FFinininaaall RReeepppooorrrtt Recommendations for Conducting a Collaborative Cod-Tagging Program for New England and Maritime Canada Submitted May 31, 2001 FFinininaaall RReeepppooorrrtt Recommendations for Conducting a Collaborative Cod-Tagging Program for New England and Maritime Canada Submitted May 31, 2001 Prepared by Marjorie L. Mooney-Seus On behalf of the New England Aquarium Conservation Department Based on input from fishermen and scientists For consideration by the National Marine Fisheries Service and New England Fishery Management Council Research Steering Committee Contributing Editor: Jennifer Dianto Additional maps prepared by Alicia Zampitella FINAL REPORT Cod Tagging Recommendations May 31, 2001 1 Acknowledgements The author of this report wishes to thank the following individuals for their input during Task Force Meetings, Town Meetings and personal interviews, which helped to shape this report: William Amaru, Brainerd Ames, David Ames, Nick Anderson, Erik Anderson, Thomas Angell, Dan Aparo, David Arnold, Carolyn Arnold, Rodney Avila, Ed Baker, Vincent Balzano, Rollie Barnaby, Ed Barrett, John Barrett, Fred Bennett, David Bergeron, Steven Bergman, Frank Blount, Ron Borgeson, Ed Boynton, Gaetano Brancaleone, Phil Brazao, Dick Bridges, Carol Bridges, Jalene Britt, Rick Bubar, Jen Bubar, Vito Calomo, Bob Campbell, Arne Carr, Thomas Casamassa, Lisa Campenella, Anthony Chatwin, Kevin Chu, Debbie Connors, Gregory Connors, Bill Crowe, Bill Cunningham, Thomas Currier, Randy Cushman, Fred Dauphinee, Jonathan Dauphinee, Shareen Davis, Dan Dunbar, Barry Ehrstein, Jamie Eldredge, Morgan Eldredge, Stephen Ericson, Jerry Falasia, Bud Fernandez, Bill Fisher, Sean FitzGerald, Jim Frottreiz, Lou Gainor, Antonio Giacalone, Mark Gibson, David Goethel, Charlie Good, Lou Goodreau, John Graboloski, Jennifer Graham, Ron Gustafson, Madeleine Hall-Arber, Chuck Harris, John Haviland, Sheri Henze, Julie Herndon, Brian Higgins, John Higgins, Tom Hill, John Hogan, David Horner, Paul Howard, Arne Howe, Hunt Howell, Raymond Kane, Pat Kavanagh, Jim Keding, Alice Kellerman, Kevin Kelly, John Ketchopulos, Michael Kirby, John Knowlton, Robert Lane, George Lapointe, Mark Leach, Steven Lee, Heidi Leighton, Theodore Ligenza, Dave Lincoln, Greg Lisi, Bill Look, Thomas Luce, Tim MacDonald, Scott Mackinnon, Marty Manley, Andrew Mannix, Laurie Mannix, Ana Marcalo, David Marciano, Laura Marron, Dale Martel, Craig Mavrikis, Scott McGuire, Frank Mirarchi, Emily Monosson, Carla Morin, Robert Morowski, Robert Morris, Greg Morris, William Muniz, Steven Murawski, Cecil Newcomb, Paul Niedzwiecki, Joseph Orlando, Giuseppe Palazzolo, David Pallotta, Eleni Papdakis, John Pappalardo, Paul Parker, Gabe Parker, Judy Pederson, Kelly Penney, Antonio Pereira, Donald Perkins, Dean Pesante, Tom Porter, Andrew Porter, Dennis Preston, LeRoy Rofe, Antonio Randazzo, Maggie Raymond, Maria Recchia, Jeff Reid, Mark Roberts, Ed Rohmer, Michael Russo, Chip Ryther, Jim Salisbury, Angela San Filippo, Dan Schick, Fred Serchuk, Kevin Shea, John Shea, Russell Sherman, Mark Simonitsch, Brian Smith, Robert Smith, Barbara Stevenson, Richard Syphers, Peter Taylor, Bob Tetrault, Paul Theriault, Ed Thorb Jornson, William Train, Tim Towers, Steve Tucker, Paul Unangst, Manuel Vinagre, Rick Wahle, Peter Wakeman, John Welch, Azure Westwood, Alice Wilkinson, Albert Williams, Lou Williams, Jodie York, Chilloa Young, and Phil Yund. We also extend our sincere appreciation to Ted Ames, Carl Bouchard, Donald Clark, Teri Frady, Kevin Friedland, David Gallagher, Eric Goethel, Philip Hoysradt, Paul Howard, Joseph Hunt, Bruce Mc Innis, Christopher Glass, Robert MacKinnon, David Martins, Earl Meredith, Linda Mercer, Benjamin Neal, Marc Stettner, Mark Terceiro, Peter Wakeman, Procter Wells and John Williamson for providing source materials and/or additional technical review. Our heartfelt thanks to our Town Meeting Coordinators, Robin Alden, Ted Ames, Ralph Boragine, Bob Campbell, Rosemarie Denn, James Kendall, Peter Kendall, Robert MacKinnon, Dennis O’Connell, Craig Pendleton and Paul Vitale and to the Massachusetts Fishermen’s Partnership, the Nereid Network, Cape Fishermen’s Supply and the Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance for helping to publicize the Town Meetings. Special thanks to the Urban Forestry Center and Stan from Betty’s Kitchen for their patience and understanding during our many scheduling changes for the last Task Force Meeting. And thank you to the National Marine Fisheries Service and the New England Fishery Management Council Research Steering Committee for providing the funding for the design phase of this program. 2 FINAL REPORT Cod Tagging Recommendations May 31, 2001 Table of Contents Acknowledgements 2 Table of Contents 3 Introduction 5 Program Design 11 Program Objectives 13 Statement of Work 13 Background 13 Primary Study Research Questions 16 Primary Study Deployment Options 16 U.S. Tagging Locations 19 Rationale for Tagging Location Selections 20 Tagging Methodology 24 Tag Returns 27 Training Program 28 Ancillary Studies 28 Secondary Studies (electronic) 30 Closed Areas 30 Additional Inshore Areas 31 Unresolved Points of Discussion 32 Program Infrastructure 33 Centralized Clearinghouse 35 Role of Clearinghouse 35 Clearinghouse Staffing 37 Clearinghouse Funding 37 Clearinghouse Selection Criteria 38 Clearinghouse Steering Committee 39 Northeast Fisheries Science Center Role 40 Local Coordinators 40 Outreach 43 Phase I: Building Support 45 Phase II: Outreach to Enhance Tag Returns 46 Budget 47 Primary Program 49 Secondary Program 52 Ancillary Studies 53 Figures 57 Figure 1: Movement and Key Areas For Cod (Fishing Community, 2001) 59 Figure 2: Historic Spawning Grounds (Bigelow & Schroeder, 1953) 60 Figure 3: Tagging Results (Wise, 1963) 61 Figure 4: Tagging Results (Hunt, et al., 1998) 65 Figure 5: Juveniles (Fishing Community, 2001) 68 Figure 6: Juvenile Concentrations (Wigley and Gabriel, 1991) 69 Figure 7: NMFS Trawl Survey Adults (1997) 70 Figure 8: NMFS Trawl Survey Egg Concentrations (1997) 71 FINAL REPORT Cod Tagging Recommendations May 31, 2001 3 Appendices 75 Appendix 1: Bibliography 77 Appendix 2: Fishermen Contact List 92 Appendix 3: Fishing Sector Recommendations for Cod-tagging Program 100 Appendix 4: Task Force Members 102 Appendix 5: Task Force Mission Statement and Research Questions 106 Appendix 6: Task Force Meeting Summary I 107 Appendix 7: Task Force Meeting Summary II 121 Appendix 8: Task Force Meeting Summary III 128 Appendix 9: Task Force Meeting Summary IV 136 Appendix 10: Town Meetings Results 142 Glossary 175 4 FINAL REPORT Cod Tagging Recommendations May 31, 2001 Introduction FINAL REPORT Cod Tagging Recommendations May 31, 2001 5 6 FINAL REPORT Cod Tagging Recommendations May 31, 2001 A number of U.S. and Canadian tagging studies have been conducted in New England and Maritime Canada’s coastal waters since the 1920s as reported by Hunt and Neilson (1993) and Wise (1963). One of the more recent studies was the collaborative tagging project by Canadian and U.S. government scientists, which was conducted primarily in the Canadian Gulf of Maine from 1984 to 1997. Recently, fishermen have begun working with the University of Massachusetts/SMAST to tag fish in U.S. waters. However, there has not been a region-wide, federally-funded tagging effort in U.S. waters since Jack Wise’s work in 1959. Based primarily on an analysis of the semi-annual U.S. trawl surveys for the periods 1979 to 1981 and 1997 to 1999, National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) scientists have theorized that there has been a pinching down in cod distribution – that fish are compressed into a smaller area. Given the changes in historic abundance levels, and in the environmental and ecological conditions that have occurred over the past forty years since the last tagging effort, the proposed program could provide insight into whether there also have been shifts in cod distribution and migrations. It will augment the synoptic view of cod distributions in the Gulf of Maine, Georges Bank and Southern New England provided by trawl surveys. In addition, because of its large scope, it could help to address some of the data gaps in previous tagging studies. This program also could provide short-term and long-term information on fish migration patterns, fish movement across closed area boundaries and fish growth rates. Furthermore, if some of the secondary studies are implemented, there is the potential to learn more about: 1) whether closed areas contribute to recruitment and stock recovery; 2) habitat/movement relationships; 3) finer scale inshore movements; and 4) the relationship between inshore and offshore areas. However, what is precedent setting about this proposed tagging program is that it constitutes the first time that the fishing industry, using industry vessels, will participate as partners in such a broad-scale data collection effort. Through this multi-year program, it is hoped that existing communication barriers over data collection and usage can be overcome and relationships can be established between fishermen and governmental scientists based on trust and mutual understanding. This is particularly critical because a certain level of distrust and resistance to work together still exists among fishermen from various communities and between fishermen and government scientists as evidenced during community meetings. Overall, the response to the program was quite favorable during the majority of local meetings conducted across New England. In some areas, 20 or more fishermen