The North of Smokey-Inverness South Fishermen's Association to Manage the Sentinel Survey Project in the Gulf in 2008

The North of Smokey-Inverness South Fishermen's Association will be participating in the Sentinel Survey Project in the Gulf Region for another year.

The Sentinel Survey involves limited removals from the stocks for the purpose of collecting biological data. As stated in DFO's 'Sampling Protocols for Sentinel Surveys-Longlines in The Southern Gulf of St. Lawrence,' booklet," the primary object of the survey is to collect information on the trends in the stocks(i.e. whether stocks are increasing or decreasing) but the information collected is also useful to study the distribution, migration, conditions, maturity stages of fish as well as collecting information on water temperature."

"The species of interest of the Sentinel Surveys are those for which the commercial fishery is closed or limited."

Fishing Operations

Each longline vessel must complete 14 fishing trips year over the season with a maximum of 2 fishing trips in a week. A minimum of two trips per month is required beginning in July for the northern areas. A minumum of 1250 and a maximum of 2500 hooks per fishing trip will be divided equally between two sites.

Regions covered

The areas studied in our region included Offshore Cape St. Lawrence, Bay St. Lawrence, Pleasant Bay and three areas in St. Georges Bay

The Captains participating in the Sentinel Survey 2008 have many years of experience.

2008 Captains

William K. Murphy
Anthony Guthro
John A. Buchanan
Danny Usifer
Scott Cameron

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