Rutgers Researchers Awarded Grant to Study Sea Scallops
Daphne Munroe and co-PI Dale
Haidvogel, and NOAA scientists Dvora
Hart and Burton Shanks, were recently
awarded support from the NOAA
Fisheries and the Environment (FATE)
program to support a project entitled
‘Evaluation of Larval Sources and
Population Connectivity in Atlantic Sea
scallop (Placopecten magellanicus)’.
The U.S. sea scallop (fishery is the most
valuable fishery in the U.S. and has
shown a remarkable recovery from a
severely overfished state in early 1990s.
One important contributor to the recent
Daphne in a previous life searching
success in recovery is the system of
for barnacles in Japan
rotational scallop fishery closures that
has evolved in the Mid-Atlantic Bight
region. These closures allow buildup of adult spawning biomass, which may
be contributing to increased recruitment that has been observed in recent
years. To examine the linkage between increased spawning biomass and
potential increased downstream recruitment, a circulation model (ROMS)
will be coupled to a scallop larval model to simulate larval dispersal
dynamics and connectivity for the scallop stock. Simulations will
specifically examine the trajectories of larval dispersal from closed areas to
determine general connectivity patterns and allow testing of whether there
evidence that area closures could facilitate improved fertilization and
recruitment success. The results of this proposal have direct impact on sea
scallop management by providing key comparisons of larval dispersal from
closed areas with known abundances of recruitment to the fishery, as well as
identification of larval source and sink regions for the stock. This will allow
management strategies to be optimized for maximal recruitment resulting
from area closures.