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BOSTON, MA - The planning process for a cod tagging program in New England waters is underway.
Once it is implemented, this program will involve fishermen from Rhode Island to the Canadian Maritime Provinces. Its objective is to learn more about cod distribution, movement, and growth patterns in regional waters with the ultimate goal of enhancing management measures to preserve cod stocks.
The process actually began in October, when a task force of fishermen and scientists started holding regular meetings to develop recommendations for the design of a regionwide cod tagging program.
This task force, which includes a mix of fishermen and US and Canadian government and nongovernment scientists, has explored various aspects of program design from raising public awareness and participation to considering viable alternatives to promote a healthy number of tag returns.
One of the primary points of discussion was establishing a centralized clearinghouse for both collecting and distributing information. This clearinghouse would be a nongovernment "neutral" entity, which would work with local groups to collect tag returns -- and possibly fish samples -- and then make information available to the fishing and scientific communities in a timely manner.
The task force also focused on developing a credible scientific design and invested considerable energies to formulate key scientific questions that it hopes will be answered through this and other research efforts.
Public meetings
In order to build support and gather more input from the fishing community, a series of evening town meetings was held throughout New England during the month of January.
A sizable number of commercial fishermen turned out for the meetings, which were held from Ellsworth, ME to Point Judith, RI. In addition, some representatives of the recreational fishing community, scientific organizations, and various task force members participated in the meetings.
In most communities, there was broad-based support for the program. However, some concerns were raised about the importance of maintaining data integrity and ensuring that there are high enough tag returns over the long-term to provide a scientific basis for informed management decisions.
In a few locations, fishermen echoed a familiar concern over how the data would be used and some worried that it may be used to implement management measures that could hurt them.
Despite these fears, most fishermen who attended the meetings felt that it was better to be proactive and offer suggestions for how to make the program more effective.
Dedicated trips
During the town meetings, fishermen provided input on what gear types should be involved in tagging and whether tagging should take place as part of regular commercial fishing operations or during a dedicated research trip.
The majority of those present at the meetings supported the idea of dedicated research trips. They also discussed reasonable compensation for hiring fishing vessels to participate in the program and effective means for enhancing tag returns.
While some fishermen seemed willing to participate in the program regardless of whether they were financially compensated, others felt that, at minimum, boat and personnel expenses should be covered.
There was widespread support for paying inshore boats (under 60') $1,500 a day for a dedicated research trip.
Tagging, returns
When it came to the discussion of how to enhance tag returns, all participants in the town meetings agreed that information was the real motivating factor, but various reward schemes also were discussed.
One possibility was a dual lottery system in which individuals who tagged fish and individuals who turned in tags would be eligible for a reward on an annual basis.
In each community, there was a great deal of discussion about the need to sample over a wide enough area to get a representative picture of cod movements.
The ability to gather information from closed areas was seen as critical to the process. A variety of means to accomplish this were discussed. In addition, fishermen made suggestions for where, when, and how to go about tagging and collecting tags in coastal and offshore waters.
Next step
The results of these town meetings were to be presented to the task force at its final meeting in mid-February in Portsmouth, NH. At that time, a formal set of recommendations was expected to be formulated.
Over the next few months, New England Aquarium staff will assemble a report that will include the recommendations of the task force and town meetings and a review of scientific literature about tagging program design.
The report will be presented to the National Marine Fisheries Service and New England Fishery Management Council Research Steering Committee for their consideration this spring.
Ultimately, the goal is to provide guidelines for implementing a cod tagging program for the region that has both broad-based industry support and scientific merit. Federal cooperative research monies are expected to be available for program implementation sometime this year.
Industry needed
This program has the potential to begin to answer some important questions about cod distribution and movement patterns in US and Canadian waters.
However, if there is to be continued federal support for it into the future, there has to be a reasonable amount of interest and participation from the fishing industry.
So, it is hoped that all segments of the industry will get behind the program and provide further input during this critical design phase as well as actively participate once the program is up and running.
If fishermen or others are interested in providing additional input, there is still an opportunity to do so. Please contact Jennifer Dianto at the New England Aquarium (617) 573-0748 or via e-mail (jdianto@neqq.org) or Maggie Mooney-Seus at (mmooneys@aol.com) before March 15, 2001.
Maggie Mooney-Seus
Maggie Mooney-Seus is the project manager for the New England Aquarium's cod tagging program design phase.
