Vol. 3, No. 2 Contents
Headline Back Issues
Spring 1999
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Fishermen, scientists bridge Gulf with research (cont'd)"Scientists and fishermen have learned to communicate better and work together to ensure the sustainability of the resource. A new conservation ethic is developing," said Patty King, Project Manager for the Fishermen and Scientists Research Society (FSRS) in Canada's Scotia-Fundy region. "In a lot of cases, they need each other to be successful," observed Rollie Barnaby, a former fisherman and an Extension Educator at the University of New Hampshire (UNH) Sea Grant Extension Program. At UNH, he said, "There's a fairly long history of connecting scientists and fishermen together." The same is true for other universities in the Gulf.
Researchers recruit fishermen to participate in their projects through industry organizations, fishermen's cooperatives, community-based fishery association meetings, or by walking the wharves and talking with fishermen they know, or who know fishermen they know. Fishermen also get involved through bidding processes and contracting agencies. CR Environmental Inc., an oceanographic and ecological consulting firm in East Falmouth, Massachusetts, matches government, private, and academic organizations with fishing vessels that are chartered for oceanographic sampling, research, and survey operations, according to company President Charlotte Cogswell. A boat brokerage service is also being developed by the Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance (NAMA), a Saco, Maine-based organization of fishermen and others with an interest in the Gulf's marine environment. Executive Director Craig Pendleton said NAMA is developing profiles of vessels ---- including his own ---- that are available for scientific work. Who wants to knowAs fishermen and researchers pursue opportunities for collaboration, they are bolstering mutual trust and credibility, and reducing the friction that has historically existed between them. Wariness, mostly on the part of fishermen, is long-ingrained, and has a number of root causes. But several sources said tension is somewhat generalized, and dissipates quickly once individuals begin working together. One source of apprehension on the part of some fishermen is the fear that research ---- especially that undertaken by government regulatory agencies ---- might uncover information that could work against them by providing a basis for tighter regulations. But several fishermen said they're prepared to accept whatever conclusions result from the research they are helping to conduct. Southwest New Brunswick fisherman Roger Hunter and his colleagues are tagging and collecting data on some of the cod they catch on the southern Scotian Shelf in the Bay of Fundy to determine if those fish are a separate stock from cod found elsewhere in the area. They hope to prove this is the case so a separate quota can be established for the fish they catch."The outcome of research may hurt me instead of help me, and that's the scary part, but in order to better things, that's the route you have to go," Hunter said. Notwithstanding the risk of discovering "bad news," Hunt Howell, of UNH's Zoology Department, found that he was able to recruit fishermen who "knew that the future of the fishing industry depends on good scientific data." Howell worked with fishermen in the early 1980s to quantify groundfish bycatch and discards in the Gulf of Maine. Fishermen's caution also grows from competition. "Lots of information of interest to scientists are things that they may very well consider, like any business man, to be a proprietary form of information," said Cliff Goudey, Marine Advisory Leader for the Center for Fisheries Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sea Grant Program. Goudey works mostly on improving fishing gear.
The inherent differences between fish harvesting and data collection are another source of conflict between fishermen and researchers. Fishermen pride themselves on their ingenuity in continually finding better ways to catch fish. Scientific researchers say they emphasize uniformity and repetitive methods so that different batches of data can be compared to one another, and have sometimes characterized fishermen's experiences as anecdotal and not indicative of real trends. Fishermen, meanwhile, frequently describe scientific research as too far removed from real life to provide information that makes sense on the water.
"Fishermen know a lot," said University of Maine researcher Bob Steneck, who has worked closely with lobstermen for years, and has received $200,000 in grants to facilitate relationships between science and the fishing industry. "Ultimately they have a story to tell and they want managers to see the resource the way they do," he said .Maine lobstermen participate in the University's annual Penobscot Bay lobster sampling program that last year drew a record 160 participants, said Steneck. Government researchers participated in last year's sampling as well, offering fishermen a treasured opportunity to show them first-hand what they see on the water. "Lobstermen were saying, 'Come on my boat, come on my boat,' " said David Cousens, President of the Maine Lobstermen's Association. A sense of ownershipFishermen seem most interested in projects that will increase their understanding of their fishery and give them a voice in its management. Patty King of FSRS explained that when fishermen participate in research projects, it "allows them to take more of an active role in determining their future. They feel they've developed credibility." Fishermen and researchers alike said involving fishermen in research helps them understand scientific methods better, and lessens their suspicions about the conclusions. "You learn very quickly that when you do science it's not just a little pinch of this and a little pinch of that. You've got to follow the recipe," said Ginette Robert, an offshore scallop scientist for Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO). Robert said the scallop industry collaborates with DFO on several research projects including an annual scallop survey on Georges Bank that is funded and conducted by scallop draggers under federal oversight. Conducting fishery research using commercial fishing gear is one way researchers can "increase confidence in the industry that we know what's going on," said Steve Murawski, Project Chief of the Population Dynamics Branch at the NMFS Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Woods Hole. Last summer, the US Gulf of Maine scallop fishing industry urged federal fishery researchers to determine whether scallop grounds on the US side of Georges Bank could be reopened within the constraints of groundfish closures there. NMFS worked with six commercial vessels to survey and map the distribution of scallops, said Murawski, noting that parts of Georges Bank might be reopened to scalloping in mid-June. Two projects, driven largely by the northern New England herring industry's need for information, and incorporating participation by fishermen, are being coordinated by Maine organizations. In one project, introduced by the Island Institute in Rockland, Maine, Downeast lobstermen are helping researchers track herring spawning activity by reporting herring eggs stuck to their traps. The Gulf of Maine Aquarium Development Corporation (GOMADC) is developing a project in which acoustic instruments are being used on two fishing boats to track herring stocks at sea, according to Don Perkins, President of the organization. Craig Pendleton considers the research projects in which he participates an opportunity to exchange information with researchers. He charters his vessel to Global Ocean Ecosystem Dynamics (GLOBEC), a research program organized by oceanographers and fisheries scientists who are studying life cycles of fish in the Gulf of Maine and on Georges Bank. He is also providing his boat to a New Hampshire Sea Grant project in which he and other fishermen are helping to develop systems for fishing vessels, using specially designed instrumentation, to gather and relay data to land-based academic and scientific institutions. The system will also include E-mail links to fishing co-ops and fish markets. Chatham, Massachusetts fisherman Mark Simonitsch said declines in his squid and mackerel catches led to his interest in helping Roger Hanlon of the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole with his research. Simonitsch, along with two other fishermen, have allowed Hanlon to dive in and around their weir traps to observe squid reproductive behavior. Simonitsch also helped Hanlon install a floating quid trap near the Woods Hole Lab so that he could have access to live squid for study. "By cooperating we feel that we're contributing to what can be learned ---- in a small way ---- about the very fish that we would like to see more of," said Simonitsch, who Hanlon described as "a very progressive guy. He wants to preserve the resource." Research projects that explore new fisheries also attract interest. "Fishermen are seeing that their future is in jeopardy and they are looking for new opportunities," said Rich Langan, a former commercial aquaculturist and now Director of the UNH Jackson Estuarine Laboratory. He works with fishermen on federally-funded aquaculture development projects. Keeping fishermen informed about the results of their efforts is also key to engaging them in research, according to Mike James, an Acadia University graduate student known as "Turtle Man" to those who help him collect data on leatherback sea turtles for his research. Noting that fishermen often take part in projects "and never hear what results from it," he asserted, "Thanking them for their contribution and explaining how the information is used keeps them interested in participating." Though James is not conducting fishery research, he said fishermen help him out simply because they like the turtles and are curious about them. Fishermen as initiatorsIf fishermen need to solve a problem or get information, they don't always wait to be asked to participate in research projects. According to Barnaby, a group of New Hampshire fishermen developed a solution to keep harbor porpoises from getting caught in their gillnets using noise-making devices developed by Newfoundland researcher John Lien to warn whales away from cod traps. Lobstermen in the upper Bay of Fundy have taken over sampling work that DFO biologists carried out before budget cuts limited their field time, according to Peter Lawton, Head of DFO's Gulf of Maine Crustacean Fisheries Section. This helps DFO broaden its sampling coverage and gives lobstermen a voice in the stock assessment process, he said. And when DFO announced in 1994 that it would no longer attempt to survey groundfish in an important area of the Bay of Fundy because its large vessels were losing too many nets on the especially rough bottom, fishermen in the Scotia-Fundy Mobile Gear Fishermen's Association offered to do it using their smaller, more maneuverable vessels. "Last year [DFO] started using some information from our survey in their calculation of population dynamics and biomass. It validated our work," said Brian Giroux, Executive Director of the association. The group was nervous about gathering information that could affect their livelihood, but, Giroux said, "Inevitably what you're doing here is setting out on the road to truth. You have to live with what you find." A desire to manage their fishery at the community level has driven a group of Nova Scotia fishermen to launch community-level research projects, including recording data on their groundfish catches. Arthur Bull, Coordinator of the Fundy Fixed Gear Council on the Nova Scotia side of the Bay of Fundy, said the group asks DFO to collaborate "as needed." Compensation gapPractical considerations are an important influence on a fisherman's decision about whether to participate in research. Compensation varies from project to project. Many fishermen who work on research projects volunteer at least some of their time for free. Proponents of increased collaboration say more money to pay fishermen has to be included in project funding as an incentive to give up precious fishing time to participate in research and meetings. "It's a pity we can't pay them as consultants. We're asking fishermen to give that information because presumably it's going to help them in the long run. I'm not sure that's the best approach," said Goudey. Funding for collaborative research has come from international coalitions such as the Gulf of Maine Council and the Commission for Environmental Cooperation, as well as from foundations, conservation groups, industry, and fishermen's associations. Provincial, state, and federal agencies also provide significant funding. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is hoping to develop a program that would hire fishermen displaced by groundfish closures for Gulf of Maine research projects. Proponents say the benefits of collaborative research to science, fishing, and improved relations between researchers and fishermen make it a worthwhile investment. "I've never heard more people from all sectors saying this: that fishermen and scientific researchers have to work together," Barnaby said. Giroux agreed. "There are hundreds of things that can be done cooperatively to help increase the knowledge base ---- to help us to understand the oceanic systems." |
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Fishermen are involved in Gulf of Maine research to varying degrees:
providing vessels, equipment, and crew; helping to collect data; and serving as advisors. In some cases, they are initiating and designing research efforts, though Barnaby and others say this should occur more often.
A keystone in the relationship between fishermen and researchers is that fishermen "like being asked rather than told," said Glenn Salvador, an Outreach Coordinator for the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). Salvador works with Maine fishermen to develop gillnets and lobster fishing gear that will be less likely to entangle whales. According to Salvador, presenting fishermen with a problem and asking them to help develop the solution is likely to get cooperation. Giving orders might get you an earful ---- or nothing.
But as they spend more time working together on research projects, fishermen are growing to appreciate scientific methods while researchers are recognizing the value of fishermen's experience.