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It is argument whether
the climate change has a direct impact on fish recruitment
on GB. Dr. Brian Rothschild leads a team at SMAST, with
collaboration with Dr. Chen at SMAST/UMASSD and Dr.
Lough at NMFS, on fishery recruitment study on GB. The
process-oriented modeling efforts are made by Dr. Chen’s
group at SMAST.
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This is a new ongoing
project. A fish larval model is being developed at SMAST.
Preliminary modeling experiments have clearly shown
that fishery recruitment is directly related to the
interannual variability of the meteorological forcing
and thus the circulation. Brown Bank is believed to
be one of key sources for fish larvae which can not
ignored in recruitment studies. Examples for Lagrangian
larval tracking experiments are posted to show the preliminary
status of the development of the fish larval model.
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1995
Releases
(1-6)
(1-7)
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1999
Releases
(1-6)
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Cod recruitment in the western
Gulf of Maine
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Applying data
information and modeling tools to ecosystem based fisheries
management in the western Gulf of Maine.
In coastal areas, dispersal
of early planktonic life stages of fish and invertebrate species
is highly dependent on the variability of the physical forcing.
Towards obtaining an operational tool for recruitment studies
of Atlantic cod (Gadhus morhua), we need to (1) improve
our knowledge about the biology of this specie (location and
timing of spawning, larval duration, settlement, suitable nursery
habitats, behavior), and (2) develop a modeling tool able to
reproduce physical and biological processes affecting early
life stage history.
For the first part, collaboration
with local fishermen helped us define locations and timing of
spawning of cod in the coastal Gulf of Maine, as well as suitable
nursery areas. For the second part, we used FVCOM to assess
transport success from major defined spawning grounds to nursery
areas with particle tracking. We showed that special caution
should be taken when using modeling to assess the dispersal
patterns of larvae, since the transport is highly sensitive
to the setup of the hydrodynamic model (resolution, forcing,
turbulence), and to the accuracy we have on spatial and temporal
definition of the spawning.
The state-of-the-art FVCOM system
gave us the opportunity to approach a realistic dispersal pattern
for cod larvae within the complex circulation of the western
Gulf of Maine. We plan to further validate this model by adding
larval behavior to the transport, and study its interannual
variability with possible consequences for the recruitment.
This project is a collaboration
between COOA, the Coastal Observing center in UNH (University
of New Hampshire) and SMAST. Martin Huret has been working in
2005-2006 on this project with Jeffrey Runge (UNH) and Changsheng
Chen (UMASSD).
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