The Northeast Region Coordinating Council is convening a State-Federal workshop to explore current activities of biological sampling programs focused on sampling commercial fisheries landings and to identify best practices and potential efficiencies among programs.
Biological sampling to characterize the size and age composition of commercial landings has declined markedly since 2019. This threatens to undermine the integrity of analytic stock assessments for species managed by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission and the New England and Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Councils. Supplemental sampling by state agencies could augment federal sampling programs in corresponding state ports resulting in improved characterization of commercial landings. Many Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic states (Maine to North Carolina) support some type of sampling of commercial landings. Key states and ports where supplemental sampling would be beneficial include Maine (Portland, Rockland), Massachusetts (Gloucester, Boston, New Bedford), Rhode Island (Point Judith, Newport), Connecticut (Stonington), New York (Montauk, Greenport), New Jersey (Cape May, Barnegat, Point Pleasant), Maryland (Ocean City), Virginia (Hampton Roads, Newport News) and North Carolina (Wanchese). Some states associated with these ports have robust sampling programs, while others have limited or no sampling programs. The Northeast Port Biological Sampling Program samples most of these ports on a regular basis.
An initial step toward optimizing federal and state sampling efforts is to convene this virtual workshop to describe current practices and identify opportunities for greater coordination among sampling programs. This effort could result in standardization of sampling practices across federal and state agencies. Expansion of cooperative efforts among state and federal programs could result in a significant improvement in the characterization of landings data used to assess stocks in the region.
Workshop Objectives:
10:00 AM Workshop Introduction and Background Presentation
10:40 AM Determination of Sampling Requests (Federal, ASMFC)
11:40 AM State Program Presentations (Maine, New Hampshire)
1:00 PM State Program Presentations (Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New
York, New Jersey, Delaware
3:00 PM Break
3:15 PM State Program Presentations (Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina)
4:15 PM Discussion of Commonalities and Unique Approaches among State Programs
9:00 AM Identification of Common Themes
9:30 AM Federal Program Presentations (Northeast Biological Sampling Program,
transition to the Northeast Fisheries Science Center)
10:45 AM Break
11:00 AM Data Flows and Databases (ACCSP, Federal)
12:30 PM Lunch Break
1:00 PM Communications and Technology Discussion
2:00 PM Funding Stability Discussion
2:45 PM Break
3:00 PM Open Discussion on Workshop Recommendations
3:30 PM Wrap Up and Discussion of Workshop Report Generation