Final Report In Situ High-Definition Camera Monitoring to Evaluate Catch Efficiency and Performance of a Survey Dredge

For the sea scallop, Placopecten magellanicus, the concepts of space and time have emerged as the basis of an effective management tool. The strategy of rotational access area management has gained support as a method to conserve and enhance the scallop resource. In the last decade, rotational area management has provided a mechanism to protect juvenile scallops from fishing mortality by closing areas based on scallop abundance and age distribution. Approximately half of the sea scallop industry’s current annual landings come from areas under this rotational harvest strategy. While this represents a management success, it also highlights the extent to which landings are dependent on the success of this strategy. The continued prosperity of scallop spatial management is dependent on both periodic and large incoming year classes, as well as a mechanism to delineate the scale of a recruitment event and subsequently monitor the growth and abundance of these scallops over time. Current and accurate information related to the abundance and distribution of adult and juvenile scallops is essential for managers to respond to changes in resource subunits. The primary objective of this study was to evaluate sea scallop survey dredge gear performance by understanding how dredge efficiency and gear saturation are impacted by varying biotic and abiotic conditions routinely observed during dredge surveys. Other secondary objectives were to quantify scallop and bycatch species behavior around and in reaction to the survey dredge and attempt to estimate survey dredge efficiency for bycatch species