PowerPoint: Utilizing Wireless Technologies to Monitor New England Groundfish
Once a profitable fishery supporting coastal communities, the groundfish fishery in New England is in crisis. One factor is the mixed stock nature of the fishery where stocks with low catch limits constrain the harvest of more abundant stocks. In addition, climate-mediated changes in this region are unprecedented, and the impacts on marine fisheries resources, such as changes in distribution and productivity, are increasing. There is a need for more comprehensive and accurate data collection to understand the current and future state of the Gulf of Maine fishery resources. Adaptive electronic tools can help address these data gaps. The Gulf of Maine Research Institute (GMRI) has begun developing an extension of traditional electronic monitoring (EM), called the Fisheries Data Suite. This system aims to integrate four historically separate data collection technologies into a central system installed on vessels. The four data collection components are: 1) video monitoring to collect on-deck catch information, 2) electronic vessel trip reports to collect catch information from the captain, 3) acoustics to collect ocean bottom and fish biomass data, and 4) sensors to collect bottom temperature. Coupling this data will create reliable, unbiased information to better inform the science and management of the region’s fisheries.
