Piloting a Low-Bycatch Automatic Squid Jig Fishery in Southern New England
general description:
The Commercial Fisheries Research Foundation, in partnership with The Town Dock, will be piloting the use of automatic squid jigging gear in the longfin squid fishery. The project is funded federally through the NOAA Bycatch Reduction Engineering Program and the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council. Automatic squid jigging technology is utilized around the globe in large-scale commercial operations however only minor commercial application has been seen in the United States. For example the 1.2 billion pounds landed annually from the Japanese Flying Squid fishery is almost exclusively caught via automatic jigs. The project will employ two commercial fishing vessels, one larger trip vessel and one smaller day-boat, to undertake at-sea gear trials in the inshore longfin squid fishery through the summer of 2022. The goal of the project will be to track the startup requirements, from purchasing of automatic jigs, to installation, to operation, on a commercial fishing vessel and compare catch and bycatch rates to a traditional small mesh trawl squid operation.
project Objectives:
Pilot the use of automatic squid jigging machinery aboard commercial F/Vs to assess the bycatch rates, catch rates, and commercial viability of this harvesting method;
Compare the bycatch rates, catch rates, and product output of a commercial squid jig operation in comparison to a squid trawl operation;
Estimate start-up costs and develop an implementation plan for operationalizing automatic squid jig equipment on commercial F/Vs of various sizes; and
Communicate findings to the fishing and management communities and facilitate initiation of a squid jig fishery, if results support commercial viability.
Project Team:
N. David Bethoney, PhD, Executive Director, CFRF
Thomas Heimann, Research Biologist, CFRF
Noelle Olsen, Research Biologist, CFRF
Katie Almeida, Fishery Policy Analyst, The Town Dock
Mike Roderick, Fleet Manager, The Town Dock
Jason Didden, Fishery Management Specialist, Mid-Altantic Fishery Management Council
PARTICIPANT VESSELS:
F/V Mattie and Maren
F/V Miss Edi
F/V Hadley Ruth
PrESENTATIONS AND OUTREACH MATERIALS:
results
