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Baker Secures Federal CRP Grant

Contact:
Robin Wienke, 919/515-1092, robin_wienke@ncsu.edu

Posted Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Scott Baker, a North Carolina Sea Grant fisheries specialist based at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, will serve as the principal investigator on a project selected for funding by the Cooperative Research Program. Known as CRP, the competitive grant program is administered by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service or NMFS.

The two-year project will evaluate the effectiveness of electronic video monitoring for characterizing fishing activities of the commercial snapper/grouper vertical hook-and-line fleet.

Baker will work with fishermen from North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia as well as partners from Archipelago Marine Services, Ltd., South Carolina Sea Grant, the Environmental Defense Fund and NMFS. Together, the research team will compare electronic monitoring to traditional data-collection methods such as observers and logbooks. They also will gather information on the age and size structure of frequently discarded species.

There is consensus that more information is needed to manage this fishery, Baker explains. While commercial fishers are required to fill out logbooks, there is currently no cost-effective method to independently validate this information.

“Some level of electronic monitoring may be a cost-effective approach to this dilemma,” Baker notes. “Having seen the potential benefits of electronic monitoring in other fisheries, our industry partners are excited about this project and frankly can’t wait to get started.”

CRP funds projects that seek to increase and improve the working relationship between researchers from NMFS, state fishery agencies, universities, and fishermen in the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean and off the South Atlantic states of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.

“Scott’s involvement as both fisheries specialist and outreach professional will enhance the chance of success for this collaborative effort to benefit the fishery and fishing communities,” says Jack Thigpen, North Carolina Sea Grant extension director.

Baker’s is one of only eight projects selected for CRP this year and the only one that is based in North Carolina. The project received an award of $381,765 out of the program’s total of more than $2.1 million.

For more information on CRP funding and 2009 projects, go online to http://sero.nmfs.gov and click on “Grants” and “Cooperative Research Program.”