America''s most valuable commercial fishing port, the Port of New Bedford, has released a plan to revitalise the Northeast''s struggling groundfish fishery and to expand the port''s overall functionality.
Along with soliciting grant funds to develop video surveys for groundfish, the city has released its recommendations for modifications to the Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA), the Federal law governing all domestic fisheries management.
In its number one recommendation, the Plan emphasises the need for accurate stock assessments, which are critical in ensuring that species are sustainably managed and that catch levels are set appropriately. The Plan calls for the expanded use of video survey technology in groundfish assessments to more accurately measure the abundance of key groundfish stocks, like yellowtail flounder. This video survey technology, recently demonstrated by Dr Kevin Stokesbury of the University of Massachusetts School for Marine Science and Technology (SMAST), draws from the same techniques that revolutionised scallop surveys over a decade ago.
