Aquaculture and Fisheries Commons^™

Life History, Trophic Ecology, & Prey Handling By Cownose Ray, Rhinoptera Bonasus, From Chesapeake Bay, Robert A. Fisher

Reports

No abstract provided.

An Examination Of Methods: Hand Picking Red Crabs And Keeping Them Alive On Shore, Dan Kauffman, Robert A. Fisher

Reports

No abstract provided.

Estuarine Blue Infrastructure: Final Priority Conservation Areas For Chesapeake Bay And Its Tidal Tributaries And Back Bay – Version 2.0 (Revised 09/2010), Center For Coastal Resources Management, Virginia Institute Of Marine Science

Reports

This project is an extension of earlier efforts within the coastal zone of Virginia to build a platform for enhanced Blue and Green Infrastructure planning. This project is motivated by an interest in extending statewide conservation efforts into estuarine systems and recognition that land use decisions on the upland effect water quality and habitat health in the receiving waters. The project in its entirety has been accomplished in distinct parts. Part one develops a Cumulative Resource Assessment to evaluate the distribution of aquatic natural resources within waters of Virginia’s Chesapeake Bay waters, Back Bay of Virginia Beach, Virginia, and the …

Evaluating Recruitment Of American Eel, Anguilla Rostrata, In The Potomac River (Spring 2010), Troy D. Tuckey, Mary C. Fabrizio

Reports

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) adopted the Interstate Fishery Management Plan (FMP) for the American eel in November 1999. The FMP focuses on increasing coastal states’ efforts to collect American eel data through both fishery-dependent and fishery-independent studies. Consequently, member jurisdictions agreed to implement an annual survey for young of year (YOY) American eels. The survey is intended to “…characterize trends in annual recruitment of the YOY eels over time [to produce a] qualitative appraisal of the annual recruitment of American eel to the U.S. Atlantic Coast” (ASMFC 2000). The development of these surveys began in 2000 with …

An Assessment Of Sea Scallop Abundance And Distribution In Selected Closed Areas: Georges Bank Closed Area I And Hudson Canyon Closed Area, David B. Rudders, William D. Dupaul

Reports

No abstract provided.

2010 Annual Report Estimating Relative Juvenile Abundance Of Ecologically Important Finfish In The Virginia Portion Of Chesapeake Bay Project Number: F-104-R-14, Troy D. Tuckey, Mary C. Fabrizio

Reports

No abstract provided.

Estimated Economic Impact Of Gulf Oil Spill On Virginia’S Oyster Industry – July 2010, Thomas J. Murray, James E. Kirkley

Reports

No abstract provided.

Virginia Shellfish Aquaculture Situation And Outlook Report : Results Of The 2009 Virginia Shellfish Aquaculture Crop Reporting Survey, Thomas J. Murray, Michael J. Oesterling

Reports

Virginia’s shellfish aquaculture industry continues to add significant value to the State’s seafood marketplace. While Virginia’s watermen harvest hard clams and oysters from the State’s public resources, they also grow shellfish for consumers. In recent years, following the lead of the hard clam industry, there has been a significant transition toward intensive aquaculture of native oysters. The once-extensive oyster planting has disappeared primarily as a result of endemic oyster diseases and wildlife predation of seed oysters. It has been replaced by an expanding aquaculture sector, which is based on improved culture techniques and disease-resistant oyster seed. While these trends are …

Annual Report - 2009 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, Raemarie A. Johnson, 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 …

Final Report Continuing The Time Series: Calibrating The Nmfs Sea Scallop Survey To The R/V Hugh R. Sharp, David Rudders, William D. Dupaul

Reports

No abstract provided.

Final Report An Assessment Of Sea Scallop Abundance And Distribution In Selected Closed Areas: Nantucket Lightship Closed Area, David Rudders, William D. Dupaul

Reports

No abstract provided.

Estuarine Blue Infrastructure: Priority Conservation Areas For The Seaside Of Virginia’S Eastern Shore, Center For Coastal Resources Management, Virginia Institute Of Marine Science

Reports

This project is an extension of earlier efforts within the coastal zone of Virginia to build a platform for enhanced Blue and Green Infrastructure planning. This project is motivated by an interest in extending statewide conservation efforts into estuarine systems and recognition that land use decisions on the upland effect water quality and habitat health in the receiving waters. The project in its entirety has been accomplished in distinct parts. Part one develops a Cumulative Resource Assessment to evaluate the distribution of aquatic natural resources within waters of Virginia’s Chesapeake Bay waters, Back Bay of Virginia Beach, Virginia, and the …

Data Collection And Analysis In Support Of Single And Multispecies Stock Assessments In The Mid-Atlantic: Northeast Area Monitoring And Assessment Program (Neamap) Near Shore Trawl Program 2010 - 2012, Neamap Near Shore Trawl Program, Virginia Institute Of Marine Science

Reports

This Environmental Assessment (EA) describes, and evaluates the impacts of, the proposed research activities for 2010, 2011, and 2012 for a coastal ocean bottom-trawling program in the Mid-Atlantic and Southern New England waters of the United States, the Northeast Area Monitoring and Assessment Program (NEAMAP) Near Shore Trawl Survey. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) administers NEAMAP, and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) executes the field sampling, laboratory processing, and data analysis components of this survey. The proposed work for the 2010–2012 period will follow the successful completion by VIMS of the survey’s first two-and-a-half years of …

Abundance And Distribution Of Sea Scallops And Yellowtail Flounder During The 2009 Vims/Industry Cooperative Survey Of The Nantucket Lightship Closed Area (Nlca), William D. Dupaul, David B. Rudders

Reports

No abstract provided.

Monitoring Relative Abundance Of American Shad In Virginia Rivers 2009 Annual Report, John E. Olney, Brian Watkins, Eric J. Hilton

Reports

Concern about the decline in landings of American shad (Alosa sapidissima) along the Atlantic coast prompted the development of an interstate fisheries management plan (FMP) under the auspices of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Management Program (ASMFC 1999). Legislation enables imposition of federal sanctions on fishing in those states that fail to comply with the FMP. To be in compliance, coastal states are required to implement and maintain fishery-dependent and fishery-independent monitoring programs as specified by the FMP. For Virginia, these requirements include spawning stock assessments, the collection of biological data on the spawning run (e.g., age-structure, sex ratio, and …

Northeast Area Monitoring And Assessment Program (Neamap) 2009 Data Collection And Analysis In Support Of Single And Multispecies Stock Assessments In The Mid-Atlantic: Northeast Area Monitoring And Assessment Program Near Shore Trawl Survey, Christopher F. Bonzek, James Gartland, J. David Lange, Robert J. Latour

Reports

Concerns regarding the status of fishery-independent data collection from continental shelf waters between Cape Hatteras, North Carolina and the U.S. / Canadian border led the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s (ASMFC) Management and Science Committee (MSC) to draft a resolution in 1997 calling for the formation of the Northeast Area Monitoring and Assessment Program (NEAMAP) (ASMFC 2002). NEAMAP is a cooperative state-federal program modeled after the Southeast Area Monitoring and Assessment Program (SEAMAP), which has been coordinating fishery-independent data collection south of Cape Hatteras since the mid-1980s (Rester 2001). The four main goals of this new program directly address the …

Annual Report To The Governer And General Assembly Of Virginia: Virginia Fishery Resource Grant Program 2009, Virginia Sea Grant

Reports

No abstract provided.

Evaluation Of Striped Bass Stocks In Virginia, Monitoring And Tagging Studies, 2005-2009 Annual Report, 1 September 2008 - 31 August 2009, Philip W. Sadler, Matthew W. Smith, John M. Hoenig, Robert E. Harris, Lydia M. Goins, Rebecca J. Wilk

Reports

This report presents the results of striped bass (Morone saxatilis) tagging and monitoring activities in Virginia during the period 1 September 2008 through 31 August 2009. It includes an assessment of the biological characteristics of striped bass taken from the 2009 spring spawning run, estimates of annual survival and fishing mortality based on annual spring tagging, and the results of the study that documents the prevalence of mycobacterial infections of striped bass in Chesapeake Bay. The information contained in this report is required by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission and is used to implement a coordinated management plan for …

Using Traps For Catfish In Virginia Tidal Rivers, James Bristow

Reports

The project tested a different way to commercially fish for catfish in the tidal rivers, while allowing by-catch and smaller catfish to escape. Ten traps were constructed of coated wire mesh and steel rod, equipped with an entry funnel, and fished alongside three strings of trot-lines in the same area and times. The test period covered September and October 2010 over a period of warm weather when salinity changed dramatically from 10 ppt to zero and water temperatures eased downward from 68 degrees to 60 degrees.

The trap design and all boat modifications operated as designed with only a few …

Method And Concept Evaluation Of Relaying Oysters From Chesapeake Bay To High Salinity Water As A Post-Harvest-Process To Reduce Vibrio Vulnificus To Undetectable Levels: Final Report, Thomas Gallivan, A. J. Erskine, Tommy Leggett, Howard Kator, Kimberly Reece

Reports

Post-harvest processing (PHP) methods for reducing vibrio levels that have been developed thus far are either capital intensive, have limited throughput, are not readily available, and/or are generally very expensive. In the summer of 2010 we initiated a small-scale evaluation to assess the effectiveness of relay to elevated salinity as a PHP strategy to reduce levels of Vibrio vulnificus in Crassostrea virginica oysters.

Improving Gill Net Selectivity By Altering Mesh Characteristics 2010, Robert Weagley

Reports

This project was designed to further examine the effect of twine size (mesh diameter) and hanging ratio on catch-per-unit-effort (CPUE) of striped bass, American shad and Atlantic sturgeon. It follows a 2009 study in which four 200' net strings, each consisting of four identically varied 50' net sections that mimicked nets fished in 2010 in every way except .62mm twine sized nets were replaced with .90mm webbing.

The Status Of Virginia's Public Oyster Resource 2009, Melissa Southworth, Juliana Harding, Roger L. Mann

Reports

This report summarizes data collected during 2009 in the Virginia portion of the Chesapeake Bay. The report is composed of two parts, part one, oyster recruitment (shell string) in Virginia and part two, dredge survey of selected oyster bars in Virginia.

Analysis Of Tie Downs On Gillnet Cpue, Selectivity And Bycatch Composition, George Earl Trice Iv

Reports

The striped bass fishery is of great economic importance to Virginia’s commercial finfishermen and anchored gill nets are the predominant gear used I both coastal and estuarine waters. Unfortunately, these nets have the highest rate of Atlantic Sturgeon bycatch (85%) compared to other Virginia gear types (NMFS) and the second largest bycatch recorded by NMFS Northeast Observer Network coastally. High Atlantic Sturgeon interaction rates could result in seriously restrictive regulations being imposed on the fishery or even complete closure, one Atlantic Sturgeon are listed under the Endangered Species Act as has been proposed. Such regulations have been made in order …

Hybrid Fish Capturing Device "Fcd" For Capturing Live Flounder: Final Report, Jeffrey Hammer

Reports

The purpose of this project was to determine if a device to capture live flounder could be designed and built, to catch effectively. Six FDC's were constructed, two each, of three different funnel designs. The three types of FCD,s were then placed in the water, on april I st 20 I 0, at three different locations. The FCD,s were fished, once per day , for 60 days. The locations were rotated, to give each type of funnel an equal chance. The type of funnels are as follows, # I and 2 were horizontal 2" x 12", # 3 and 4 …

Development Of Preventive Measures To Reduce Mortalities For Holding Live Wild-Caught Flounder In Recirculating Aquaculture Systems, Clarke J. Morton, Christopher D. Bentley, Et Al

Reports

A substantial high-value market exists for wild-caught live summer flounder (Paralichthys dentatus). An important component of accessing this market is the ability to hold wild-caught flounder in land based recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS). A major constraint to holding summer flounder in land-based RAS is fish mortalities associated with the ectoparasite argulus spp. Very little information exists that provides a live flounder holding facility with FDA approved treatment options to prevent introduction of argulus from wild caught fish into holding systems. The project objective was to test the available FDA approved chemotherapeutics for treatment of ectoparasite infections in summer flounder. To …

Developing New Value Added Products From Cow Nose Ray, L.D. Amory & Co. Inc

Reports

We are happy to report that we have met and exceeded the objectives of our project. Improved processing techniques have resulted in significantly reduced labor costs and increased yield of both fillets and byproducts, resulting in a 50% reduction in the fillet cost and viable cartilage and skin products for the commercial market. Several value-added products are under development with a battered and breaded strip product in production and on the menu at several restaurants throughout Virginia. We continue to develop other value added products and are working to create a market for ray and promote acceptance of ray products …

Estimation Of Juvenile Striped Bass Relative Abundance In The Virginia Portion Of Chesapeake Bay, January 2009-December 2009 : Annual Progress Report, Leonard S. Machut, Mary C. Fabrizio

Reports

The 2009 striped bass juvenile abundance index is 8.42 and is not significantly different from the historic average of 7.54. Additional methods of calculating the regional index support this conclusion. Catches in the York River were nearly identical to its historic average. Although the James River catches were higher and the Rappahannock River catches were lower than historic averages, they were not significantly so. Striped bass catches at auxiliary stations provide greater spatial coverage of the nursery grounds and suggest that juvenile striped bass were broadly distributed throughout the sampling area in 2009.

Virginia Game Fish Tagging Program Annual Report 2009, John A. Lucy, Lewis Gillingham

Reports

Through 2009, the Virginia Game Fish Tagging Program has maintained a 15-year database for tagged and recaptured fish. The program is a cooperative project of the Virginia Saltwater Fishing Tournament (under the Virginia Marine Resources Commission/VMRC) and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) of the College of William and Mary (under VIMS Sea Grant Marine Extension Program).

An Investigation Into The Beneficial Effects Of Intentionally Exposing Oysters To Air During Their Normal Growing Season, Dennis K. Gryder, Michael Oesterling, Richard H. Couch

Reports

This report describes a field experiment which was primarily intended to quantify the beneficial effects of intentionally exposing oysters to air during their growing period. Test samples were submerged in the water at different depths and the normal tidal activity uncovered the samples for differing percentages of the tide cycle. The amount of time each sample was in air was monitored by a specially designed electronic instrument and logged. The logged data was processed into graphical data showing the growth rate of the test subjects with respect to exposure. The occurrence of Polydora was also monitored during periodic inspections and …