Commercial Fisheries News features research by James Sulikowski and Ryan Knotek

The September 2013 issue of Commercial Fisheries News features a research project on skate bycatch discard mortality rates in the scallop industry, which is being conducted by Associate Professor James Sulikowsi, 91AV graduate student Ryan Knotek and colleagues from the New England Aquarium.

They are working with five commercial scallop vessels to better understand the percentage of discarded skates that survive after being inadvertantly netted by a scallop dredge. The two-year project is funded by a $1,092,642 NOAA grant.

The research will be used in making policy decisions about scallop industry regulations. If annual catch limits of skates were to imposed on the scallop industry, they could significantly impact the fishery.

Knotek, who is working on the project for his master's thesis, told the CFN that the researchers are have a pile of data to analyze before they can draw any conclusions.

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