Understanding Butterfish Habitat

Location: Montauk Inlet Seafood Restaurant / (end of east lake drive / 631-668-1620)

When: Thursday March 29th, starts promptly at 12 Noon.

Garden State Seafood Association (GSSA) in partnership with a team of researchers are collecting ecological information from commercial fishermen so that industry's practical experience and advice can inform whether habitat models developed using Ocean Observatories are accurate.

We would like to invite you to a modeling workshop in the hopes that industry can comment on the accuracy of existing habitat models and we can build better habitat estimates based on your experience on the water.

This meeting will complete a series of 3 workshops. Previous meetings were held in RI and NJ and had significant cooperation from fishermen in those areas.

Your input is very valuable, especially for species like butterfish where little is known about their ecology. We hope that you will consider participating in the workshop. Lunch, and travel reimbursement will be provided. If you plan to attend or have any questions or comments, please contact:

Greg DiDomenico, GSSA (email: gregdi@voicenet.com, Phone: 609-675-0202)
Josh Kohut, Rutgers University (email: kohut@marine.rutgers.edu, Phone: 732-932-6555 x 542)

We thank you in advance for your support and attendance.

Meeting Agenda

12:00 - Introduction (Greg D.)
12:15 - Project overview up to description of the model. (Josh)
12:30 - Discussion: Did the model work? (Steven)
13:15 - The Model and Evaluation (John M.)
13:45 - Break
14:00 - Introduction to ship-of-opportunity survey design as proposed (Josh)
14:15 - Demonstration of temperature probes
15:15 - Discussion: How best to implement the survey.
16:30 - Future Directions
- Inroads into management
- model development
- add the ocean forecasts
- add acoustics
- Bring in the survey fleet as a resource for data collection.
17:00 - End of meeting.