2016: Transforming Fisheries Science and Management (Environmental Defense Fund)
This project will deploy acoustic instruments on unmanned, wave-propelled ocean robots, called Wave Gliders, to improve surveys and management of sardine and anchovy fisheries in the highly productive coastal upwelling ecosystems off California and Peru. The team will compare acoustic data collected by the Wave Gliders to data collected during conventional shipboard surveys, with subsequent modeling studies conducted to evaluate the new technology’s costs and benefits. These more comprehensive surveys of commercially important fish populations will reduce the chance of stock collapses in the face of climate change, protecting top predator species and multibillion-dollar fishing industries around the world.
Cornell: Charles Greene, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
EDF: Helen Takade-Heumacher, Fishery Solutions Center; Jake Kritzer, Fishery Solutions Center