Advancing Mechanical Jigging to Strengthen Squid Fishery Resilience Amid Offshore Wind Development

General Description

Expanding fishing opportunities in New England waters through technology development and identification of underutilized stocks is a shared mission of CFRF and the Coonamessett Farm Foundation (CFF). One promising advancement in this field is the implementation of automatic jigging machines for squid fishing. This innovation is particularly relevant to building resilience to offshore wind as it may allow for continuous squid fishing within wind farms or expanded squid fishing grounds.

Over the past several years, CFRF has worked with The Town Dock, a major squid producer in RI, and local fishermen to trial automatic squid jigging machines in Southern New England waters. Simultaneously, CFF has been working with Atlantic Shellfish Inc., Quinn Fisheries, and Viking Village Seafood, who are interested in converting vessels to use automatic jigging machines. Both organizations have been collaborating with representatives from Japan Fishing Machine, a leading manufacturer of automatic squid jigging machines.

Recently, CFRF and CFF entered a partnership to purchase and share equipment from Japan Fishing Machine and to further integrate efforts to develop mechanical jigging. This project will build upon lessons learned from CFRF’s and CFF’s previous efforts. It focuses on improving catch rates while simultaneously showing applicability near offshore wind farms and in waters beyond the continental shelf.

Collaborators:

  • Katie Almeida, The Town Dock

  • Mike Roderick, The Town Dock

  • Stacy Alexander-Nevells, Atlantic Shellfish, Inc.

  • Keiichiro (Kei) Hamano, Japan Fishing Machine LLC

Project Team

  • Primary Investigators

    • N. David Bethoney, CFRF

    • Matt Rodriguez, CFRF

    • Ryan Munnelly, CFF

Project Objectives

  1. Leverage knowledge gained during the previous projects (CFRF examples here, here, and here) to streamline the process needed to outfit these machines aboard fishing vessels

  2. Maximize catch rates using the techniques learned from Japanese collaborators during previous projects

  3. Develop a standard operating procedure for deploying this gear type

  4. Compare catch efficiency and quantity of captured squid, including both coastal and oceanic species, to the amount needed for economic viability

  5. Develop outreach materials and share results with relevant communities and regulatory bodies

This project is supported by:

Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries’ Massachusetts Fisheries Innovation Fund.