If they’re successful, four research projects now underway in different parts of the Gulf of Maine will give us new insights into a number of important resources.
East of Cape Cod, a veteran hook fisherman is trying to figure out what cod eat and when they eat it. He has teamed up with the Northeast Fisheries Science Center to examine cod stomach contents. “Every fisherman is interested in what fish eat,” says fisherman Ted Ligenza. “You’d have to be pretty dumb not to pay attention to this – especially if you’re a hook fisherman.” One value of the study, notes the scientist working with Ligenza, is that it collects samples three times a month, as opposed to the National Marine Fisheries Service’s twice a year. Expanding the study recently to include liver and gonad analyses will enable comparisons of stomach content to spawning activity and overall health.
In Muscongus Bay in midcoast Maine, the Lobster Conservancy is tagging egg-bearing female lobsters to study their location and movements. A group of Friendship lobster fishermen is cooperating. Little is known about the movements and habitat preferences of female lobsters during the nine to 12 months they carry and care for their eggs. The goal of the study, we report in this issue of WWF, is to determine where the females go and where they end up releasing larvae. Each “egger” caught is outfitted with a sonar transmitter, an identification tag and a temperature data logger. The tagged lobsters are released near where they are caught, and their positions recorded on a global positioning system.
In Penobscot Bay, where the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is dumping dredge spoils in an area local fishermen consider to be prime lobster bottom. The Bigelow Laboratory, the Island Institute and cooperating Vinalhaven fishermen are using trap-based tagging methods to monitor lobster movement near the disposal site before and during the period of disposal. They’ll be keeping tabs on lobsters moving within the study area as well as those that may travel beyond it, and they are asking fishermen who catch tagged lobsters to call in the tag number and location of capture.
Last summer, the research vessel WEATHERBIRD II spent four days in the Gulf of Maine, measuring the vertical distribution of the various stages of developing lobsters, comparing what they found with ocean currents from the Gulf of Maine Ocean Observing System (GoMOOS) buoys and other sources. The goal: to understand how larvae are moved from egg hatching areas to settlement areas. Several scientists took part, and expect to report their results at the March Fishermen’s Forum.
Taken together, these studies are a positive sign – efforts to learn as much as possible about “The Wondrous Machine” that is the Gulf of Maine continue at a high level. Everyone in this region stands to benefit.