Presentation - Gulf of Maine Research Institute

Spatial Patterns in Gulf of Maine Fishing Effort:
Lessons and Questions for Consideration of Cod
Stock Structure
• Uses of fisheries information to inform stock structure?
• Review commercial fisheries mapping projects
• Northern Gulf of Maine Human use mapping ‐ 2009‐2012
Heather Deese, PhD
GMRI Cod Stock Structure Workshop
Vice President of Programs June 12 – 14, 2012
Island Institute

Fishing patterns and stock boundaries
• Historical distribution of fish and fisheries provide
important insights with respect to stock structure
(Ames, Alexander, GoM CoML)
• Shorter‐term changes may shed light on how the
fishery could respond to changes in fisheries
regulations (NEFSC, St. Martin, Hall‐Arber)
• Fishermen’s knowledge and recent fishing
patterns may impact management response to
change in scientific stock assessment approach
(Nenadovic, 2012)

Historical catch, effort, survey data
• Effort and catch reporting is patchy in space and
time
• Subject to intentional and unintentional
inaccuracies
• Nonetheless, if one assumes that fishermen
effectively target high‐value fish species like cod
when and where they are available ….
• Then fishing patterns indicate where fish are
• Fish patterns indicate where fishing takes place
• (Gulf of Maine Census of Marine Life, 2008).

Fisheries responses to spatial
management
• Analysis of VTR and VMS data shed light on these
shifts with respect to spatial patterns (Murawski,
et al. 2005; Michael Fogarty, pers. comm.)
• Shoreside and at‐sea communities and their
dependence on ocean space (St. Martin and Hall‐
Arber, 2008).
• Island Institute’s Mapping Working Waters ‐ shifts
in fixed gear and mobile fisheries, and sharing of
territory between fisheries.

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Fisheries mapping projects:
Recent and ongoing
• Rhode Island SAMP (Rhode Island Sea Grant)
• Massachusetts Ocean Plan (Industrial Economics,
et al, 2009);
• NOAA Marine Protected Area Center‐led New
Hampshire and Southern Maine Ocean Uses Atlas
(NOAA, 2010);
• Mapping Working Waters project (Nixon, et al.
2012);
• Bureau of Ocean Energy Management
• Northeast Regional Ocean Council.

Mapping Working Waters
• Human use mapping with fishermen who fish in the Gulf of
Maine between 2009‐2012
‣ 38 fishermen
‣ 16 harbors
‣ 15 different fisheries
‣ 6 GIS data layers
Funding provided by Maine Coastal Program, Maine Sea Grant, private family
foundations, and the University of Maine.

Project Objectives
• Explore relationships between multiple (existing)
community uses, marine ecosystems, and proposed future
uses of the marine environment (including offshore wind
energy) using spatial data layers and associated conceptual
models.
• Collect spatial data on island and coastal communities’ uses
of the marine environment, with a particular focus on
commercial fishing data which is not currently
documented.
• Digitize and analyze community use data into formats that
can be publicly disseminated and incorporated into
multiple‐use marine spatial planning initiatives and which
are useful and valued as a community resource within each
community.

Vinalhaven, Stonington, and other
harbors between Port Clyde and Bar
Harbor NOT YET MAPPED
Bar Harbor
Friendship
Port Clyde
Cundy’s Harbor, Boothbay, and
other harbors between
Friendship and Casco Bay NOT
YET MAPPED
Saco/Camp Ellis
Draft Proprietary Information
Please request permission before reproducing

Mapping Working Waters –Offshore Lobster Data Layer with Harbors

Mapping Working Waters – Tuna Data Layer with Hotspots

Mapping Working Waters – Groundfish Data Layer with Gear Type

Mapping Working Waters – Place Name Data Layer

Management response to stock
boundary change
• Allocation of effort into different stock areas
– How does my quota change?
– Can I fish in the same areas as before?
– What mechanism will determine who gets quota
allocation if it is assigned to different geographic
areas?

NROC Fisheries Mapping Objectives
• VTR and VMS data as a start
• Fisheries industry engagement
• How do you want to look on the maps and in
the process?
• Project advisors from previous and ongoing
mapping projects
• June – December 2012

Fishing patterns and stock boundaries
• Historical distribution of fish and fisheries provide
important insights with respect to stock structure
(Ames, Alexander, GoM CoML)
• Shorter‐term changes may shed light on how the
fishery could respond to changes in fisheries
regulations (NEFSC, St. Martin, Hall‐Arber)
• Fishermen’s knowledge and recent fishing
patterns may impact management response to
change in scientific stock assessment approach
(Nenadovic, 2012)