UNE researcher gets $1.7M grant to aid fishing industry
A federal agency has awarded a University of New England researcher and his colleagues $1.7 million for a research project they hope will help increase revenues for the fishing industry.
UNE announced the award from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Wednesday, saying the project will research the mortality rate of winter skates, a cartilaginous fish closely related to stingrays, when discarded from catching nets.
James Sulikowski, a professor in UNE’s department of marine sciences, will be accompanied by commercial fisherman Captain Ted Platz and researchers from the New England Aquarium in Boston, Virginia Institute of Marine Science and the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans for the NOAA-backed research project.
The project will aim to shed light on the mortality rate of winter stakes when monkfishermen use the sink gillnetting method of fishing. The mortality rate, which helps determine federal regulations for catch limits, is currently assumed to be 50% — a figure that could change if the project gathers data to reach a more precise conclusion.
“If our proposed study is as successful as our previous otter trawl project, it could result in increased revenues to the commercial fishing industry,” Sulikowski said in a prepared statement.
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