1160942 Rutgers University; Eric Powell 1160938 College of William and Mary Institute of Marine Science; Roger Mann
The Mid-Atlantic Center for Fisheries Science (MaCFiS) will utilize academic and recreational and commercial finfish and shellfish fisheries resources to address urgent scientific problems limiting successful management of these fisheries during the period of intense climate change. Rutgers University the College of William and Mary Institute of Marine Science are collaborating to establish the proposed center, with Rutgers University as the lead institution.
The goal of this proposal is to seek funding for a planning meeting to establish a new Industry/ University Cooperative Research Center (I/UCRC) entitled "Mid-Atlantic Center for Fisheries Science." The focus of the proposed center will be to develop essential biological data on fish stocks, including fecundity, age structure, and sources of mortality; improved models of sampling design, population dynamics, and fishery performance; evaluation of geographic and depth variations in stock structure and how these relate to the genetics, physiology and sexual dimorphism of species; and improved approaches to fishing to limit discard reduction through gear innovation, but also through modifications in fleet deployment consistent with oceanographic processes. These subjects encompass much of the fields of marine biology and oceanography.
The proposed center would have significant impact on both the commercial and recreational fishing industries. The research at the proposed center will result in improved survey sampling methods, improved population dynamics models, new approaches to discard reduction, evaluation of geographic/depth-dependent variations in stock structure, identification of physiological/genetic origins of stock dynamics, and other meritorious outcomes, all aimed at the dual goals of sustainable fish stocks and sustainable fishing industries, thus simultaneously optimizing economic benefit while optimally husbanding the nation's fish resources.
Title for project outcome report: SCeMFiS, the Science Center for Marine Fisheries. Investigators: Dr. Eric N. Powell, Former address: Haskin Shellfish Research Laboratory, Rutgers University, Port Norris, NJ 08349 Current address: Gulf Coast Research Laboratory, University of Southern Mississippi, Oceans Springs, MS 39564 Phone: 228-818-8847 e-mail: eric.n.powell@usm.edu Dr. Roger Mann, Virginia Institute of Marine Science, Gloucester Point, VA 23062 Phone: 804-684-7360 e-mail: rmann@vims.edu Period of activity: March 1, 2012 - February 28, 2013 SCeMFiS, the Science Center for Marine Fisheries. This award from the NSF I/UCRC (Industry/University Cooperative Research Center) planning grant program to PI’s Powell and Mann supported the development of a full, and ultimately successful proposal to initiate an I/UCRC focused on marine fisheries. This newly funded I/UCRC is entitled SCeMFiS, the Science Center for Marine Fisheries. The initiation date for Center activity is April 1, 2013. SCeMFiS is designed to address urgent scientific problems limiting successful management of recreational and commercial finfish and shellfish fisheries resources during this period of intense climate change. The Center reflects a continuing trend of expansion of applied research to industry platforms, a growing necessity in an era of increased science rigor in management in a financially limited environment. The Center also reflects the growing importance of synergy and collaboration between academic, industry, and traditional regulatory agencies in complex management decisions. The geographic focus area of the Center will be the Mid-Atlantic through Gulf of Mexico region. Ex-vessel landings value in 2009 for selected species to be encompassed by the Center include: ocean quahog, $19.5 million; surfclam, $31.3 million; longfin squid, $18.7 million; shortfin squid, $5.3 million; summer flounder, $22.7 million; black sea bass, $5.1 million; scup, $7 million; Atlantic mackerel, $9.5 million (NMFS landings data). For summer flounder, scup, and black sea bass, the recreational value exceeds the commercial landings value. Thus, the Mid-Atlantic fishing industry alone encompassed by the Center has an economic value exceeding $1 billion, recreational and commercial entities combined. The focus of the Center is to develop essential biological data on fish stocks, including fecundity, age structure, and sources of mortality; improved models of sampling design, population dynamics, and fishery performance; evaluation of geographic and depth variations in stock structure and how these relate to the genetics, physiology and sexual dimorphism of species; and improved approaches to fishing to limit discard reduction through gear innovation, but also through modifications in fleet deployment consistent with oceanographic processes. These subjects encompass much of the fields of marine biology and oceanography. It is the coalescence of capabilities for a range of oceanographic and marine biological disciplines that is essential to meeting the challenges faced by modern-day fisheries management. The Center provides a vehicle by which this can be accomplished. The Center builds on experience of the past 15 years wherein components of the Mid-Atlantic fishing industry, Rutgers University (RU), and the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences (VIMS) developed a number of cooperative research initiatives aimed at improving the sustainable management of finfish and shellfish of the Mid-Atlantic/southern New England region (Cape Hatteras to Georges Bank). These initiatives have been based in academic research fostered and supported financially by the fishing industry, in cooperation with the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and the regional management councils [Mid-Atlantic Fisheries Management Council (MAFMC), Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC)], which are ultimately responsible for implementing the new information into the management process. These various efforts have involved the fishing industries piecemeal, but the evolution has been towards closer cooperation among the groups that necessarily depend on sophisticated research to support improvements in management of fish and shellfish stocks. Over the last decade, global warming has instituted significant range shifts in a number of these target species, surfclams being the quintessential exemplar. The challenge of maintaining stock sustainability during a period of climate change cannot be overstated and requires application of research tools in oceanography, fisheries biology, genetics, and population dynamics modeling. As a consequence, the development of the relationship between RU and VIMS, and components of the Mid-Atlantic fisheries, including the surfclam and ocean quahog fisheries, the trawling fisheries (squid, mackerel, summer flounder, black sea bass, etc.), and the recreational fisheries to a formal cooperative academic-industry research unit (the Center) under the I/UCRC umbrella is a natural progression. The Center research will result in improved survey sampling methods, improved population dynamics models, new approaches to discard reduction, evaluation of geographic/depth-dependent variations in stock structure, identification of physiological/genetic origins of stock dynamics, and other meritorious outcomes, all aimed at the dual goals of sustainable fish stocks and sustainable fishing industries, thus simultaneously optimizing economic benefit while optimally husbanding the nation's fish resources.
