Maine's fisheries surveys need more information about local ocean conditions and emerging species, but changing their methods without testing them against existing methods could make decades of records harder to compare, a study of state monitoring programs concludes.
The open-access study in npj Ocean Sustainability, first published online in July and described by the Department of Marine Resources Oct. 29, evaluated eight programs covering lobster, scallops, sea urchins, menhaden, smelt, eels and multiple species caught in an inshore trawl survey.
The agency-funded internal review was conducted by Jesica Waller, director of biological monitoring and assessment at the Department of Marine Resources, and University of Maine marine scientist Michelle Staudinger. They interviewed program leaders using 28 questions about their methods, resources and ability to detect climate effects. They identified gaps in environmental measurements, geographic coverage and observations of young fish and other marine life.
The authors caution that new equipment or sampling practices need testing so apparent population changes are not simply changes in how animals are counted.
The review relies on staff descriptions of program capacity at the time of the interviews, rather than a new count of marine populations.
