage of Large Pelagics Research Center, UMass Amherst. continued
