"Cooperative Long-term Ecosystem Monitoring in the Gulf of Maine"

Project leader: Jeffrey Runge (UNH)
Project assistant: Rebecca Jones (UNH)
Industry participants: Yankee Fisherman's Coop and Portsmouth Fisherman's Coop.
Monitoring Advisory Panel: R.Barnaby (UNH), C.Goudey (MIT Sea Grant), S.Meeker (UNH Sea Grant Extension), L. Mercer (Maine, DNR), D. Mountain (NMFS, Woods Hole), C. Pendleton (NAMA), D. Townsend (UMaine)

The overall goal of this project is the design and development of a cooperative, industry-based contribution to monitoring of the pelagic ecosystem in the Gulf of Maine. The need for long-term biological data collection in the Gulf of Maine becomes critical in light of increasing evidence for change in New England's climate. It becomes increasingly important for the fishing industry as decisions about fishery management shift from a single or multi-species to an ecosystem-based approach. By involving the expertise and resources of the local fishing community, we hope to learn more about the natural and man-made variability of the Gulf of Maine marine ecosystem.

courtesy of USGS

Sampling took place on a weekly schedule with the cooperation of Portsmouth Fishermen's COOP and Seabrook Yankee Fishermen's COOP fishermen. Each week we visited the two stations shown on the above map, GoMOOS Buoy "B" and New Scantum at the southern edge of Jeffreys Ledge.

Associated datasets: see nuts_pulse, chla_pulse, drywt_pulse, and zoop_pulse for more data from this study.

Updated Sept 05, 2006; gfh;
Updated Oct. 14, 2010, njc