To find out what’s happening below the surface in the Gulf of Mexico, Steven Scyphers often begins by turning to those who know it best: the fishermen.
An assistant professor of marine and environmental science at Northeastern, he helps conduct studies rooted in what he calls “collaborative science,” or the process of partnering with people whose lives are shaped by the marine systems he studies. .
The partnerships have shed light on the need to balance the health of coastal communities with the industries that depend on them and offer a model for how scientists can capture the depth of local knowledge in their research.
“Fishermen spend most of their year, if not every day, on the water, and the vast majority of scientists only spend a small number of days on the water,” says Scyphers. “But we’re both trying to figure out the same system.”
Now, thanks to $9 million to agree of the National Sea Grant College program
Steven Scyphers. Photo by Northeastern University
and the National Marine Fisheries Service, Scyphers and scientists from 12 other universities will team up with fishermen to count greater amberjacka reef fish prized by anglers and chefs.
The two-year study will result in the most comprehensive examination to date of the species’ numbers and could help mend the frayed relationship between fisheries managers and anglers who have long been at odds over how manage larger amberjack populations.
The project begins with interviews or surveys of over 1,000 fishers conducted by Savannah Swinea, PhD candidate at Northeastern in marine and environmental sciences. Its starting point is unique among scientific studies.
“When you’re looking at effectively managing fisheries, there are many examples where it’s really important to combine both scientific data and knowledge with that local or traditional knowledge,” Swinea says. “Combining them can be a powerful way to manage fisheries sustainably and efficiently.”
In addition to helping researchers focus their efforts where greater amberjack is most abundant, the process will also build confidence in the resulting study, Scyphers says.
“It’s not just about doing a bunch of research and presenting it to stakeholders at the end and asking them what it means for their livelihoods,” he says. “It’s really important to get them involved from the start and that’s what we’re focusing on in this project.”
Landing a greater amberjack can be a legendary feat: it can be up to 6 feet long and weigh over 100 pounds. Yet its populations have proven difficult to track, in part because they move from reef to reef and, at smaller sizes, resemble other steel-colored reef fish.
Scientists will compare larger amberjack populations in the Gulf, where officials recently declared overexploited species, to those in the southern Atlantic Ocean, where populations are considered healthier. The researchers hope that the mix of interviews, surveys and high-tech tools to study greater amberjack will be a model for future counts.
“Science is always advancing on its own, which helps us identify approaches we can use to study different types of fish species,” Scyphers says.
Increasingly, scientists are drawing on the knowledge of coastal communities in their research.
“Allowing the community to get involved and make decisions isn’t just a way to help us help the community, it actually improves our science,” Swinea says.
The new award is one of three grants – totaling more than $10.7 million – to study fisheries that Scyphers will help lead starting this month.
In 2014, he led a team of researchers in partnership with spearfishers to track lionfish, an invasive species in the Gulf. They found that community observers noted lionfish populations up to two years before traditional reef modeling systems and did so with higher resolution.
Yet some have been reluctant to accept local knowledge as hard data.
“I think that’s where we come in as scientists, is to try to think about how we can collect it in the most rigorous way and minimize bias that we can, while constantly thinking disadvantages and strengths of its applications,” he says. .
Since 2015, Scyphers sits on the Scientific and Statistical Committee of the Gulf of Mexico Fisheries Management Council, reviewing studies and potential management strategies to support the region’s fisheries. On this project, he will join forces with 17 other scientists, many of whom have recently collaborated on to count big red snapper in the gulf.
“The unifying theme across all groups is that all researchers are very active in science and fisheries management in the Gulf and South Atlantic,” says Scyphers. “There are a lot of relationships established within this team, but there are also a lot of new synergies and new collaborations being formed.”
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