George Trice (left) pilots the boat to the next net location, while Jimmy Moore (right) inspects some equipment. ©Janet Krenn/VASG

By Janet Krenn

Aboard the same boat his father used before him, George Trice has been a commercial waterman targeting striped bass in the James River for more than 20 years. Over that time, he has weathered more than a few a changes in the health and management of the fishery, but this April a new concern set in: Atlantic sturgeon, a fish that can get caught accidentally in striped bass nets, made the endangered species list.

“I don’t know how it will affect the fishery,” Trice says. “I hope it doesn’t.” But Trice has been doing more than hoping. He’s finishing up his second year of trials on a new net, a net that when tested last year, reduced accidental catch of sturgeon by about 80%.

“Was last year a fluke? We don’t think so,” says Albert Spells, the Fish and Wildlife Service’s Virginia Fisheries Coordinator who has been providing scientific guidance to Trice. The pair, along with a slew of other partners, have collaborated on sturgeon research for more than eight years with the help of funding from the Virginia General Assembly’s Fishery Resource Grant Program (FRGP).

When it comes to recommending a new type of fishing gear, Spells says, one year’s data isn’t enough because too many variables can affect performance. For example, water temperatures, which change daily, could impact catch. Then there’s equipment. In 2010, the company that made the floats that Trice used went out of business. The materials Trice uses now have different buoyancy, which could affect how the gear behaves in the water.

“This is why it’s important to have fishermen doing this research,” says Tom Murray, Virginia Sea Grant’s Marine Extension Leader at Virginia Institute of Marine Science. “Conditions for the industry are different than for researchers.”

Murray has administered the FRGP since 1999. The fund was set up by Virginia’s General Assembly to empower members of the seafood industry to find solutions to their industry’s emerging concerns. FRG research such as Trice’s provides scientific data for resource managers as well as ground truthing for industry.

As Spells says, “It’s all about repeatability… If [fishermen are] going to use this net, we have to show it works.”

Adjusting gear to avoid sturgeon has become more important as of April 6, when Atlantic sturgeon populations from New York to Florida have gained endangered species status. The listing is causing concern in lucrative fisheries, such as striped bass fishery in Virginia and the cod, monkfish, and others throughout the coast.

These fisheries use gill nets that are deployed in the water for anywhere from a couple of hours to more than a day. The top edge floats in the water column, while the bottom edge typically makes contact with the river bottom.

In the net Trice and Spells are testing, there’s a three-foot gap between the river floor and the net. The idea being that bottom-dwelling sturgeon will encounter the net and simply swim under it.

It’s uncertain how the listing will affect fishermen. Although no one has proposed closing Virginia’s striped bass fishery, which lands more than 2 million pounds annually totaling more than $3M according to the Virginia Marine Resources Commission, the capture of Atlantic sturgeon is prohibited. This begs the question: What will happen as the industry inevitably, but accidentally captures sturgeon?

With the looming unknown of what regulations might come, Trice says he’d rather avoid sturgeon altogether. So far this year, he’s done a decent job—as of Monday, May 8 only five sturgeon were caught in the experimental net, compared to nine in the standard net.

Reducing sturgeon catch even this much is promising. Says Spells, “This could have a real impact all along the Atlantic coast.”

Virginia Sea Grant Director Troy Hartley conducts network analysis to help better manage fisheries. ©Janet Krenn/VASG

By Janet Krenn

This March, Virginia Sea Grant Director Troy Hartley was appointed to a national committee that will evaluate the effectiveness of fisheries management. Formed at the request from Congress by the National Research Council (NRC), the Committee on Evaluating the Effectiveness of Stock Rebuilding Plans will spend this year learning about efforts to rebuild fish stocks around the U.S. and advise Congress on best practices for future efforts.

Although being asked to participate on an NRC committee is an honor, Hartley points out that the committee is a natural extension of Virginia Sea Grant’s research and advisory roles in the Commonwealth.

“Sea Grant is recognized as a source of cutting edge science,” says Hartley. “We also have our boots on the ground, working with communities to achieve their environmental, economic, and community goals—we understand the human dimensions of making management actions effective.”

To answer this question, 13 biologists, ecologists, mathematicians, and social scientists will evaluate the progress of stock rebuilding measures. In the end, the Committee will try to assess the biological, social, and economic factors underlying the success or failure of stock rebuilding plans. Hartley’s role on the NRC Committee is to focus on the socioeconomic factors.

This is where Hartley’s expertise comes in.  Amongst a committee of mathematicians, fisheries biologists, and ecologists, he is the only social scientist who studies how human behaviors and relationships affect the success or failure of policies. According to Hartley, understanding these human dimensions is key to developing and implementing effective policy. After all, he says, “Fisheries management regulates the behavior of people—not fish.”

The Committee on Evaluating the Effectiveness of Stock Rebuilding Plans will meet at least four times throughout 2012, in the Northeast, Northwest, and Gulf of Mexico. Afterward, the Committee finalizes it report for Congress, NOAA, and other fisheries stakeholders. The Committee was formed by the National Academies of Science’s National Research Council, which has been convening scientists to advise Congress, government agencies, industry, and others since 1916.

Visiting Scholar Seminar

Jeremy Firestone

Coastal Wind: Opportunities for Research, Partnership, Education, and Stewardship—The UD Experience

Jeremy Firestone is a professor in the College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment and the Director of the Center for Carbon-free Power Integration, University of Delaware.  Firestone has published, presented, and taught extensively on offshore wind power, ocean and coastal law, and international environmental policy.

Aviv Goldsmith

Fishermen’s Energy—a New Paradigm

Aviv Goldsmith is managing director for project development at Fishermen’s Energy. He has almost 30 years of experience in the independent power and renewable energy industry.  Goldsmith began his career in the independent power industry in 1984 with U.S. Energy Corporation and has led or been a principal in the development of seven projects, which represent 397 MW of capacity and $654 million of investment.

The crew of the R/V Shearwater let out a net to trawl for flounder. ©Janet Krenn/VASG

By Janet Krenn

On a warm morning last August, Ryan Schloesser and his labmate, student Lauren Nys, trawled off Oyster, VA. After a summer filled with collecting fish, they worked with experienced ease, throwing around jokes as smoothly as they tossed their nets behind the boat. What they pull up in their nets should help fisheries managers better predict the size of fish populations.

But predicting population size is more complicated than simply going out and counting fish, says Schloesser, a Virginia Institute of Marine Science Ph.D. candidate and Virginia Sea Grant-funded research fellow. “There are some years when we see a high abundance of young-of-year fish, but then we don’t get a high adult abundance. We don’t always know why that is.”

Schloesser suspects that some young fish don’t make it to adulthood because they don’t survive the winter, when waters are colder and prey is less available. Assuming that fat young fish are better equipped to withstand cold temperatures and intermittent food supply, Schloesser hopes to demonstrate a non-lethal method for measuring fat content in popular fish species including summer flounder, striped bass, and Atlantic croaker.

On this day Schloesser was hunting for small flounder on which to test his method using an aptly named device he calls the fatmeter. The fatmeter is a little handheld box that uses radiowaves to assess fat content. To work the fatmeter, Schloesser lays the fish on a flat surface and holds the device along its belly. The process takes about a minute aboard the boat, and Schloesser says it’s relatively easy and harmless for the fish compared to other methods: “As opposed to taking out the fish’s liver,” Schloesser chuckles. “They’re not swimming away after that.”

Schloesser, a Wisconsin native, says he always knew he wanted to be a marine biologist. As an undergrad at Texas A&M, he studied marine biology and got his first experiences working on the water: otter trawling for juvenile red snapper and later researching blue fin tuna.

“I’m excited by questions,” he says. Adding with a laugh, “Rhetorical questions.” Questions like, how does the environment affect the number of young fish that survive to become citation-sized seafood? What do we need to know to predict how many fish we should take next year? All joking aside, these big picture issues have real implications for the way fisheries are managed and for our ability to ensure that we have fish to catch in coming years.

These complicated questions all fall under ecosystem-based management, which Schloesser adds, “is a data-hungry approach.” Ecosystem-based management takes into account all of the environmental factors that may affect fish populations, including weather, the availability of food, or the number of predators.

Understanding the health of young fish is one more piece of the puzzle, a piece that needs more investigation. In working up last summer’s data and comparing the fatmeter to other methods for measuring fish health, Schloesser has found that the fatmeter doesn’t measure up to other methods for flounder, which are typically a lean fish. However he found promising results when he used it on fattier species, such as striped bass and croaker.

With the fatmeter’s reasonable success, Schloesser is motivated to answer those complicated questions.

“It all comes down to sustainability. The oceans are becoming more and more important as a source of food,” he says. “It comes down to flounder, striped bass, and croaker being around for hundreds and hundreds of years.”

For diagrams and more information, go to www.oystergardener.org then click on “Oyster Gardening” then “Devices and Designs.”

How to Build a Taylor Float

A Taylor float is one type of container used by recreational oyster gardeners in Virginia. It consists of a wire mesh basket (24″x40″x12″) that is suspended in the water by a PVC ring.

Here’s what you’ll need to make your own Taylor float for oyster gardening:

Basket
• 5′ by 4′ coated wire mesh with 1″ cells
• pig rings and pig ring pliers
• wire cutter
• tape measure
• rubber mallet, sturdy table, and a 2×4 piece of wood (or a bender)

Ring
• two 4″ thin-wall PVC drain pipe cut to 21.5″
• two 4″ thin-wall PVC drain pipe cut to 35″
• four 90-degree PVC elbows
• primer
• glue
• eight 18″ black cable ties

How to Build a Flip Float

A flip float is one type of container used by recreational oyster gardeners in Virginia. It consists of a wire mesh box (39″x24″x6″), a lid (25″x8″), and two PVC floats (38″ long) on either side.

Here’s what you’ll need to make your own flip float for oyster gardening:

Box
• 5′ by 4′ coated wire mesh with 1″ cells
• pig rings and pig ring pliers
• wire cutter
• tape measure
• rubber mallet, sturdy table, and a 2×4 piece of wood (or a bender)

Lid
• bungee cord
• pig rings and pig ring pliers
• small hook

Floats
• two 4″ thin-wall PVC drain pipe cut to 38″
• 4 PVC caps
• primer
• glue
• four 18″ black cable ties

Seasoned tagger Donnie Smith (right) shows new volunteers how to go online to report their tagged fish. ©Mark Pearson

By Susanna Musick

The Virginia Game Fish Tagging Program (VGFTP) trained 16 new volunteer taggers on Tuesday March 27 at VIMS. The new “class” of volunteers came from as close as Gloucester and as far away as the Elizabeth City, N.C. VGFTP coordinators Susanna Musick (VIMS) and Lewis Gillingham (VMRC) kicked off the evening by introducing the new taggers to the program, which has been collecting data on recreational fishes since 1995.

Then the new taggers moved on to the main event: Practicing using a variety of tags and applicators on freshly caught fish and learning how to measure and record their data. The hands-on activities were lead by seasoned taggers Jori Head, Sheldon Avery, and Donnie Smith. Allison Watts (VMRC) also helped train taggers in recording data.

Sheldon Avery (left) shows new volunteers how to tag a fish. ©Mark Pearson

“We’re very lucky to have such a great group of experienced volunteers offer their expertise and tips to this new “class” of taggers,” said Musick, also of the Virginia Sea Grant Marine Extension Program at VIMS. “The anglers who participate in the tagging program are special because they are willing to take time out of fishing to tag and release fish, and record and report data.  This dedication has led to a great source of data for management of recreationally important fishes.”

The VGFTP provides important information to the angling community and fisheries managers about the value of Virginia’s marine recreational fisheries, including the benefits of effective catch and release fishing.

Since 1995, the VGFTP has tagged recreationally important finfish with the help of volunteer anglers. A cooperative effort between the Marine Advisory Program at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) and Saltwater Tournament at the Virginia Marine Resources Commission (VMRC), the program’s funding is from state saltwater license funds and VIMS.