SESSION SUMMARY: FISHERIES 



Richard W. Langton, Chair 



Maine Dept. Marine Resources 



Marine Resources Laboratory 



West Boothbay Harbor, ME 04575 



Fishing grounds and spawning sites in the Gulf are well - 

 known and the question to be answered is why these geographic 

 areas continue to produce commercially valuable living resources. 

 Although survey work such as the National Marine Fisheries 

 Service spring and autumn groundfish surveys and annual scallop 

 survey has greatly improved our understanding of the distribution 

 and abundance of these resources, the question of sustained yield 

 continues to elude scientific investigators. An appreciation of 

 the finer scale biological interactions that occur on these 

 fishing grounds and at herring spawning sites may give us the 

 necessary understanding to predict what is going to happen to a 

 particular resource and why. Certainly it is known that the 

 physical system defines the environmental range within which a 

 species exists, but the current level of our knowledge of a 

 specie's environmental requirements is not adequate for 

 biological resource management. Fisheries exist well within the 

 bounds of the physical system that drives the Gulf of Maine so 

 what is needed is research aimed at the biological events that 

 produce and sustain the fisheries per se. Site-specific research 

 in locations of known biological importance will eventually 

 provide the data base for resource managers to extrapolate up to 

 the scale necessary for resource management. Modern undersea 

 technology as applied to fisheries research is the first step in 

 this direction. 



The use of manned submersibles and remotely operated vehi- 

 cles ( ROVs ) for quantitative studies of fishery resources 

 introduces a finer scale of resolution than previously possible. 

 The three papers in the fisheries section of this symposium 

 reflect the capabilities of modern undersea technology to conduct 

 experiments and make such observations at depths well below SCUBA 

 range. The paper by Stevenson and Knowles, for example, 

 describes the detailed physical characteristics of four herring 

 egg beds along the Maine coast. It does so with a precision only 

 achievable with in situ observation. Similarly the successful 

 recovery of tagged scallops described by Berkman could only have 

 been done with direct observation of the experimental site. The 

 paper by Langton and Robinson also reflects precise transect work 

 obtainable with today's electronic navigation and surface to 

 submersible communication. 



The study of herring egg beds employed a variety of 

 observational and sampling techniques to characterize spawning 

 grounds in eastern Maine. (Herring aggregate and spawn 



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