My View
Jim Balsiger, NOAA
March 27, 2009 05:50 am Some of our nation's earliest science on fish stocks depended on a trusting relationship between scientists and fishermen. When the haddock stocks crashed in the early 1930s, federal fisheries scientists went to fishermen to collect catch information to understand the causes of the crash and to rebuild this staple food for New England. NOAA's Fisheries Service today continues to work with fishermen in New England and throughout the nation to study the abundance of fish, where they migrate, where and when they spawn, and how they are affected by fishing, other marine species, ocean currents, changing water temperature and ocean chemistry. Cooperative research with New England fishermen is one way to reach common ground on our goal of restoring groundfish stocks to provide good jobs for Gloucester, New Bedford, Portland, Point Judith and other fishing communities. Groundfishermen were instrumental in a study with the state of Massachusetts and NOAA on how well the rolling fishing closures allow fish to rebuild their population. Closures in areas of the Gulf of Maine are one reason there has been progress in rebuilding cod. As scientists, we get great satisfaction working alongside fishermen on their boats. Fishermen's observations have helped us do better studies and put in place better measures. Fishermen also provide the knowledge to design new gear — such as the Ruhle separator trawl named for fisherman Phil Ruhle, that allows harvest of healthy fish stocks while letting depleted stocks escape from the net. Bill Lee of Rockport told me he has taken part in many research projects over the last 14 years and it's given him an understanding of how scientists assess the status of fish stocks. "The scientists know when they come on my boat they're going to get good science at a good price," Mr. Lee told me last week. "It's also helped me deal with lost days at sea." Mr. Lee is part of a NOAA study fleet equipped with computer logbooks that provide nearly real-time data on fishing catch and effort to NOAA scientists. While this information is logged by vessels fishing up and down the Northeast coast, sensors attached to the vessels collect water temperature and depth information to help create a clearer picture of where fish are and how they are affected by changes in temperature and depth. While we have rebuilt haddock stocks from the dismal levels of 20 years ago, we have more rebuilding to do with most other groundfish species. Fishermen have much to be proud of in what has occurred. In 1994, the fishing industry was catching seven of every 10 cod in the Gulf of Maine, an unsustainable level. Last year, the industry caught one of every three cod in this stock. If we can reduce the catch rate to one out of every five, we estimate that the annual harvest will eventually triple from an estimated 8 million pounds last year to about 23 million pounds a year. This would be a tremendous victory for fishermen and scientists. I want to thank all the fishermen who have taken part in cooperative research and encourage others to join in. Those who are interested can help me by making suggestions for research projects they believe are needed. I welcome your input. You can send them to me at public.concerns.groundfish@noaa.gov Dr. Jim Balsiger is the acting national administrator of NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service, based in Silver Spring, Md.
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