Tim Alley has been keeping log sheets since the project’s start. The researchers go out with some lobstermen to collect video data while they haul other lobstermen record their observations on their own. Runnebaum is working with a handful of volunteer lobstermen and the Department of Marine Resources (DMR) to collect data on the mortality rate of cusk caught in lobster traps. Their project has been able to expand beyond cusk to include cod after they received a Saltonstall-Kennedy Grant from NOAA. Runnebaum hopes the data she and Boenish collect will be useful to the process. Cusk have been under internal review by NOAA since 2007 to determine their population status. They are rarely caught during surveys and are considered a rare fish,” she said. “Cusk is listed as a species of concern by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and is under status review through the Endangered Species Act,” she said.Ĭusk are not a commercially important species and therefore are not managed under the New England Fisheries Management Council (NEFMC). Runnebaum started the project in 2013 with a focus on cusk. It could rupture or expand so much that it pushes other organs out of the body,” he explained.īoenish and fellow graduate student Jocelyn Runnebaum want to know if cusk and cod can survive recompression by using lobster traps to return the fish to depth. “The air in the swim bladder expands with the reduction in pressure. That’s really the best way to describe it,” said University of Maine doctoral student Robert Boenish. When cod or cusk are pulled up to the surface, for example, in a lobster trap, the rapid change in pressure can inflate their swim bladders, causing barotrauma (literally “pressure trauma”). However, both cod and cusk have a closed-off air bladder controlled by a gas gland and require hours to release the built-up gas. When the swim bladder has too much gas inside it, some fish are able to “burp” to allow excess gas to escape. Most bony fish have a gas-filled organ called the swim bladder that helps maintain buoyancy. Researchers are studying ways to reduce fish mortality from the process. But did you know that fish can suffer from a similar problem? Cusk and other groundfish suffer decompression when brought up in lobster traps. The change in pressure creates bubbles of gas that form inside a diver’s body causing what is commonly known as the bends or decompression sickness. First published in Landings, March, 2015.Ĭhances are you have heard about the dangers divers face when they return to the water surface too quickly.
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