Atlantic halibut are one of the largest fish in our region, and support a Marine Stewardship Council certified, multi-million dollar fishery in Canadian waters. Little is known about how these fish move and grow on the American side of the border. Beginning in 2017, the Fishermen’s Alliance partnered with regional scientists to undertake a project designed to better inform the management of this species. Fishermen catch halibut during their normal fishing trips and collect tissue and bone samples from the fish. After returning to shore, the samples are catalogued and preserved here at the Alliance before being sent to labs run by the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, the National Marine Fisheries Service, and Fisheries and Oceans, Canada for analysis. Together with these partners and The Nature Conservancy, we look forward to improving our collective understanding of this species as the project continues in 2018.
Spiny dogfish (also called Cape Shark in the United States or Rock Salmon in England) are small sharks that migrate along the eastern seaboard of the United States. They have become an increasingly important fishery here on Cape Cod, where fishermen land them throughout the summer. When a dogfish is landed, none of it goes to waste. The meat is used around the world for fish and chips, fish burgers, and fish tenders. The fins are sold for shark fin soup both domestically and internationally, and any leftovers pieces are sold to fertilizer companies. NOAA calls wild-caught, Atlantic spiny dogfish a smart seafood choice because it is sustainably harvested.
Here at the Fishermen's Alliance, we will be working with researchers at the University of Maine and the University of Connecticut during 2018 to help managers better understand dogfish growth rates by collecting spines from dogfish landed in Chatham. The spines can be cut into thin slices on a jeweler’s saw and put under a microscope where scientists count growth rings to estimate the fish’s age (like counting rings on a tree, but much, much smaller). The thickness of the rings helps scientists understand how quickly the fish grew at different times of its life.
Butter clams are juvenile surf clams, measuring just 1.5-2” in length and in 2017 it became legal to farm them in Massachusetts. But what is the most cost effective way to grow them on Cape Cod? We partnered with ARC Hatchery and Cape Cod Cooperative Extension to secure a Saltonstall Kennedy grant to research ideal growing conditions and gear. The project will run until December 2018 but we’ve already learned that they need containment to keep them from swimming away, extremes changes in temperature are bad, and they like being in or on the bottom. Growth measurements throughout the next several months will help determine if they are economically viable to grow.
We are also collaborating with Woods Hole Sea Grant to complete a market assessment and promotional plan for butter clams, blood arks, and shucked oysters.