We will be at the Northeast Consortium's conference in Portsmouth, NH to learn about the sucess of collaborative research projects in the region. The Maine Lobstermen's Association (MLA) will be presenting a talk entitled, Documenting lobster gear configurations in the Gulf of Maine to help large whales, a project done in collaboration with the Bycatch Consortium.
In January 2010, the MLA began a process to identify the variety of lobster trap fishing methods in the Gulf of Maine. Through meetings and interviews with lobstermen, the MLA collected information on gear deployment methods,deployment location and seasonality, conducted gear surveys, and discussed which fishing methods might pose the least risk of entanglement to large whales.
The meeting is free and open to the public. See the full agenda.
Photo: NOAA Allen Shimada