A group of New England commercial fishing advocates, oceanographic researchers and tech companies hope to build a "third eye" camera for groundfishermen and autonomous robots for lobstermen with a $15 million federal grant. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Associated Press.
The U.S. National Science Foundation funding, awarded in late July, aims to help commercial fishermen catch better, healthier fish and bolster the region's seafood industry from harvest to processing.
Researchers will use some of the money to further develop a camera system that allows captains and crews to see what's swimming into their nets before it is hauled onto the deck. The innovation could mean the difference between a net full of bycatch — fish that crews don't want, because they're heavily regulated, or can't keep — and a harvest that makes money.
Other parts of the grant will be spent to develop autonomous robots to detect environmental conditions underwater that could lead to bringing up traps filled with dead lobsters.
The awardees also plan to use the money to strengthen the processing side of the seafood industry, said Jake Kritzer, executive director for the Northeastern Regional Association of Coastal Ocean Observing Systems — the organization leading the group awarded the grant — in an interview with The Light.
Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth's School for Marine Science and Technology (SMAST) will use some of that federal funding to develop those systems.
"If you had this camera system going in the net, not only could you have a screen on deck so that the captain could see what was going on," SMAST Dean Kevin Stokesbury said, adding that the data could also be stored in a secure system.
Recorded data means more information for captains and observers — paid scientists aboard boats that make sure fishing regulations are being followed.
"Especially if there's any dispute between the two," Stokesbury said.
Bycatch isn't the only issue commercial fishing crews are facing. Environmental factors can lead lobster vessels to a less-than-optimal catch.
The Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen's Alliance is focused on developing autonomous robots to detect adverse conditions — like high temperatures and "pockets of low dissolved oxygen," according to Kritzer. Those pockets, also known as "hypoxia," develop with the overgrowth of certain algae, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
"That can mean that a trap comes up full of dead lobsters," Kritzer said.
What happens when vessels bring back the catch is a separate part of the supply chain that the federal grant will also look to address. And it comes with its own set of issues.
Jobs in New England's seafood processing industry have declined and moved overseas, Kritzer said. That decline has hit New Bedford too. At least 150 local seafood processing jobs have been lost since 2023, The Light has reported.
Kritzer said figuring out how to revitalize that side of the commercial fishing industry is tricky.
"It's one thing to try to support and even boost an existing and strong harvest sector," Kritzer said. "It's a different thing to really try to rebuild in many ways, a processing sector that over time has kind of left the region."
Half a million dollars of the federal funds are earmarked for "supply chain roadmapping." It'll be spent to figure out just how much of the region's seafood processing industry has declined — and how that part of the industry can be rebuilt.