Fishing Industry Leaders Join NOAA Scientists to Test New Survey Net That Gathers Improved Data in Less Time and at Lower Cost

Fishing industry leaders joined NOAA Fisheries scientists and crew aboard the NOAA Ship Bell M. Shimada for the final trials of an innovative new trawl net with advanced sensors. The new net is designed to save time and money while collecting more complete data to guide management of West Coast fisheries.

NOAA Fisheries scientists collaborated with industry experts on the design of the versatile Multi-Function Trawl net. It helps combine two West Coast fisheries surveys that had been conducted separately with different nets. The new, adjustable Multi-Function Trawl allows a single ship to more safely gather more data in less time and at lower cost.

The surveys provide key information on the status of fish stocks. The data collected help fisheries managers set harvesting guidelines and shape fishing seasons as required by the Magnuson-Stevens Act. The Act mandates management for sustainable U.S. fisheries.

"You have to have the best available science to get the management right," said Greg Shaughnessy, chief operating officer at Ocean Gold Seafoods in Westport, Washington. He is a long-time fishing industry member collaborating with the science team and participating in the net trials aboard the research ship. He got interested in how NOAA surveys ocean fisheries after watching the sudden decline of sardines off the Northwest Coast in 2015. "I needed to understand how these surveys work," he recalled.

The sea trials helped the scientists and crew get familiar with innovative Simrad net sensors developed by Kongsberg Discovery. The net sensors provide the scientists, ship's officers, and crew with real-time information on the net. The sensors send its location, depth, width, and water flow, and the amount of fish it is capturing. This information helps scientists with the goal of catching representative samples of fish species and their sizes. "The new trawl, which uses the same design features and technologies used by many fishermen, increases our confidence in the survey results," Shaughnessy said.

"I help the scientists so I can help the fishermen, too," said David Barbee of Kongsberg Discovery, who was also aboard Shimada during the net trials. The wireless sensors send data through an acoustic link to the ship's monitoring system. The real-time feed back improves operational efficiency, saves time and helps avoid inadvertent damage. Barbee said that the better information NOAA Fisheries has about the amount of fish available, the better decisions managers can make about fishing seasons and catch limits.

Integrating Two Fisheries Surveys

The new Multi-Function Trawl system will be used this summer to conduct the Integrated West Coast Pelagics Survey. The survey beginning in June will be used to assess the status of:

• Pacific hake (whiting), sampled at midwater depths during the day
• Coastal pelagic species, such as sardines, anchovies, and mackerels, found closer to the surface at night

Shaughnessy and Seamus Melly from Swan Nets, the designers and fabricators of the new net system, have experience fishing in different conditions and at different depths. They offered suggestions on the system's operation. During the trials, for example, the scientists, ship's crew, and industry leaders tested settings for the large metal doors that hold the net open while trawling. They identified a single setting that worked for trawling both near the surface and at greater depths. This will save valuable time that would otherwise be spent changing settings and reducing risk to deck crew who would otherwise have to move the heavy panels.

The fishing representatives provided important insight, said Dr. Elizabeth Phillips of NOAA Fisheries' Northwest Fisheries Science Center, who led the net trials. "It was invaluable to have them aboard while we were out on the water," she said. "They have decades of experience using different nets in variable ocean conditions, and we benefited from their willingness to share that knowledge with us."

She said the new net worked well during the trials. "They really put a lot of thought into the design of the net from the beginning," she said. "It has turned out to be very stable and easier to deploy, according to the fishing crews. The time we spent at sea in March testing this gear sets us up for a more efficient start of the Integrated West Coast Pelagics Survey in June."

Sensors Supply Data

Scientists combine data from the net catches, which they use to understand the sizes and ages of fish, with information detected by the ship's advanced multi-frequency echosounders, to calculate the biomasses of the fish species. This is important for stock assessments, so they want to efficiently collect the most representative sample they can at sea.

The net sensors are an important part of the new trawl system. "You see a live image of the net and know immediately its geometry and what it is doing underwater," said Josiah Renfree, an acoustic engineer at NOAA Fisheries Southwest Fisheries Science Center. They are also using an updated fish measuring system, originally developed by NOAA Fisheries' Alaska Fisheries Science Center. This will also make it easier for researchers sorting through the catch to record data such as the sizes and numbers of fish species collected.

After the trials, Phillips said the new trawl net is ready to use for the Integrated West Coast survey this summer. "We invested a lot of time to make sure we had the best design and got invaluable feedback during the trials," she said. "We're very happy with the results."

Shaughnessy recognized that there are many different disciplines involved in the surveys, including biologists, oceanographers, statisticians, and experts in acoustic technology such as the multi-frequency echosounder systems used on NOAA ships to detect and identify fish populations. "I had the preconceived notion that it was mostly an academic or theoretical exercise, but it's really very pragmatic and hands-on. They dig in and solve problems, which I like, because that's the world fishermen live in."

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Integrated West Coast Pelagic Survey

Innovative New Trawl Net Developed for U.S. West Coast Fish Research Surveys