Hook, line and video camera NEW TOOLS IN FISHERIES SCIENCE
BY HAYLEY RUTGER On a commercial fishing vessel in Madeira Beach, Florida, deckhand Melissa Alford was preparing for a 2013 trip into the Gulf of Mexico — a couple weeks of hard work, hauling in longlines and hoping for a healthy catch of grouper and snapper. There, she met Mote Marine Laboratory scientists who stopped by the dock to install video monitoring systems on the vessel, under a research partnership with the Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Shareholders’ Alliance and Wild Seafood. “Some people on commercial vessels would turn down the idea of hosting cameras,” Alford said, “but when I talked with the scientists, and they showed me data sheets with the fish and shark information they wanted our help to collect, and what they wanted to learn, I thought, this is awesome.” The video cameras were part of an electronic monitoring (EM) system. EM is an emerging method to gather scientific data from commercial vessels to inform and enhance fisheries management with the goal of benefiting the fish stocks, fishers, and ultimately seafood consumers who value sustainability. Mote was testing the system with help from some of the most knowledgeable people on the Gulf — those who fish it. Alford said: “I love to learn; I want to hear from the scientists and I want them to know what I’m seeing out there. We don’t always have this kind of communication among different groups involved in the fishery, and I think that’s an issue that’s starting to be addressed.”
Photo by: Conor Goulding
EM camera systems help scientists document the fish species caught, numbers kept and discarded, notes about their condition and details on when a vessel sets or hauls fishing gear or travels between fishing grounds and port. On the participating vessels, Mote’s cameras recorded only the fish being hauled aboard and the unwanted bycatch being tossed back — not any other area of the boat or activity. Videos and supporting data were saved to a hard drive that Mote scientists and trained volunteers later removed and analyzed confidentially, protecting the crew’s privacy. There are many ways to take the pulse of a fishery, but no established method can provide all the answers sought by regulators at state agencies, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the nation’s Fisheries Management Councils.
16 MOTE MAGAZINE | ANNUAL 2017-2018