Aquaculture and Fisheries Commons^™

Virginia Fishery Resource Grant Program 2020, Virginia Fishery Resource Grant Program, Virginia Institute Of Marine Science

Reports

No abstract provided.

Virginia Fishery Resource Grant Program 2019, Virginia Fishery Resource Grant Program, Virginia Institute Of Marine Science

Reports

No abstract provided.

Virginia Fishery Resource Grant Program 2018, Virginia Fishery Resource Grant Program, Virginia Institute Of Marine Science

Reports

No abstract provided.

Testing The Efficiency Of Wire Reinforced Catfish Pots And Comparing Horizontal And Vertical Configurations To Catch Invasive Catfish In The James River, Va, Matt Balazik, George Trice, Charles Frederickson, Martin Balazik

Reports

The Chesapeake Bay is currently inundated with invasive blue catfish (BCF) which are a serious threat to the ecosystem balance ofthe watershed.The only reasonableway to reduce BCF numbers and biomass is by utilizing new and improving traditional BCF commercial fisheriestechniqueswith emphasis on removing small BCF. In the Mississippi region pots set in a vertically orientation are easier to fish and outperform pots set horizontally. The purpose of this project was to see how pots set in two vertical orientationswould perform compared to thetraditional horizontal orientation. During the project 7275lbs of nonnative catfish were harvested, 3088in vertical pots and 4187lbs in …

Virginia Fishery Resource Grant Program 2017, Virginia Institute Of Marine Science

Reports

No abstract provided.

Determine Methods To Reduce Bycatch Of Juvenile Atlantic Croaker (Micropogonias Undulates) In Haul Seines, George Earl Trice V

Reports

The juvenile Atlantic Croaker ( Micropogonias undulates ) population is being severely cut down in the summer months by haul seines in the Chesapeake bay. It is common for commercial haul seines to land thousands of pounds of fish. When these fish are processed a large percentage of the smallest fish are sold on the bait market for a low price of .04 cents per pound. The high amount of small baitfish harvested annually by haul seines is only hurting future harvest of larger, more valuable fish. The bait caught is mostly Croaker but also includes Spot (leiostomus xanthurus), Spotted …

Develop And Test Fish Pot Cull Rings, Wallace Emery Lewis Jr.

Reports

Fish potting is a growing fishery in Virginia’s rivers and catfish is the primary targeted species. Demand for catfish is strong, and prices are good, but there is a lot of sorting and fish handling because the demand is for 2-8 pound fish. Traditionally, cull rings are used successfully in various traps/pots to let smaller fish/crabs escape and to reduce the labor and expense to manually sort and discard smaller animals. The use of cull rings in catfish pots, or hoop-nets, has not been studied in the Virginia catfish fishery. If cull rings could be successfully designed and placed within …

Virginia Fishery Resource Grant Program 2016, Virginia Fishery Resource Grant Program, Virginia Institute Of Marine Science

Reports

No abstract provided.

Describe If Commercial Low-Frequency Electrofishing Affects The Catch Of Blue Catfish Hoop-Net Fishery, George Trice Iv

Reports

The blue catfish Ictalurus furcatus was first introduced to Virginia tidal waters in the 1974 and currently inhabit all major Virginia tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay (Jenkins and Burkhead 1994, Schloesser et al. 2011). More recently blue catfish have spread to Maryland waters and are multiplying at an alarming rate. The James River tributary has the largest number of blue catfish (Schloesser et al. 2011) in Virginia. The amount of blue catfish inhabiting the James River in unknown but is likely to be over five million (Fabrizio et al. 2009, Greenlee 2011) and blue catfish are estimated to be over …

Comparing The Effectiveness Of 7.5 And 9.0 Gpps To Conduct Low-Frequency Electrofishing To Remove Invasive Catfish From Virginia Waters, George Earl Trice Iv

Reports

The blue catfish Ictalurus furcatus is a non-native species as first introduced to Virginia tidal waters in the 1974 and currently inhabit all major Virginia tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay (Jenkins and Burkhead 1994, Schloesser et al. 2011). More recently, blue catfish have spread to Maryland waters and are multiplying at an alarming rate. The James River tributary has the largest number of blue catfish (Schloesser et al. 2011) in Virginia. The amount of blue catfish inhabiting the James River in unknown but is likely to be over five million (Fabrizio et al. 2009, Greenlee 2011) and blue catfish are …

High Grading Scallops On The Ocean Bottom, Tim Daniels, Fella Daniels, Robert Fisher

Reports

The Atlantic sea scallop (Placopecten magellanicus) resource supports large offshore fisheries on Georges Bank and the Mid-Atlantic bight. Sea scallops are bivalves living on the sea bottom along the continental shelf and are largely harvested by dredges outfitted with bags constructed of steel rings with inside diameter of 4” and designed to select out certain size scallops. Dredges are towed along the sea floor where things in its path that are not deflected (fish/turtle excluders on dredges) or able to swim away (avoid the dredge) are collected in the dredge bag. Dredges are hauled back on-board, bags dumped of their …

Eliminating The By Catch In The Conventional Crab Pot, Michael W. Joslin

Reports

This study was devised to research a possible solution to reduce the bycatch of fishes when using the conventional crab pots. A perp panel was constructed and installed into 30 crab pots, known as "treated" (T). An additional 30 pots without perp panels were also used in the study as a control, known as "untreated" (UT). These pots were placed randomly in the Nansemond River and in the James River and the study was conducted 3 times. The data included the area being fished, the depth of the water, the water temperature, type of bottom, type of bait used, the …

Seeing Red: Does The Color Of A Crab Pot Really Matter?, Dan Knott

Reports

As part of the VA Fishery Resource Grant Program, I was awarded a grant to conduct a largescale study during the 2017 crabbing season to determine if the color of a crab pot has any affect on catch. The thought behind this study was based on the previous season and seeing a significant difference and trend in the catch of certain crab pots—particularly pots with the color red. Adding to the desire to determine whether color affects catch were the conversations I had with long-time crabbers that all had differing opinions on the topic.

Determine Methods To Reduce Bycatch Of Juvenile Atlantic Croaker (Micropogonias Undulatus) In Haul Seines (Continued), George Earl Trice V

Reports

The juvenile Atlantic croaker (Micropogonias undulatus) population is being severely cut down in the summer months by haul seines in Chesapeake Bay. It is common for commercial haul seines to land thousands of pounds of fish. When these fish are processed a large percentage of the smallest fish are sold on the bait market for a low price of .04 cents per pound. The high amount of small baitfish harvested annually by haul seines is only hurting future harvest of larger, more valuable fish. The bait caught is mostly Croaker but also includes Spot (Leiostomus xanthurus), Spotted Seatrout (Cynoscion nebulosus), …

Determine Methods To Reduce By-Catch Of Juvenile Atlantic Croaker (Micropogonias Undulates) In Haul Seines, George Earl Trice V

Reports

The juvenile Atlantic Croaker Micropogonias undulatus population is being severely cut down by haul seines in the Chesapeake Bay during the summer months (May-September). On more than one occasion haul seine crews return to the fish houses with upwards of 10,000 pounds of fish. These juvenile fish are composed of mostly but not limited to croaker. Other species of fish include Spot Leiostomus xanthurus, Spotted Seatrout Cynoscion nebulosus, and Weakfish Cynoscion regalis. Out of these fish it is not uncommon for over seventy-five percent to be deemed too small. Juvenile croaker and other species under a quarter pound are only …

Virginia Fishery Resource Grant Program 2015, Virginia Fishery Resource Grant Program

Reports

No abstract provided.

Reducing Theft Of Oysters Through The Use Of Rfid Technology, Tommy Kelllum, Albert Pollard Sr.

Reports

Poaching (theft) of oyster from the oyster beds is a huge problem. Purpose of this study is to assess a means of reducing poaching. The means to be studied is the use of RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tags to mark oysters that would be placed on the beds so that when oysters from those beds are brought to the seafood processor, their origin can be identified. A detailed discussion of RFID appears in a later section of this study.

RFID tags are to be put in dummy oysters, which should be hard to detect from real oysters. The shells must …

Practical Oyster Larvae And Remote Deployment Pool, Albert Pollard

Reports

This grant will evaluate the costs of constructing and operating a 100 bushel “floating pool” in which aged, washed, and containerized shell is placed with purchased larvae for setting on the cultch. The 100 bushel sized pool is being proposed because it is a sample size large enough to test future scalability but small enough to manage as a controlled experiment. In addition, the proposal will compare the setting efficiency of the pool vs the standard upland tanks. Also, we intend to test practicality - after lifting the skirt that forms the pool – of towing the POLARDS Pool (now …

Conclusion: Protecting Juvenile Flounder From Becoming A Crab Pot By Catch - Final Report, Mike Joslin

Reports

This study was conducted to determine whether the escape panel was effective in reducing the by-catch of juvenile flounder when using the conventional crab pots.

An escape panel for the juvenile flounder was constructed and inserted into 10 pots marked as "treated". In addition, 10 conventional crab pots, were constructed without panels marked "untreated". Both sets were placed in the same line alternating "treated", "untreated", etc...

On three rotations the pots were fished and data was collected to determine if the panels were effective as an escape for the juvenile flounder.Each rotation was in a different location.

This study was …

Virginia Fishery Resource Grant Program 2014, Virginia Fishery Resource Grant Program

Reports

No abstract provided.

Tidal Floating Upweller System (Flupsy), Jennifer Palazzo

Reports

The purpose of our project was to achieve traditional oyster seed growth using the tidal current (not electricity) and a wire cage and bag (not silo) system to deliver nutrients in the upper three feet of water column.

Our Tidal Flupsy design will have long term economic benefits (no pump to purchase/maintain, no extra labor for silo cleaning, and no electrical costs) and be a resource efficient alternative,especially for the small to medium sized oyster operation

Phase Ii Protecting Juvenile Flounder From Becoming A Crab Pot By-Catch, Michael W. Joslin

Reports

This study is an attempt to discover new methods to reduce the by-catch of juvenile flounder when using conventional crab pots. An escape panel for the juvenile flounder was constructed and inserted into 20 crab pots, known as "treated" pots. To ascertain the validity of the project, 20 "untreated" pots were fished alternating with the 20 "treated" pots. On three rotations of exactly the same number of days being fished, data was collected to determine if the panels were effective as an escape for the juvenile flounder and if the panels had an impact on the number of crabs caught.

Testing Experimental Collection Gears To Increase Harvest Efficiency Of The Electrofishing Fishery Targeting Introduced Blue Catfish In Virginia Waters, George Earl Trice Iv

Reports

The goal of the project was to design a more effective way to harvest invasive catfish (predominantly blue catfish, Ictalurus furcatus) in Virginia waters stunned by low-frequency electrofishing (LFE).

Analysis Of Short-Term Temporal Variation In Densities Of Pathogenic Vibrio Species In Virginia Oysters, Kimberly Huskey

Reports

The objective of this project was to establish the baseline densities of the pathogenic Vibrio parahaemolyticus(Vp) and Vibrio vulnificus(Vv) strains in oysters from Virginia across seasons and over a short time scale.

Direct Setting Of Eyed Larvae: In Situ Spat-On-Shell, Andrew Myles Cockrell

Reports

Experiments were conducted in hopes of developing techniques whereby an individual, with a minimum of equipment and labor, can utilize eyed larvae to profitably induce strike on appropriate oyster leases. The best-case scenario would be to utilize shell already present on the lease. Adding clean shell produced better results.

Observing Striped Bass Catch And Atlantic Sturgeon Bycatch In A Striped Bass Fishery Using Raised Footlines In The Chesapeake Bay, George Earl Trice Iv

Reports

The project documented the catch of striped bass (Morone saxatilis) catch and Atlantic sturgeon (Acipenser oxyrinchus oxyrinchus) bycatch of two different net configurations, a traditional anchored gill net and an experimental raised footline anchored gill net.

Virginia Fishery Resource Grant Program 2013, Virginia Fishery Resource Grant Program

Reports

No abstract provided.

Protecting Juvenile Flounder From Becoming A Crab Pot By-Catch, Michael W. Joslin

Reports

This study was devised to research a possible solution to reduce the bycatch of juvenile flounder when using the conventional crab pot. An escape panel for the juvenile flounder was constructed and installed into 10 crab pots, known as "treated" pots.

To ascertain the validity of the project, 10 "untreated" pots were fished alternating with the 10 "treated" pots. On three rotations, of exactly the same number of days being fished, data was collected to determine if the panels were working as an escape for the juvenile flounder and if the panels had a impact on the number of crabs …

Testing The Applicability Of Commercial Electrofishing For Invasive Catfish In The James And York Rivers, George Earl Trice Iv

Reports

The project documented the effectiveness of commercially harvesting invasive Ictaurids in the James and York Rivers using low-frequency electrofishing. The two species harvested were blue catfish (Ictalurus furcatus) and flathead catfish (Pylodictisolivaris).

Market Development For Chesapeake Ray: Final Report, C.Meade Amory

Reports

During the past 4 years we have learned the best methods for handling and processing this product. Although we have not create the large market. We have been able to create a small market for the Chesapeake Ray, which we will be able to continue to service and slowly expand.