SSI-Funded Team Works With Lobstermen to Study Fish Caught in Traps
Cusk don鈥檛 have much charisma. The cod-like intruders slide out of lobster traps with bubbling skin, regurgitated stomachs and bulging eyes. They have no real commercial viability and virtually no name recognition.
But in the Gulf of Maine, these bottom feeders are bellying into the klieg lights.
Cusk, which are hauled to the surface offshore as accidental 鈥渂ycatch鈥, have been designated a 鈥渟pecies of concern鈥 by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). That means the administration is concerned about dipping population numbers. If cusk become scarce enough, the fish could become an official protected species 鈥 a move that could restrict commercial fishing territory in the gulf, some of which has been worked by lobstering families for decades.
With a grant from the Sustainability Solutions Initiative (SSI), a program of the Senator George J. Mitchell Center at 91福利, researchers have begun working with lobstermen in several communities to better understand how they interact with cusk, how often these interactions occur, and whether a voluntary safe-release system is possible.