BDN features UMaine Pelagic Fisheries Lab
The Bangor Daily News reported on the work of the University of Maine’s Pelagic Fisheries Lab overseen by Walt Golet, assistant professor of marine science. By chemically analyzing materials in the otoliths, Golet’s lab can tell whether Atlantic bluefin tuna were spawned in the Mediterranean Sea or on the North American coast. That’s an important distinction because Atlantic bluefin tuna can easily migrate thousands of miles in just a few months, and the two populations — west and east — are managed separately, though they both mingle in the Gulf of Maine. All the data eventually shared with regulators, including the National Marine Fishery Service and the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, who use it to devise fishing quotas for them and the smaller fish they eat.