COMMERCE
Subscriber Services
Classified Ads
Subscribe
Advertise
NEWS
This Month
Editorial
Letters
F/V Safety
Past Issues
ABOUT US
Contact Us
Latest Issue
Subscribe
History
MORE CONTENT
CFN Archives
Links
Each month exclusively in the PRINT edition of CFN
Along the Coast
Ask the Lobster Doc
Bearin’s
Classifieds
Coming Events
Editorial
Enforcement Report
FISH SAFE
Fleet Additions
Letters
Lobster Market Report
New Boats
News Catch
Quahog Market Report
|
Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 34 Number 7
March 2007
Bigelow’s trawl survey gear impresses industry
PORTSMOUTH, NH – Industry members involved in designing and testing new trawl survey gear for the Northeast Fisheries Science Center’s soon-to-arrive fishery survey vessel Henry B. Bigelow say they are confident the new net-and-door combination will be far more effective for stock assessment surveys than the old Yankee 36 set-up.
The center’s Trawl Survey Advisory Panel – made up of fishermen, net makers, scientists, and gear specialists – spent over three years working on the project, and on Feb. 7, the New England Fishery Management Council voted to formally endorse the gear design.
The Mid-Atlantic council voted in December to give a thumbs-up to the gear design, which was field-tested in 2006 aboard the Darana R, owned by North Carolina fisherman Jimmy Ruhle.
“This gear is incredibly stable,” said Ruhle, who chairs the Trawl Survey Advisory Panel and also sits on the Mid-Atlantic council. “I was so amazed at the response we got out of it. I’ve got a lot of confidence in this gear.”
Advisory panel member Rodney Avila, who sits on the New England council, added, “Industry feels very comfortable with this net.”
Although the net was specifically designed for the science center’s trawl surveys, the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) recently used the configuration to conduct a Mid-Atlantic inshore pilot survey under the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Northeast Area Monitoring and Assessment Program (NEAMAP).
VIMS was contracted to do the NEAMAP pilot survey, which covered ground from Montauk, NY to Cape Hatteras, NC as part of NEAMAP’s ongoing effort to fill in inshore data gaps.
Sea trials
During a presentation to the New England council, VIMS project principal Jim Gartland said VIMS decided to go with the new Northeast Fisheries Science Center trawl survey design so that this project’s inshore survey gear would be compatible with the Bigelow’s gear.
Also, since industry was involved in the new net design, VIMS knew the data had a much higher probability of being accepted by industry, said Gartland.
Initial NEAMAP field trials were conducted in May on the Darana R, and during the trip, door spread, wing spread, towing speed, and other parameters were varied. Monitors on the net and doors documented the gear’s performance.
Ruhle said he was so impressed with the results that he insisted on having science center representatives onboard in June for further evaluations so they could see the gear in action first-hand.
Following gear testing, the actual NEAMAP inshore pilot survey took place Sept. 25-Oct. 15.
Coordinating with Bigelow
This inshore Mid-Atlantic survey, as well as New Jersey’s inshore survey and those conducted by Maine/New Hampshire and Massachusetts, will become increasingly critical in providing inshore stock assessment information.
According to Russell Brown, who heads up all of the science center’s surveys, the new Bigelow has a deeper draft than the current Albatross IV, the vessel being relaced, so it won’t be able to access some of the inshore stations previously covered during the center’s survey cruises.
Frank Almeida, also from the science center, added that center scientists already were thinking hard about how to incorporate other inshore survey data into the assessments.
Vessel owner Harriett Didriksen of New Bedford asked if industry members would be onboard the Bigelow when the new gear was first tested on the federal vessel.
“Yes,” said Ruhle. “Both Rodney Avila and I are scheduled to go on the first cruise to make sure the net and monitor work as planned.”
Both the New England and Mid-Atlantic councils further voted to ask the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to establish a formal training program for people using the Bigelow’s new gear, including the vessel’s crew, the “survey leadership,” and shore-based support personnel, so they all have a proper understanding of how to handle, repair, and construct the gear.
Rhode Island fisherman and New England council member Phil Ruhle, who sits on the Trawl Survey Advisory Panel, said he thought the training program was absolutely essential.
“With as much work as went into this net, it would be ridiculous not to have training,” he said. “In my mind, you can’t have one without the other.”
Panel a success
The impending arrival of the Henry B. Bigelow and use of the new survey gear mark an enormous leap forward from when industry first discovered back in September 2002 that the trawl warps on the Albatross IV were mismatch.
That finding let to the creation of the Trawl Survey Advisory Panel, a new gear design, and a better understanding among industry of bottom trawl surveys and how they’re conducted.
Several people at the New England council meeting praised the advisory panel for its work.
“I have nothing but admiration and great respect for the people who were involved,” said Massachusetts council member David Pierce.
Panel Chairman Jimmy Ruhle said the experience was one of the most beneficial he’d had in his entire fishing career.
He was particularly pleased that three of the region’s major net makers – Trawlworks Inc., Superior Trawl, and Reidar’s Manufacturing Inc. – put aside competitive instincts to contribute to the panel. And as a result, the commercial fishing industry and science center ended up with the best trawl survey net design possible.
“It’s really been a privilege to chair this group and I’m proud to be part of it,” said Ruhle.
Janice M. Plante
Back to story list
|
|
Tell us what you think.
