Aquaculture and Fisheries Commons^™

Effects Of Unregulated International Fishing On Recovery Potential Of The Sandbar Shark Within The Southeast United States, Cassidy Peterson, Michael J. Wilbert, Enric Cortes, Dean Courtney, Robert J. Latour

VIMS Articles

Coastal sharks are challenging to manage in the United States due to their slow life history, limited data availability, history of overexploitation, and competing stakeholder interests. Furthermore, species like the sandbar shark are subjected to international exploitation unmanaged by the U.S. We conducted a management strategy evaluation using Stock Synthesis on the sandbar shark to test the performance of various configurations of a threshold harvest control rule. In addition to uncertainties addressed in the operating model, we built multiple implementation models to address uncertainties related to future levels of a partially unmanaged source of removals, the combined Mexican and U.S. …

Patterns Of Hatchery-Produced Returns Of American Shad In The James River, Virginia, Patrick E. Mcgrath, Brian Watkins, Ashleigh Magee, Eric J. Hilton

VIMS Articles

American Shad Alosa sapidissima is an anadromous clupeid that once supported a robust fishery but has declined drastically throughout its native range due to overfishing, dam proliferation, and poor water quality. A hatchery program on the James River in Virginia was introduced in 1992 to support the recovery of stocks. Following a moratorium of the fishery enacted in 1994, a fisheries-independent survey was initiated in 1998 to monitor the population recovery efforts and status of American Shad stocks in Virginia. This paper examined 22 years of monitoring data for the James River and determined the effect of hatchery inputs on …

The Atlantic Surfclam Fishery And Offshore Wind Energy Development: 2. Assessing Economic Impacts, Andrew M. Scheld, Jennifer Beckensteiner, Daphne M. Munroe, Et Al

VIMS Articles

The Atlantic surfclam (Spisula solidissima) fishery generates approximately USD 30 million in landings revenues annually, distributed across ports throughout the US Mid-Atlantic and Northeast. Overlap between areas of Atlantic surfclam harvests and offshore wind energy leasing make the fishery vulnerable to exclusion and effort displacement as development expands in the region. An existing integrated bioeconomic agent-based model, including spatial dynamics in Atlantic surfclam stock biology, heterogeneous captain behaviour, and federal management processes, was extended to incorporate costs and revenues for fishing vessels and processors and used to evaluate the potential economic effects of offshore wind development on the …

The Atlantic Surfclam Fishery And Offshore Wind Energy Development: 1. Model Development And Verification, Daphne M. Munroe, Eric N. Powell, John M. Klinck, Andrew M. Scheld, Sarah Borsetti, Jennifer Beckensteiner, Eileen E. Hofmann

VIMS Articles

Competing pressures imposed by climate-related warming and offshore development have created a need for quantitative approaches that anticipate fisheries responses to these challenges. This study used a spatially explicit, ecological-economic agent-based model integrating dynamics associated with Atlantic surfclam stock biology, decision-making behavior of fishing vessel captains, and fishing fleet behavior to simulate stock biomass, and fishing vessel catch, effort and landings. Simulations were implemented using contemporary Atlantic surfclam stock distributions and characteristics of the surfclam fishing fleet. Simulated distribution of fishable surfclam biomass was determined by a spatially varying mortality rate, fishing by the fleet was controlled by captain decisions …

Attitudes And Behaviors For Understanding Compliance In Greenland's Atlantic Salmon (Salmo Salar) Fishery, Hunter T. Snyder, Rodrigo Oyanedel, Christopher S. Sneddon, Andrew M. Scheld

VIMS Articles

Noncompliance is a central challenge for conservation, but in settings with limited access to behavioral data, it can be difficult to evaluate what drives compliance. Conservationists can measure and evaluate resource users' attitudes, and in so doing, leverage a complementary, nonbehavioral measure for evaluating compliance. In Greenland, wild Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) fishers are under increasing regulatory pressure to report salmon catch because the majority of North Atlantic salmon stocks are classified as suffering. The objective of this study is to measure salmon catch reporting compliance, reporting behavior, and attitudes toward Greenland's salmon management. We surveyed Greenland's licensed salmon fishers, …

Oceans Of Plenty? Challenges, Advancements, And Future Directions For The Provision Of Evidence-Based Fisheries Management Advice, Daniel R. Goethel, Kristen L. Omori, André E. Punt, Et Al

VIMS Articles

Marine population modeling, which underpins the scientific advice to support fisheries interventions, is an active research field with recent advancements to address modern challenges (e.g., climate change) and enduring issues (e.g., data limitations). Based on discussions during the ‘Land of Plenty’ session at the 2021 World Fisheries Congress, we synthesize current challenges, recent advances, and interdisciplinary developments in biological fisheries models (i.e., data-limited, stock assessment, spatial, ecosystem, and climate), management strategy evaluation, and the scientific advice that bridges the science-policy interface. Our review demonstrates that proliferation of interdisciplinary research teams and enhanced data collection protocols have enabled increased integration of …

Effects Of Altered Stock Assessment Frequency On The Management Of A Large Coastal Shark, Cassidy D. Peterson, Michael J. Wiberg, Eric Cortez, Dean Courtney, Robert J. Latour

VIMS Articles

Stock assessments are particularly resource-intensive processes. Demand for assessments typically exceeds capacity, stimulating interest in reducing stock assessment frequency for suitable species. Species with slow population growth rates, low economic importance, and low recruitment variability, like coastal sharks in the USA, have been identified as appropriate candidates for long-interim assessment periods. We conducted a Stock Synthesis–based management strategy evaluation with a threshold harvest rate control rule within the southeastern USA to assess the impact of stock assessment frequency for the slow-growing Sandbar Shark Carcharhinus plumbeus. Stock assessments for the Sandbar Shark in the southeastern USA have been conducted or …

Spatial Differences In Estuarine Utilization By Seasonally Resident Species In Mid-Atlantic Bight, Usa, Adena J. Schonfeld, James Gartland, Robert J. Latour

VIMS Articles

Climate-driven distributional shifts have been well-documented for fisheries resources along the East Coast of the United States, yet little attention has been given to adjacent estuarine systems. The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the continental United States and serves as important habitat for a diversity of fishes and invertebrates, many of which are seasonal residents. Survey data indicate that relative abundance of finfish in Chesapeake Bay has diminished substantially, while coastwide stock status has remained unchanged. In response to warming, seasonal estuarine residents may remain in coastal waters or inhabit a northerly estuary, but the extent to which …

Virginia Game Fish Tagging Program: A Nontraditional Data Source For Fisheries Management, Susanna Musick, Lewis Gillingham, Matt Perkinson, Thom Teears

VIMS Articles

Since 1995, the Virginia Game Fish Tagging Program (VGFTP) has collected data for recreationally important marine fishes in cooperation with skilled volunteers. These trained anglers tagged more than 380,000 fishes since 1995 and contributed data regarding fish movement and site fidelity patterns of species captured and released in the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic coastal waters. Over time, the VGFTP has become an important source of data for fishery managers and program data are included in stock assessments for species such as Cobia Rachycentron canadum. Best management practices from the VGFTP show that cooperative science programs that collect data for …

Examination Into A Vessel Effect For A Multi-Vessel Industry-Based Sea Scallop Dredge Survey, Sally Roman, David Rudders

VIMS Articles

Generalized linear models (GLM) and generalized additive mixed models (GAMM) were developed to examine for differences in fishing power, also referred to as a vessel effect, for three commercial fishing vessels chartered by the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS). The vessels conducted a fishery-independent sea scallop dredge survey of the MidAtlantic sea scallop resource in 2015. Surveys have continued since 2015 using a multivessel approach, and understanding the implications of a potential vessel effect on scallop catch is important for management and assessment of the resource. Surveys are conducted yearly to support annual fishery specifications and contribute biological and …

Estimation Of Juvenile Striped Bass Relative Abundance In The Virginia Portion Of Chesapeake Bay Annual Progress Report: 2021 - 2022, Jack R. Buchanan, Mary C. Fabrizio, Troy D. Tuckey

Reports

The 2021 juvenile Striped Bass abundance index was 6.30 and was not significantly different than the reference mean of 7.77 for the period 1980 to 2009. Abundance indices were average in the York and Rappahannock rivers and below average in the James River in 2021 compared with the river‐specific reference means (1980‐2009). Relatively low catches of young‐of‐the‐year Striped Bass from sites upriver and downriver of core nursery areas suggest juvenile Striped Bass largely remained within core nursery areas in 2021.

Juvenile abundance indices for Alewife, American Shad, Atlantic Croaker, Atlantic Silverside, and Spot were generally below their historic averages in …

Evaluating Recruitment Of American Eel, Anguilla Rostrata, In The Potomac River (Spring 2022), Troy D. Tuckey, Mary C. Fabrizio

Reports

American Eel (Anguilla rostrata) is a valuable commercial species along the Atlantic coast of North America from New Brunswick to Florida. Landings from Chesapeake Bay typically represent 60% of the annual United States commercial harvest (ASMFC 2012). American Eel is also important to the recreational fishery as it is often used live as bait for Striped Bass (Morone saxatilis) and Cobia (Rachycentron canadum). In 2021, Chesapeake Bay commercial landings of American Eel (284,297 lbs) were 87% of the U.S. landings of yellow eel (personal communication from the National Marine Fisheries Service, Fisheries Statistics Division). …

Extent Of Suitable Habitats For Juvenile Striped Bass: Dynamics And Implications For Recruitment In Chesapeake Bay, Rachel L. Dixon, Mary C. Fabrizio, Troy D. Tuckey, Aaron J. Bever

Reports

The production of striped bass Morone saxatilis in Chesapeake Bay supports recreational and commercial fisheries along the Atlantic coast of the United States, but factors that contribute to high abundances of juvenile life stages are not fully understood. In this study, we characterized and quantified suitable and optimal habitat conditions in the Chesapeake Bay for two age groups of juvenile striped bass in discrete portions of the Bay: young-of-the-year (age-0) fish in shoreline and nearshore habitats, and resident sub-adults (age-1 to -4) in the mainstem and Bay-wide. We coupled information from 24 years of monthly fisheries surveys with hindcasts from …

Test And Implement Commercial Grade Biodegradable Hinges On Dungeness Crab Traps (Va, Wa, Ak), Center For Coastal Resources Management

Reports

Employ commercial-grade biodegradable hinges on Dungeness crab traps to minimize adverse impacts when the traps become derelict. Project will test the durability of the hinges in both the active fishery utilizing watermen and in a simulated derelict trap mode to ensure the function as needed to be functional for fishermen and protect marine ecosystems.

A Cooperative High Precision Dredge Survey To Assess The Mid-Atlantic Sea Scallop Resource Area In 2019 And 2020: Final Report, Sally Roman, David Rudders

Reports

For the sea scallop, Placopecten magellanicus, current and accurate information related to the abundance and distribution of adult and juvenile scallops is essential for effective management of the resource. Scallop management is a combination of input and output controls, with a focus on spatial area management. The continued prosperity of the scallop resource and fishery is dependent on both periodic and large incoming year classes, as well as a mechanism to delineate the scale of a recruitment event and subsequently monitor the growth and abundance of these scallops over time.

Acknowledging the importance of accurate, timely, and meaningful information …

Preferences For Derelict Gear Mitigation Strategies By Commercial Fishers, James A. Delbene, Andrew M. Scheld, Donna Marie Bilkovic

VIMS Articles

Local, national, and international efforts to address the issue of derelict fishing gear are often limited by resources and costs. Managers and policymakers have implemented various preventative, impact reducing, and curative measures to decrease derelict fishing gear abundance and impacts, but stakeholder support is essential for success. To identify stakeholder preferences and the most efficient measures to address the issue of derelict blue crab pots in Chesapeake Bay, we distributed a stated preference survey with a discrete choice experiment to 1,032 licensed commercial fishers in Virginia and received a 42% response rate. The choice experiment consisted of hypothetical scenarios with …

Virginia Seafood Sustainability, Samantha E. Askin, Robert A. Fisher

Reports

Virginia’s commercial fisheries operate sustainability under a suite of management tools based upon information received from marine scientists and fishery managers who regularly conduct biological sampling of fish while tracking commercial landings and other gathering of required information. Analyses of fishing effort and overall stock conditions, as well as formulas designed to calculate threshold limits for maintaining sustainable stocks are regularly performed. Restrictions on seasons, size, days at sea, and gear are imposed as needed to achieve management supporting long-term biological sustainability.

Estimated Consumer Sensory Shell Life Of Fresh Blue Catfish Filets Stored In Ice (Ictalurus Furcatus), Robert A. Fisher

Reports

Blue Catfish (Ictalurus furcatus) is the largest species of catfish in North America where it is native to the Mississippi, Missouri, and Ohio river drainages. It was introduced in fresh water Virginia tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay to enhance recreational fisheries in the 1970’s, from which significant recreational and commercial wild caught catfish fisheries developed. Since introduction, Blue catfish populations have expanded from upriver freshwater habitat to brackish-water sub-estuaries with reports of blue catfish in the Chesapeake Bay proper. Blue catfish are voracious, opportunistic predators feeding on a variety of natural prey items, including native fish and shellfish species, and …

Results For The 2021 Vims Industry Cooperative Surveys Of The Mid-Atlantic, Nantucket Lightship, Closed Area I, And Closed Area Ii Resource Areas, Sally Roman, David Rudders

Reports

The Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) conducted high resolution sea scallop dredge surveys of the Mid-Atlantic (MAB), the Nantucket Lightship (NLCA), Closed Area I (CAI), and Closed Area II (CAII) during May - July 2021 (Figure 1). These surveys were funded by the Sea Scallop Research Set-Aside Program (RSA). Exploitable biomass for each survey is shown in Table 1 for each SAMS Area (Scallop Area Management Simulator). SAMS Areas represent management relevant spatial subunits of the resource and explicitly account for differences in recruitment, vital rates, and fishing effort in the forward projection of survey information. This information is …

Community Dynamics Under Environmental Extremes: Coastal Plain Wet Prairie In A Natural State And Under Restoration, Cinnamon M. Dixon, Kerry E. Flaherty-Walia, Richard A. Snyder

VIMS Articles

Ecological restoration is increasingly employed to restore degraded or destroyed ecosystems and evaluation of restoration success requires that natural community dynamics be understood. Wet prairies in the Southeast US have diverse plant communities subject to disturbances including fire, drought, flooding, tropical storms, and freezes. This habitat covers a fraction of its former range and reversing that trend requires ecological restoration; but, long-term data on the dynamics of this system are rare. We analyzed a 12-year plant community composition dataset from a fire-maintained Gulf of Mexico Coastal Plain wet prairie to characterize plant community dynamics and identify indicator species. The site …

The Effect Of Density On Growth, Yield, And Reproduction Of The Sea Scallop, Placopecten Magellanicus: Final Report, Sally Roman, David Rudders, Roger L. Mann, Kaitlyn R. Clark

Reports

Results from this project indicate that density in combination with settlement at depth in potentially marginal habitat contribute to reductions in growth, yield, and reproductive effort. In general, Study Area was not a contributing factor to the reductions in the three areas of scallop biological processes we measured. Scallops that settle in dense aggregations at varying depths may respond differentially to environmental conditions, food availability, habitat, and removals. (...)

Results from this study will enhance our knowledge of the scallop population with respect to conditions that diverge from expected biological processes. Results will also allow for better management and assessment …

Annual Report - 2020 Data Collection And Analysis In Support Of Single And Multispecies Stock Assessments In Chesapeake Bay: The Chesapeake Bay Multispecies Monitoring And Assessment Program, Christopher F. Bonzek, James Gartland, Debra J. Gauthier, Robert J. Latour

Reports

Historically, fisheries management has been based on the results of single-species stock assessment models that focus on the interplay between exploitation level and sustainability. There currently exists a suite of standard and accepted analytical frameworks (e.g., virtual population analysis (VPA), biomass dynamic production modeling, delay difference models, etc.) for assessing the stocks, projecting future stock size, evaluating recovery schedules and rebuilding strategies for overfished stocks, setting allowable catches, and estimating fishing mortality or exploitation rates. A variety of methods also exist to integrate the biological system and the fisheries resource system, thereby enabling the evaluation of alternative management strategies on …

Fisheries Landings For The Eastern Shore Of Virginia (Esva) 2021, Richard A. Snyder

Reports

Virginia (VA) landings data were requested from VMRC (Table 1) and analyzed by Richard Snyder at VIMS ESL. Landings data reflect where seafood entered market systems, and so may have different origins that will blur categorizing economic activity ascribed to the act of harvest and the act of processing for market. For example, almost all menhaden are landed in Deltaville, VA, some of the conch/welks and dogfish recorded for Accomack may have originated elsewhere to be processed in Wachapreague, and visiting Maryland crabbers early in the season contribute to blue crab landings. Shellfish data (oysters and clams) are separated as …

The Path To An Ecosystem Approach For Forage Fish Management: A Case Study Of Atlantic Menhaden, Kristen A. Anstead, Katie Drew, David Chagaris, (...), Robert J. Latour, Et Al

VIMS Articles

Atlantic menhaden (Brevoortia tyrannus) support the largest fishery by volume on the United States East Coast, while also playing an important role as a forage species. Managers’ and stakeholders’ increasing concerns about the impact of Atlantic menhaden harvest on ecosystem processes led to an evolution in the assessment and management of this species from a purely single-species approach to an ecosystem approach. The first coastwide stock assessment of Atlantic menhaden for management used a single-species virtual population analysis (VPA). Subsequent assessments used a forward projecting statistical catch-at-age framework that incorporated estimates of predation mortality from a multispecies VPA …

The Status Of Virginia’S Public Oyster Resource 2020, Melissa Southworth, Roger L. Mann

Reports

The Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) monitors recruitment of the Eastern oyster, Crassostrea virginica (Gmelin, 1791), annually from late spring through early fall, by deploying spatfall[1] (settlement and recruitment of larval oysters to the post metamorphic form termed spat) collectors (shellstrings) at various sites in three Virginia western Chesapeake Bay tributaries. The survey provides an estimate of a particular area’s potential for receiving a "strike" or settlement (set) of oysters on the bottom and helps describe the timing of recruitment events in a given year. Information obtained from this monitoring effort provides an overview of long-term recruitment …

Monitoring The Abundance Of American Shad And River Herring In Virginia’S Rivers 2020 Annual Report, Eric J. Hilton, Patrick E. Mcgrath, Brian Watkins, Ashleigh Magee

Reports

This report describes the results of the twenty-third year of a continuing study to estimate the relative abundance and assess the status of American shad (Alosa sapidissima) stocks in Virginia by monitoring the spawning runs in the James, York and Rappahannock rivers in spring 2020, evaluating hatchery programs, and contributing to coast-wide assessments (ASMFC 2007, ASMFC 2020).

We also report on two fisheryindependent monitoring programs using anchor gillnets in the Rappahannock River (year 3) and the Chickahominy River (year 6; a major tributary of the James River), to determine relative abundance and stock structure for the adult spawning run of …

Maps Depicting Extent Of Suitable Habitats For Four Forage Fish Species In Chesapeake Bay, 2000-2016, Mary C. Fabrizio, Troy D. Tuckey, Aaron J. Bever, Michael L. Macwilliams

Data

Habitat suitability maps are provided as tif files embedded in a Word document for each of the four forage fishes studied: juvenile spotted hake, juvenile spot, juvenile weakfish, and bay anchovy. Suitability maps are provided for each season and year, 2000 – 2016 for tidal waters of the Chesapeake Bay. Habitat suitability indices range between 0 (red) indicating poor habitat to 1 (blue) indicating most suitable habitat. These indices were estimated using procedures described in Fabrizio et al. (2021; see associated publication below). Estimates of the annual extent of suitable habitats baywide, and for Maryland waters only and Virginia waters …

Environmental Conditions At Fish Capture Sites In Virginia Waters, 2000 -2016, Mary C. Fabrizio, Troy D. Tuckey, Aaron J. Bever, Michael L. Macwilliams

Data

Environmental data are provided in CSV and xlsx formats which can be read in Excel or imported into other software programs such as R, SAS, and MatLab. Surface and bottom temperature, salinity, and dissolved oxygen data were collected by the VIMS Juvenile Fish Trawl Survey program under the direction of Drs. M. C. Fabrizio and T. D. Tuckey.

Stations were selected for sampling from a stratified random design, and collections occurred monthly from 2000 to 2016. Protocols and methodological details can be found in Tuckey and Fabrizio 2021 (Estimating Relative Juvenile Abundance of Ecologically Important Finfish in the Virginia Portion …

Stock Composition Of Striped Marlin (Kajikia Audax) In The Central North Pacific Ocean Inferred By Analyses Of Genome-Wide Molecular Markers, Jackson Martinez

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Relative to many highly migratory fishes, Striped Marlin, Kajikia audax, exhibit considerable stock structure. At least four genetically distinct stocks of Striped Marlin have been delineated in the Pacific and Indian oceans, although stock composition in the central North Pacific (CNP) remains unclear and the presence of an additional stock in the North Pacific has been suggested in two recent studies. The goals of this research were to clarify the number of Striped Marlin stocks in the North Pacific and utilize temporal sampling to better understand the stock dynamics of Striped Marlin exploited by the Hawaii-based pelagic longline fishery (HBPLLF). …

Improving Observation, Assessment, And Management Of Atlantic Coastal Sharks, Cassidy Dawn Peterson

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Coastal sharks represent a group of stocks for which observation, assessment, and management are particularly challenging. Large distributional ranges, complex migratory behavior, low economic value, and relatively few observations in fishery independent surveys hinder relative abundance estimation. Assessing stock status of coastal sharks is encumbered by limited data availability, data quality, and knowledge of life history strategy. Further, coastal sharks are challenging to manage due to their slow intrinsic population growth rates, competing stakeholder interests, history of overexploitation, and in some cases, subjection to international exploitation. This dissertation aimed to improve the capacity to observe relative abundance of coastal sharks. …