Marine Fisheries Field Research Group

05/05/2026

🚨New paper alert! 📝 Check out this work published in the Journal of Visualized Experiments by our groundfish team. Optical trawl surveys offer a non-invasive method of sampling groundfish populations and provide finer-scale data than traditional trawl surveys. This article provides a generalized procedure for an optical trawl survey of groundfish in New England. Cameras and lights were mounted within the codend of a modified commercial trawl to record fish as they passed through the open net.
You can check the paper on our website and the video is coming soon…

https://www.jove.com/t/70366/optical-trawl-surveys-groundfish-video-trawl-survey-western-gulf

University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Optical trawl surveys offer a non-invasive method of sampling groundfish populations and provide finer-scale data than traditional trawl surveys. This article provides a generalized procedure for an optical trawl survey of groundfish in New England.

04/15/2026

Check out this feature on our Master student and MMA alumnus Helena Norton! Helena primarily works on our open codend video trawl survey and is always happy to help across projects. We are grateful for all she contributes to our lab! Keep up the amazing work 👏👏👏

MSSEP students continue to make waves in marine research. MSSEP graduate Helena Norton (MSSEP ’22) is currently a Master’s student at UMass Dartmouth, working alongside research faculty on innovative projects, such as video trawl surveying. This research uses underwater cameras within trawl nets to observe, count, and measure fish in their natural habitats, eliminating the need for capture.

Helena’s Master’s research focuses on the demographics of spiny dogfish on Georges Bank and in the Gulf of Maine, exploring how environmental and biological factors shape their distribution and population dynamics. Helena recently published articles in American Fisheries Society and Reviews in Fisheries Science & Aquaculture.

The hands-on research skills Helena learned at the Academy in field courses and the EL trip to Bermuda not only inspired her to continue doing this kind of work, but gave her a strong technical foundation and the confidence to independently design, execute, and communicate impactful field research in her continued studies and publications.

03/30/2026

Check out these pics from last week in Portland, OR at the National Shellfisheries Association annual meeting!

🌊Graduate student Ash presented his thesis work on sea scallops on Georges Bank.

🐚Postdoc Max presented a talk on behalf of graduate student Paxton Easton on her sea scallop thermal tolerance work, as well as a talk on whelk maturity studies.

⚓️Kevin, President of NSA, co-chaired a session with Dave Rudders on Commercial Shellfisheries.
Another productive meeting to talk all things shellfish!!

03/23/2026

03/20/2026

Research Meets Impact – across universities and families!

Kevin Stokesbury’s brother Mike, runs a marine fisheries lab at Acadia University with a focus on how anthropogenic disturbances in coastal ecosystems impact the spatial behavior of fishes covering small to large spatial and temporal scales, may inflict mortality, and how such knowledge can be used to mitigate the negative effects of such activities on fish populations.

Check out this video feature on YouTube highlighting the change Mike’s students Matt was able to make for the Lake trout population in Nova Scotia.

After growing up around lakes in Nova Scotia, recent Acadia grad Matt Warner ('24) chose to pursue his passion for conservation through research.Thanks to hi...

02/13/2026

02/03/2026

01/08/2026

European journalists travelled across New England to learn about our regional fisheries and aquaculture and stopped by New Bedford to learn more about the cultural, economic, and historical importance of our fisheries. Their tour included a behind the scenes look at SMAST and Eastern Fisheries. Check out the article here:

What do cranberry bogs, regenerative oyster farms and craft breweries have in common? They’re all part of the adventure FoodBev Media’s Siân Yates dove into last month while travelling across New England...

10/30/2025

Research Associate and recent PhD graduate Nick Calabrese presented at Fisheries and Benthic Monitoring TechSurge hosted by the Marine Technology Society at URI Bay Campus. He was on the panel discussing the use of technology to transition from traditional survey techniques. It was a great day of discussion and presentations!

Photo credit is Alex DeCicicio URI Inner Space Center.

10/30/2025

We had a great day at the 2025 Seafood Day at the State House. Thanks to Fishing Partnership Support Services for organizing the event, and for all those who stopped by to express their continued support in our work and impact in fisheries!!

# scallops

08/19/2025

Graduate Research Spotlight 🌊
Meet Paxton Easton, a Marine Science & Technology grad student !
At DEI, she’s researching the temperature tolerance of Atlantic Sea Scallop early life stages.
By exposing scallop larvae to different temperature conditions from fertilization to settlement, Paxton is gathering vital data to build an individual-based model. This will help analyze what will happen to these populations in the Mid Atlantic Bight when temperatures potentially reach levels that are too warm for larval survival.