Meet the women of New Bedford's Waterfront: Scientists analyze data to support fisheries - SouthCoastToday.com

NEW BEDFORD — Scientist Kevin Stokesbury pulled up a digital presentation in his New Bedford office at the School for Marine Science and Technology. Across from him sat fisheries consultant Cate O'Keefe with a notepad and pen in hand. 

For about an hour, O'Keefe asked Stokesbury (her former doctoral advisor) a series of questions about scallop surveys, the potential impacts of offshore wind development on data collection, and the ways in which survey collaboration could improve. 

She will meet with other researchers in the region in the coming weeks for a project with the New England Fishery Management Council — the organization that regulates fisheries in federal waters from Maine to Connecticut. The working group O'Keefe is involved with expects to issue a set of recommendations to improve scallop surveys by next summer, which will ultimately inform the future management of New Bedford's most lucrative fishery.  

Data-driven fisheries management 

O'Keefe works as an analyst in the field of fisheries management. Fisheries are governed by state and federal bodies that set catch limits, fishing areas and fishing seasons to prevent overfishing and ensure the conservation of species.

Before setting policies, decisionmakers must know the status of the sea scallop, monkfish or herring stock, for example, and what may be driving any changes to population numbers or distribution. That requires data. 

"The scallop survey is really a conglomeration of multiple different individual surveys," O'Keefe said, noting there are dredging, towing and drop camera surveys. "Collectively, they cover the entire scallop resource. Ultimately, it's probably the best monitoring system in the world. The data that's collected annually and the amount of information generated is amazing. But there's been these questions over time: Is it really the most efficient way to do this? Could we try to coordinate better?"

Part 1: Women of New Bedford's Waterfront: Working the wheelhouse

Part 2: Meet the women of New Bedford's Waterfront — she finds safety and security for fishermen

Adding some urgency and complexity to these questions is the nascent offshore wind industry, scheduled to come online and deliver power to Massachusetts as early as 2023. The tall wind turbines are expected to impact not only commercial fishing operations, but possibly the ability for researchers to perform the surveys they've been doing for years. 

"It's a big concern," O'Keefe, 44, said. "How will this impact the ability to actually conduct the survey and monitor the scallop population? If we can't survey certain areas, how do we deal with that to continue to support the science and management of the fishery?"

Kathryn Ford, a scientist who just joined the federal government as a new division lead at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center, also said offshore wind is expected to have impacts on their ability to continue the surveys they've been doing for decades.

Ford, 47, is the new chief of the Population and Ecosystems Monitoring and Analysis Division after working for many years with the state Division of Marine Fisheries as a program manager and analyst. She now leads teams that conduct surveys and biological studies. 

Like O'Keefe, part of her work will involve integrating current surveys with offshore wind plans, and ensuring survey standards are maintained. 

Being a woman in fisheries science 

O'Keefe said there are more women in fisheries science and management now than she has ever experienced, which is "fantastic" and "inspiring." She is also starting to see more women in leadership roles and serving on councils. In academia, though, she said the increase is not there.

"Science is a really broad field and fisheries is kind of a niche part of it. But it's not gender limited and it's certainly a really interesting field. Women play a really important role in it," O'Keefe said. 

Ford also said she has seen an increase of women in her field, particularly in high-level roles. 

Asked what would happen if people like O'Keefe and Ford didn't do the work they do, O'Keefe said management decisions would be uninformed.

"They are better off having the scientific information available. Without having a strong basis of the science behind it, then the arbitrary decisions can be really hurtful or they may lead to lack of conservation and sustainability that can end up long term being really detrimental," O'Keefe said. 

If fisheries managers set catch limits too high, for example, habitats could be ruined or a certain species could be overfished, she said. However, if they set catch limits too low (overly cautious), it can harm the livelihoods of fishermen. 

Ford analogized her work with that of a weather service providing forecasts. 

"The way the National Weather Service produces forecasts is through very good models of the weather," she said. "What underpins all those models is actual data. Someone has gone out with a thermometer and measured how hot or cold it is on a given day."

Further, it has gone beyond the next day as sophisticated models allow one to know the likely weather as far ahead as the following week. She said they provide a similar service for fisheries.

"We collect the data. We go out there and collect the fish and we assess them in a variety of different ways," Ford said. This includes noting the species, how big they are, what they're eating and how old they are. "All that information feeds into models of fish populations. So with more and more data, the models get better and better and can be more predictive or just more accurate in some ways. If we didn't have the data, then we just wouldn't have any good estimates at all of how many fish are out there [and] where fish are."

She said these stock assessments are "critical" to determining what fishermen can catch. 

Creating trust between scientists and fishermen 

For her doctorate, O'Keefe worked with coastwide fishing fleets on scallop bycatch avoidance. Afterward, she took a job with the state Division of Marine Fisheries on management of multiple fish species. She said working for a regulatory agency initially made forging relationships with industry people a bit harder. 

More recently, she left her job just before the COVID-19 pandemic to start her own business, where she works as a consultant for fishing industry groups, wind companies and other bodies (such as the local fisheries council) on management questions regarding New England fish stocks. 

O'Keefe said the biggest complaint she hears from fishermen is that they don't feel heard.

"They're asking a lot of questions, raising a lot of concerns, and there's a lot of validity to the things they say," she said. "[Offshore wind] is a huge impact, it's a huge change for them to deal with... but I think there are ways we can do it in both the science and management communities that we ensure we hear what the fishermen's concerns are."

Even when they don't have the answers, she said researchers and analysts should prioritize the industry's questions in future research.   

A lack of trust or unclear communication leads to difficult relationships, she said, so it is important to just sit and listen. These days, her job takes her mostly to her home office desk, but she said she tries to maintain connections by attending management meetings and talking face-to-face with local captains, crew or company managers.

"I sit behind a computer and analyze data and try to make some results that can lead to recommendations, but these guys are on the water every day. They see first hand, they understand what's happening with climate, they understand what's happening with shifts in species distribution," O'Keefe said. 

Ford said communication is important and that people matter in the management process.

"I think there's a lot of reason for some of the distrust that's out there. And the only mechanism I know of to really address it is communication," she said. "So early and often, as much as we can, being transparent to the extent that we can, and doing the best we can as managers to pull the curtain back and let people see."

She said the management process can be complicated between many meetings and very long documents, but that the feedback people provide regarding concerns they have does influence the process and can be "really valuable." 

The future of fisheries science 

As an analyst, O'Keefe has climate change on her radar. 

"It is an extreme challenge," she said, noting they're seeing changes to fisheries that they haven't seen before. "We're trying to understand actual causation. Is it temperature, is it ocean acidification?"

She said researchers have seen changes in species distribution, productivity, spawning and mortality that they cannot fully explain. The lack of certainty at present makes setting future policy more difficult, she said, as it's harder to determine the risk and impact to fish stocks.  

"One thing that's been difficult across the board is our ability to project. Everything is pretty short term," O'Keefe said. "Historically, I think we had a more stable understanding of climate and could project more years." 

Part of Ford's new role is leading teams to continue providing data that is "crucial" to monitoring and understanding climate change. 

"A real headline right now is how quickly the Gulf of Maine is warming," she said. "Part of the reason we know that is because there are temperature sensors on the bottom of trawl nets, dredges, lobster pots. That data is then processed to understand how the temperature is increasing over time. That information is very important."

Climate change: Study shows impact of climate change on fishing economy

Ford, who has a doctorate in oceanography, said while scientists have learned and discovered so much about the ocean, a lot of unknowns remain. 

"We're still in the infancy of ocean science," she said. "It's just so hard to collect this information and so resource intensive, it takes a lot of time and a lot of money."

"Are we really going to push things past a point where we see major biomass declines? Or are things going to keep up?" Ford said. "It's an exciting time to be doing this work in part because so much change is happening."

This is the third story in a series highlighting the many roles women play in SouthCoast fisheries — be it harvesting, processing, research, support services or advocacy. If there is a woman you would like to see highlighted, email reporter Anastasia E. Lennon at alennon@s-t.com. You can follow her on Twitter at @aelennon1. Support local journalism by purchasing a digital or print subscription to The Standard-Times today.

Adblock test (Why?)