Page 12. MAINE COASTAL NEWS March 2016
Commercial Fishing News MISCELLANEOUS COMMERCIAL FISHING NEWS
Continued from Page 1.
that is leading the project’s gray seal infl uen- za work. Jonathan Runstadler’s Laboratory at MIT has been studying weaned gray seal pups on Muskeget Island each January since 2013. That year 99 pups were sampled, and 103 pups were sampled in January 2014. Sampling efforts expanded to Monomoy in January 2015, when 126 seal pups were sampled. The team has consistently found evidence of infl uenza A virus each year, though the specifi c subtype of virus has not yet been determined.
The seal team hopes to capture, tag and release between 100 and 150 unique, already weaned animals this year. As of January 20, the team had tagged 41 seals on Monomoy and 12 on Muskeget. Weather and schedules permitting, several more visits to collect samples at each location are planned before the end of the six week pupping season in early February. The fi eld work began January 7 with drone tests on Muskeget. Seal capture, fl ip- per tagging and biological sampling work began January 15, along with aerial imagery. Further work was done on January 20, with more planned for several days at the end of January, weather permitting. Two types of drones are being used, one from Duke University and the other from NOAA. Both are operated at altitudes up to 400 feet. “Duke’s fi xed wing eBee is ideal for surveying a large area and estimating seal density, while NOAA’s hexacopter APH-22 is better at spot sampling and hovering over a location for more detailed study” said Julian Dale, lead UAS engineer at Duke Univer- sity’s Unmanned Aircraft System’s group in Beaufort, North Carolina. “We will be assessing the accuracy of UAS seal counts in
comparison to images from the Twin Otter, which fl ies much faster and at an altitude of 750 feet.” The fi xed wind eBee system collects two types of imagery. One is traditional color photography to compare to the NOAA Twin Otter camera images, and the other is infra- red or thermal imagery to detect animals that are diffi cult to see or within dense con- centrations of seals. The NOAA Twin Otter aircraft conducts aerial marine mammal surveys in the Northeast for the Northeast Fisheries Science Center. It is equipped for this project with its standard side camera as well as a bottom-mounted camera on loan from NOAA’s National Marine Mammal Laboratory for vertical images. Images from NOAA’s APH-22 hexa- copter will also be evaluated for their utility as a census tool or for studying other features of the population, such as entanglements. “This is the fi rst time the APH-22 technolo- gy has been used to survey seal populations in the Northeast,” said Beth Josephson of the NEFSC, one of the APH-22 pilots. The group hopes to continue using drone technology to study characteristics of seal populations. Stephanie Wood, a seal researcher in
the NEFSC’s Protected Species Branch, will use the imagery to continue research on gray seal abundance in the Northeast. She is also using a remote camera, made available by
explore.org, to monitor births and behavior on Maine’s Seal Island, the second largest gray seal pupping colony in the U.S. The goal is to develop a pup production model, which does not exist for the U.S. gray seal population.
“Sampling on one day during the six- week pupping season doesn’t provide a full view of where the seals are in the pupping
process,” Wood said. “Pups born at the start of the season in mid-December won’t be on the islands in late January or early February when other pups are born. Being able to collect samples and imagery several times over the course of the season will give us a much better sense of where in the pupping cycle our surveys occurred so we get a better estimate of total pup production.” Muskeget is a privately owned and uninhabited island six miles northwest of Nantucket. Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge is also a primary gray seal haul-out on the U.S. East Coast, although the number of pups born there is much lower than on Muskeget.
Gray seals and harbor seals are the most common seal species on Cape Cod and the Islands; gray seals are resident year-round while harbor seals are primarily seasonal residents, present from fall through early spring before migrating north in the summer. Once captured by project researchers, each weaned gray seal pup is measured and weighed. Biological samples, including blood, mucous swabs, hair and skin, are taken for use in health assessments and for stable isotope, contaminant and genetic research. All seals are outfi tted with num- bered fl ipper tags for identifi cation. Once the biological sampling and tagging work is completed, the seals are released. The entire process for each seal, from capture to release, usually takes about 20 minutes. Pups are captured on land; no captures are made in the water. The scientifi c team for the 2016 gray seal pup studies comprises researchers from NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) and the National Marine Mammal Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Tech- nology, Duke University, Mystic Aquarium, New England Aquarium, Marine Mammals of Maine, University of Connecticut, Na- tional Park Service, National Marine Life Center, Woods Hole Oceanographic Insti- tution/Northwest Atlantic Seal Research Consortium, and the International Fund for Animal Welfare. Monomoy National Wild- life Refuge is operated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The team has a marine mammal scien-
tifi c research permit issued by NOAA’s Na- tional Marine Fisheries Service (#17670-03) to the Northeast Fisheries Science Center, and Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge special use permit (#16-MNY-01) to work on that island. This research was funded in part by the National Marine Fisheries Ser- vice Offi ce of Science and Technology.
ASMFC American Lobster Board Ap- proves Jonah Crab Draft Addendum I for Public Comment
ALEXANDRIA, VA – The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s American Lobster Management Board approved
Draft Addendum I to the Jonah Crab Fish- ery Management Plan (FMP) for public comment. The Draft Addendum proposes changes to the incidental bycatch limits for non-trap gear (e.g., otter trawls, gillnets) and non-lobster trap gear (e.g., fi sh, crab, and whelk pots). For non-trap gear, the Draft Addendum includes options to maintain, increase, or eliminate the bycatch limit, while options for non-lobster traps include establishing bycatch limits of varying size or maintaining no limit on these gears. The intent of the Draft Addendum is to cap inci- dental landings of Jonah crab while ensuring the inclusion of current participants in the Jonah crab fi shery. The FMP currently prescribes a 200 crab per calendar day/500 crab per trip incidental bycatch limit for non-trap gear; however, concerns were expressed over the appropriateness of these limits. Data submitted by the New England Fishery Management Council and NOAA Fisheries illustrate while 97-99% of trips from 2010 through 2014 were within the current limit, there were several trips above the limit. Furthermore, current bycatch landings were suffi ciently low, accounting for approxi- mately 0.1% of total landings.
Bycatch limits for non-lobster trap gear were added as a second issue for consid- eration in the Draft Addendum to address concerns regarding the lack of effort controls on non-lobster traps and the potential for trap proliferation. Data submitted by NOAA Fisheries show between May 1, 2013 and August 31, 2015, 194 trips landed Jonah crab with whelk pots, crab pots, and fi sh pots. Of these, 80 trips landed 100 crab or fewer and 115 trips landed 200 crab or fewer. Approxi- mately 45 trips landed between 200 and 500 crab and 40 trips landed more than 450 crab. Landings from Maryland show between 2012 and 2015, 33 trips landed Jonah crab with fi sh pots. All of these trips were under 200 pounds. Reports also indicated from 2014-2015, 36 trips landed Jonah crab with whelk pots. Average landings per trip with whelk pots were under 500 pounds; how- ever, there is concern that these whelk pot landings may in fact be rock crab, a closely related species which is often misreported as Jonah crab.
. Fishermen and other interested groups are encouraged to provide input on the Draft Addendum either by attending state public hearings or providing written comment. Public comment will be accepted until 5:00 PM (EST) on April 1, 2016 and should
It is anticipated the states of Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York and Maryland will be conducting public hearings on the Draft Addendum. The details of those hearings will be released in a subsequent press release. The Draft Addendum will be available on the Commission website, www.
asmfc.org (under Public Input) by February 10th
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