2023 Northeast Spring Bottom Trawl Survey Summary

The 2023 spring multispecies bottom trawl survey began on May 8 and completed operations on May 24 aboard the NOAA Ship Henry B. Bigelow.

The survey was originally scheduled for March 15 through May 26. Sailing was delayed by issues encountered during the ship’s regular repair and maintenance period, reducing sea days by about 75 percent. Once at sea, operations were further reduced to from 24 to 12 hours per day owing to a shortage of experienced ship’s crew.

The survey usually operates on the Northwest Atlantic continental shelf, sampling at stations from Cape Lookout, North Carolina to Canada’s Scotian Shelf. To maximize use of available sea time in 2023, we focused on Georges Bank. We collected data critical to assessments for transboundary stocks. These assessments are conducted jointly with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Canada.

The Georges Bank stations accounted for 70 of the 377 planned trawl stations that would usually be sampled across the survey area (18.5 percent completion). Vertical temperature, depth, and salinity profiles were collected at all trawl stations. Plankton were also sampled at a subset of stations, with 29 bongo samples taken of the 116 planned for the full survey (25 percent completion).

The 70 trawl stations were sampled during daytime only, from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Combining these data with previous years’ data collected during day and night will require additional evaluation.

NOAA Fisheries will work with the Office of Marine and Aircraft Operation to understand how the ship’s maintenance and staffing issues resulted in forgoing the majority of the survey. The Bigelow is operated and maintained by OMAO. This evaluation will be critical to ensuring success for the upcoming autumn bottom trawl survey.

Further, NOAA Fisheries is considering options for ensuring continuity of the data collected during our trust resource surveys, as well as adapting our data collection within future wind energy development areas. This includes:

• Creating contingency plans for surveying when the Bigelow is not available
• Implementing additional data acquisition approaches, e.g., use of advanced technologies such as uncrewed systems

The Northeast Fisheries Science Center’s bottom trawl surveys are the longest running of their kind in the world. They provide nearly 60 years of standardized data collected during a time of significant change in the ocean around us.

Data collected include fish age, length, weight, sex, maturity and food habits. All are critical data used in regional fish stock assessments. These assessments help inform fishery management decisions by the New England and Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Councils, as well as the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.

Bottom Trawl Stations on Georges Bank

Percentage of Completed 2023 Spring Bottom Trawl and CTD Stations

Percentage of Completed 2023 Spring Bottom Trawl Plankton Stations