Gemma gains new environmental sensor
Every season, MBL91יs research vessel Gemma ventures out around Woods Hole to collect live, healthy squid, sea urchins, starfish, and other species that MBL scientists use to study development, neurobiology, and more.
For decades, the squid catch has been reliable for scientists and local fishermen alike, with typical variations during the 91לsquidding91ם season, from April to December. But over the past few years, seasonal variability has spiked, and more nets are coming up with fewer squid. Now, researchers are teaming up to use environmental sensing technology that might help them figure out where squid are gathering and why.
Seawater temperature and dissolved oxygen levels are changing with the climate, and researchers and fishermen suspect these factors drive squid movement. But most temperature data is gathered via satellites, which can91יt collect subsurface information.
Now, five Cape Cod organizations, the Center for Coastal Studies, the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen91יs Alliance, Lowell Instruments LLC., Coonamessett Farm Foundation, and the National Marine Fisheries Service91יs Northeast Fisheries Science Center have been partnering to outfit many seafaring vessels 91ה now including MBL91יs R/V Gemma 91ה with new technology to gather valuable environmental data.
In the late 2000s, Owen Nichols, director of Marine Fisheries Research at the Center for Coastal Studies, was working with fishermen in Nantucket Sound to study environmental effects on squid catches. At the beginning of every season, he checked in with Gemma captains to share and compare observations of squid distribution and nearshore oceanographic conditions. During a collection trip in 2023, he recognized a unique opportunity to outfit R/V Gemma with environmental sensors on its trawl gear to record oceanographic data in association with squid catches.
91לThere91יs an enormous value to what the MBL collects 91ה how many squid they see in every tow, when and where they see them 91ה and with the addition of this technology, they can measure what bottom temperatures they encounter them at, which is really valuable information,91ם said Nichols.
Nichols also collaborates with George Maynard, who manages the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) Environmental Monitors on Lobster Traps and Large Trawlers (eMOLT) Program.
EMOLT started as a collaboration between the , NMFS and local lobster fishermen to attach simple temperature sensors to their lobster pots. Since then, program partners have installed oceanographic sensors on the fishing gear of hundreds of fishing vessels from North Carolina to Maine. Most take temperature data, but they have also experimented with oxygen monitors, salinity monitors, current meters and more. The program recently expanded91ׯ, creating an opportunity to outfit R/V Gemma with similar sensors to those Maynard, Nichols and others install on fishing vessels.
On R/V Gemma, the temperature sensor is attached to the trawl doors 91ה heavy, curved metal plates that pull the collecting net open as it drops to the ocean bottom to gather marine life. Surface temperatures are easy to collect via satellites and buoys 91לbut that91יs not where the fish are,91ם said Maynard.
The temperature logger automatically powers on when Gemma Captain David Bank turns on the boat each day. It notes the time the equipment goes underwater and the time it comes up, and collects water temperatures and depth recordings while the fishing gear is deployed. A graph of the data is accessible from Bank91יs on-deck data hub and automatically transmits to eMOLT.
The data could help inform MBL research and animal care practices so technicians can keep the squid healthy. 91לThe scientists here like to know what temperature we are collecting squid from,91ם said Bank. In the future, that data might help Bank locate the squid.
Bank estimates that over the course of one year, his team collects 5,000 live squid from Nantucket Sound in the spring and Vineyard Sound in the summer and fall. But over the last few years, it has become more difficult to meet the demand of MBL researchers in the height of summer when water temperatures are warmer, which means more trawl deployments and longer journeys.
The eMOLT program collects thousands of observations per week, said Maynard. 91לWe're fishery agnostic. We work with everything from lobster pots to squid draggers to hydraulic clam dredges and gillnetters.91ם The eMOLT database is public, so anyone can explore it along with other publicly accessible data through an developed by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
To protect the privacy of the fishermen, they don91יt collect information about what species are found or publish vessel names or gear types alongside the data. The temperature data goes to the fisherman, eMOLT, and to ocean forecasters like the National Ocean Service and the Northeast Coastal Ocean Forecast System, who use it to ground truth their models, which are then used by the U.S. Coast Guard, the fishing industry, and other maritime groups.
This collaboration takes after the legacy of the late David Remsen, who directed the Marine Resources Center at MBL from 2012-2022. Remsen dreamed of creating a robust database of Woods Hole species that compiled knowledge from many sources: when, where and in what conditions the animals were collected, their natural history, how they were used in research, and the publications in which they were the model system.
91לThis is absolutely the kind of thing Remsen was very much in favor of 91ה trying to get folks to work together, seeing the common threads through things,91ם said Nichols.
For Nichols, one of the main goals of this collaboration is to put scientific instruments into the hands of fishermen so they can collect their own data.
91לWe are trying to make it inclusive and transparent 91ה to open the black boxes associated with oceanography and science,91ם said Nichols. 91לThis kind of project empowers fishermen to be scientists by giving them some of the tools.91ם