University officials and the region's legislators will be joined by their local, regional, statewide, and federal partners to discuss SMAST's critical research to help address critical issues related to fisheries and fishing communities.
UMass Dartmouth Chancellor Divina Grossman will be joined by Representative Antonio F.D. Cabral, State Senator Mark Montigny, UMass Dartmouth's School for Marine Science & Technology (SMAST) Dean Steven Lohrenz, and Chair of SMAST's Department of Fisheries Oceanography Dr. Kevin D. E. Stokesbury, at SMAST's campus in New Bedford (706 South Rodney French Boulevard, New Bedford, MA), Monday, July 21, 2014, at 9:00 a.m., to highlight the importance of supporting collaborative research to produce the best science for sustainable fisheries.
The fiscal year 2015 state budget contains $450,000 for SMAST fisheries research. The funding supports new technology developed by Dr. Stokesbury's research team to improve population estimates of groundfish and balance the economic and environmental factors associated with commercial fishing. Currently, federal regulators are at odds with the fishing industry over catch limits.
University officials and the region's legislators will be joined by their local, regional, statewide, and federal partners to discuss SMAST's critical research to help address critical issues related to fisheries and fishing communities.
This past year, Dr. Stokesbury and a team of SMAST scientists, accompanied by local fishermen, set sail for 7-10 day explorations to Georges Bank using new survey methods to estimate the abundance of yellowtail flounder and other groundfish. The research cruises, which were funded in the previous year's state budget, utilized new technology to estimate the abundance, spatial distribution, size structure, and length-weight relationship of the Georges Bank yellowtail flounder stock on the southern flank of Georges Bank. The team also estimated these parameters for cod, haddock, monkfish, skate and other groundfish.
The focus at SMAST is on interdisciplinary basic-to-applied marine sciences and the development of related innovative technologies. In addition to the scholarly marine science and technology communities, the SMAST mission also emphasizes interaction with regional industry, and government and non-governmental agencies on compelling regional marine-related issues and technological development.