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by Lorelei Stevens
WOODS HOLE, MA - Late in February, the Albatross set out on its annual spring survey. But this time, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) research vessel was not alone.
For a total of about seven days over the course of several weeks, the 96' Montauk, NY-based trawler Jason and Danielle towed side-by-side with the research boat. The six crewmen and four scientists on the fishing boat counted, sorted, and measured just about everything that came up in the commercial net.
When all the numbers are crunched, the Jason and Danielle's catch will be compared to the results of hauls made by the Albatross and this cooperative research venture will, hopefully, begin to answer some of the nagging questions about the traditional NMFS survey.
"This was prompted by concerns over scup," said Dan Cohen, president of the National Fisheries Institute Scientific Monitoring Committee, which has pledged to cover all costs associated with the industry side of the project.
Cohen explained that NMFS uses spring survey data in its scup assessment. However, while large scup weren't showing up in the spring survey, they were appearing in the fall survey, leading industry people and some scientists to wonder if the big fish were just being missed.
The Albatross surveys are standardized to measure relative abundance from year to year. The research vessel uses the same gear to sample the same stations at the same time each spring and fall.
NMFS Northeast Fisheries Science Center scientist Terry Smith explained the objective of the cooperative research project.
"We wanted to see if the size of the animal caught differs greatly (between the two vessels)," he said. "If we're seeing fish only up to four or five years old and the industry is seeing seven- to eight-year-old fish, then that could lead to a weight bias. We want to see that we're not truncating the biomass distribution."
While scup was the initial impetus for the project, it's likely that the information collected will be applicable to other species as well, including summer flounder and whiting to name just a few.
What they saw
Bill Grimm and Hank Lackner co-own the Jason and Danielle, which is based at the fishermen-owned Inlet Seafood dock in Montauk.
According to Grimm, the Jason and Danielle had to struggle to keep up with the Albatross, which is twice its size. Even so, the smaller vessel caught substantially more fish than the research boat fishing on the same sites. The focus was on stations between the Maryland/Virginia border to just south of Nantucket.
"We'd catch 110 fluke to their two fish," he said.
Grimm stressed that the side-by-side tows were "not a competition." But the differences convinced the fishermen the Albatross survey is not geared to catch fish.
"The gear is old and the stations were picked before we started fishing offshore. They fish in places where there isn't fish. They tow too fast and they don't have ground gear," he said.
Grimm added that the higher tow speed is especially significant because tank tests show that the fast-towed gear doesn't tend the bottom, but bounces off the bottom.
"They're lucky to get any fish," he said.
Scientific protocol
Bill Amaru, a Cape Cod draggerman and member of the New England Fishery Management Council, just happened to be on board the Albatross as a working observer while the Jason and Danielle was fishing.
He praised the integrity of the survey and of the Albatross scientific team.
"I was very impressed with what they do and how they do it," Amaru said. "The scientific protocol they follow is absolutely phenomenal."
However, he agreed that there was room for improvement.
"They're using the same net they were using in 1968," Amaru observed. "I don't think it's catching proportionately to what's there."
Grimm was encouraged that the Albatross researchers asked the Jason and Danielle crew for suggestions on changes that could be made. He said that Lackner had provided the NMFS team with a list.
Eric Powell of Rutgers University's Haskin Shellfish Lab in New Jersey is also working on the project.
"This was a first try at this kind of thing. There were some glitches, but it certainly didn't go badly," he said.
Powell added that he anticipated the data would be analyzed by mid-May.
"In theory, it should be available for the upcoming summer flounder stock assessment," he said.
Terry Smith pointed out that more data gathered over a longer period of time will be necessary in order to significantly influence a stock assessment.
"But if we see we're missing something, it will filter in," he said.
Grimm hopes that the work will continue.
"Even though we got paid, it takes a lot away from our fishing. But, hey, you've got to sacrifice something," he said. "We'd like to see other boats do it. We'd do it again."
