I am always eager to learn more
about seafood and the state of our country’s
fisheries.
Last week, thanks to the
Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant
Consortium, I was able to attend a week-long
course titled
Fins, Fishes,
and Fisheries at
Dauphin
Island Sea Laboratory. One of the focuses
of the week was different fishing methods commonly used in commercial
fisheries. Myself and 18 other educators were able to go out on a
research vessel and use the three most common fishing gears used in the Gulf of
Mexico (trawls, longlines, and fishing poles) and discuss the sustainability of
each gear type.
Otter trawls and longlines are the most commonly used
fishing gear in commercial fisheries.
Trawls are large nets dragged behind boats. They have large wooden doors and a “tickle
chain;” the doors help keep the net weighed down while the chain skips along
the ocean bottom, scaring up creatures into the net.
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| Our Research vessel |
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Pulling in the trawl.
Photo by Cindy Peden
|
In the
Gulf of Mexico, otter trawls are used in the shrimp
fishery. One of the biggest issues with
bottom trawls is
bycatch, or anything caught other than the target species.
Below is a photo of everything our trawl caught.
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| Photo by Cindy Peden |
Out of all those fish, we only caught a pound or two of
shrimp. As you can see in the picture
below, it isn’t very much compared to the hundreds of pounds of fish the trawl
pulled in.
We did get to see some interesting animals pulled in by the
trawl, including Bay Squid, Atlantic Croaker, Spot, Spanish Mackerel, a gravid
Blue Crab, and a Butterfly Ray.
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| Spot |
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| Bay Squid |
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| Gravid Blue Crab |
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| Butterfly Ray |
We even caught a remora, or a shark sucker. I couldn’t resist trying to get this little
fish to attach to my arm. It felt a little like a rubber suction cup.
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| Photo by Susan Howell |
Thanks to the quick sorting by the Dauphin Island research staff,
some of the bycatch was able to go back into the water alive. However, most of it died, and unfortunately that
is the norm. The Food and Agriculture
Organization
(FAO) estimates that
approximately
19 million pounds of
bycatch is discarded as dead or dying, each year worldwide.
After trawling, we put out the longlines, a central line
that has hundreds of hooks hanging in the water column. It is very similar to the
trotlining TNACI does for
Lake Sturgeon monitoring.
Longlines are commonly used for large
pelagic species of fish, such as tuna, mahi mahi, and swordfish.
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| Longlines |
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| Mackerel Heads |
We baited the longlines with mackerel heads and Atlantic
Croaker and put out one mile of 1,000 pound test line with hooks at 60 foot
intervals. Commercial fishermen often
deploy over 60 miles of hooks.
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| Spool of 1,000 pound test line. |
Bycatch is also a problem with longline fishing. While fishermen may be going after tuna or
swordfish, sharks are commonly caught.
On the R/V Alabama Discover, we were actually targeting sharks to assist
in research. We caught two species, a
Blacknose Shark and a seven foot Hammerhead Shark. We tagged the Blacknose Shark, but the Hammerhead got away before we could tag it. When a seven foot long fish that has lots of teeth starts struggling, you let it go!
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| Blacknose Shark |
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| Hammerhead Shark. Photo by Connie Gusmus. |
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| Measuring the Hammerhead. Photo by Lauren Morin |
Lastly, we got to partake in one of the oldest fishing methods, pole and line fishing. Not only is this an ancient way to fish, it is also the most sustainable. Only one or two fish can be caught at a time, and any bycatch can usually be returned to the water alive. Since this was the last day of Red Snapper season, that's what we were going for.
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| Susan Howell, a mathematics professor from University of Southern Mississippi with a Red Snapper. |
While in Alabama, it was sobering to see some of the
challenges facing fisheries management.
Communities on the Gulf are very reliant on fisheries for their
income. If this resource is not managed
effectively, then many people will lose their jobs and livelihoods. Currently, fisheries are very species
specific, with fishermen only going after one species of fish on their
boat. Many of the species that are
caught as bycatch in the shrimp fishery are important in other commercial
fisheries, including Atlantic Croaker, Sardines, and Anchovies. While we did not catch a sea turtle, we did
see a few near our fishing areas. Sea
turtles are often caught by bottom trawls as the graze for food. In the U.S., fishermen must use
Turtle Exclusion Devices (TEDs). Some fishermen also use
Bycatch Reduction Devices (BRDs) to minimize finfish
bycatch. The takeaway message is that it is essential that we support U.S. fisheries due to the management
regimes in place and to support our local fishermen. However, continued research is necessary to
ensure that the stocks we exploit for food are around for our grandchildren to
enjoy.
