**Fisheries Abstract**

**Minnesota Sea Grant**

**Strategic Plan 2003-2008**

A goal of the Minnesota Sea Grant program is to encourage
multidisciplinary, integrated solutions that incorporate good science
with economic, societal, and political concerns. Within this context,
and within our funding constraints, for 2003 to 2008 we will be focusing
on various priorities within the following ten \"thematic areas:\"

1.  Aquaculture **-**
    <http://www.sga.seagrant.org/pdf/tt_aquaculture.pdf>

2.  Biotechnology -
    <http://www.sga.seagrant.org/pdf/tt_biotechnology.pdf>

3.  Coastal Communities -
    <http://www.sga.seagrant.org/pdf/tt_coastal_communities.pdf>

4.  Coastal Natural Hazards -
    <http://www.sga.seagrant.org/pdf/tt_hazards.pdf>

5.  Digital Oceans **-**
    <http://www.sga.seagrant.org/pdf/tt_digital_oceans.pdf>

6.  Ecosystems and Habitats **-**
    <http://www.sga.seagrant.org/pdf/tt_ecosystems.pdf>

7.  Marine and Aquatic Science Literacy **-**
    <http://www.sga.seagrant.org/pdf/tt_fisheries.pdf>

8.  Fisheries **-** <http://www.sga.seagrant.org/pdf/tt_fisheries.pdf>

9.  Urban Coasts **-**
    <http://www.sga.seagrant.org/pdf/tt_urban_coasts.pdf>

10. Seafood Science and Safety **-**
    <http://www.sga.seagrant.org/pdf/tt_seafood_tech.pdf>

# Aquaculture

Goal: Identify the most pressing needs in aquaculture related to the
coastal, marine, and Great Lakes waters of the United States and develop
an appropriate research and outreach program addressing those needs.
This goal includes:

• Fostering an environmentally-sound and economically-viable aquaculture
industry.

• Expanding aquatic animal product utilization.

• Facilitating formulation of aquaculture public policy.

• Exploring non-food fish aquaculture to improve economic viability of
northern aquaculture.

Challenge:

Aquaculture can provide fish for bait, ornamental use, feeder fish,
stocking, and food, and can reduce dependence on wild harvested
populations, but aquaculture in northern climates has not met
expectations. Aquaculture can also have negative environmental impacts.
One of Sea Grant's challenges is to develop and promote
environmentally-acceptable and economically viable aquaculture
techniques, especially for northern climates. Fish producers in northern
climates could profit from better biological and business management
tools. There is also a need to assess the environmental impacts of
organisms currently being cultured, as well as those that may be
developed through genetic engineering. Given that wild harvest seafood
landings will likely show little or no growth in the foreseeable future,
many countries are looking at aquaculture as a means to increase their
seafood production. As a consequence, while the percentage of total U.S.
seafood consumption coming from aquaculture has continued to rise over
the last several years, the bulk of the increase has come from higher
imports. U.S. aquaculture presently supplies less than 10% of the
nation\'s seafood needs. In most cases, the rising level of imports has
also been accompanied by declining prices. Some of the imports are
products that compete with our wild seafood harvest, but over the last
several years there have been numbers of occasions when rising levels of
imports have helped to drive down prices for domestic aquaculture
producers. Unless innovative and sustainable U.S. aquaculture techniques
are developed to address this competition, our trade deficit in seafood,
which is approximately \$7 billion and second only to oil, will worsen.

Therefore there is interest in aquaculture research targeted to improve
performance traits in economically important species. There is also a
need to address the impacts aquaculture has on the environment and the
impact environmental contaminants can have on aquaculture operations.
New technologies need to be developed to improve treatment of
aquaculture effluent. Finally, the effects of exposure of cultured fish
to endocrine-disrupting chemical contaminants need to be evaluated in
order for the aquaculture industry to be environmentally-sound and
economically-viable.

Research Priorities and Emerging Issues:

• Develop genetically-modified organisms to enhance aquaculture
viability.

• Develop environmental risk assessment approaches for
genetically-modified fish in aquaculture facilities.

• Develop aquaculture techniques for species that are currently
harvested from the wild or are at or beyond sustainable production
levels.

• Develop new technology to improve the economic viability and
sustainability of aquaculture.

• Investigate the key life cycles and nutritional requirements of
baitfish species that should be exploited for aquaculture.

• Improve feeding efficiency and feed cost-effectiveness through
nutritional analysis and identification of alternative nutrient sources,
especially using Minnesota grown plants.

• Develop improved, environmentally-sensitive technologies to treat
aquaculture effluent cost-effectively.

Identified Outreach Priorities:

• Construct cost-benefit analyses of producing different species in a
variety of culture operations

• Focus on low food chain species to reduce the dependence on the use of
fish meal in feeds.

• Develop public forums for the open discussion of the use of
genetically modified fish for human food

• Train Minnesota fish farmers and others about new technologies and
techniques for raising baitfish

• Inform Minnesota food fish producers about the opportunities for
marketing their product as Organically Grown.

# Biotechnology

Aquatic biodiversity in the U.S. has suffered dramatic and ongoing
declines. Of the remaining aquatic species, 27 percent of the fish fauna
is endangered, threatened, or of special concern; nearly 50 percent of
all mussel species are currently listed or proposed for listing as
threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act; and 67
percent of North America\'s crayfish species are rare or threatened.
Protection of this natural diversity at genetic, population, and species
levels is paramount. There is a need to develop and foster applications
of biotechnology in aquaculture and fisheries management that will not
adversely affect aquatic biodiversity.

Research Priorities and Emerging Issues:

-   Evaluate the effects of exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemical
    contaminants on growth, development, reproduction, pathology, and
    disease control in wild and cultured fish.

-   Explore mechanisms and sites of action of chemical contaminants on
    aquatic organisms.

-   Use new biotechnology techniques to determine genetics of
    economically important fish.

# Digital Oceans

Goal:

Build on work pioneered by Sea Grant to develop methods for creating
digital representations, or models, of aquatic resources and phenomena.
This goal includes:

-   Developing new technologies and new products that help us better
    understand and manage Great Lakes and coastal resources.

-   Applying technological advances to coastal, as well as inland,
    problems and needs.

-   Using technological advances to teach students and train
    professionals in aquatic resource management, particularly with
    regard to Great Lakes, marine, and coastal issues.

Remote sensing, real time data collection and analysis, wireless
telemetry from fixed instruments, better fish stock assessment tools,
... offer tremendous opportunities to improve fisheries management,
...just to name a few applications.

Research Priorities and Emerging Issues:

-   Use new technologies to assess fish stocks in the Great Lakes.

# Ecosystems and Habitats

Goal:

Design and implement a comprehensive research and outreach program to
promote a balance between economic growth and coastal resource quality
for healthy coastal communities and coastal ecosystems. This goal
includes:

-   Facilitating formulation of appropriate natural resources public
    policy.

-   Developing better qualitative and quantitative understanding of how
    coastal ecosystems and habitats function.

Research Priorities and Emerging Issues:

-   Develop better energetics modeling for the biotic communities in
    Lake Superior.

-   Provide more information on how individual fish species fit into the
    Lake Superior fish communities.

# Fisheries

Goal:

Identify the most pressing needs in fisheries science related to the
coastal and Great Lakes waters of the United States and develop a
research and outreach program aimed at prioritizing and addressing those
needs. This goal includes:

-   Developing a comprehensive curriculum to train emerging Great Lakes
    fishery leaders about the processes that influence fisheries
    management decisions, genetics, stocking, and native fish
    restoration.

-   Facilitating the activities and success of the Great Lakes Fishery
    Leaders, a cohort of individuals with the knowledge and skills to
    effectively mange Great Lakes fisheries issues.

-   Crafting educational materials that will complement fishery
    management objectives and assist recreational anglers fishing on
    Lake Superior.

Challenge:

Despite its cold temperatures and lack of nutrients, Lake Superior
supports both recreational and commercial fisheries. Lake Superior
supports the only naturally sustaining population of lake trout in the
Great Lakes and a unique subspecies of lake trout -- siscowet -- that
has achieved extremely high levels of abundance. Restoration of the
coaster brook trout and lake sturgeon are underway. Fisheries of the
Great Lakes and Minnesota will better serve economic and ecosystem goals
if we understand the potential implications of management decisions. We
must improve our knowledge of food web interactions in Lake Superior by
identifying the mechanisms and processes through which
recently-introduced species disrupt food webs; determining how these
mechanisms are affected by lake size and morphometry, climate, latitude,
and community composition; and forecasting how food webs in Lake
Superior will be structured when current aquatic nuisance species
colonizations have stabilized. The socio-economic impacts of fishery
management decisions need to be better understood.

The fisheries of Lake Superior have been manipulated for over a century,
beginning with stocking of rainbow and brown trout. In the 1960s Pacific
salmon were added to the lake. Invasive species have entered the mix as
well: sea lamprey, rainbow smelt, zebra mussels, Eurasian ruffe, round
and tubenose gobies, threespine sticklebacks, fourspine sticklebacks,
and spiny waterfleas now interact with and affect the commercial and
recreational fisheries of Lake Superior. Lake Superior\'s fishery has
diversified and improved tremendously during the last 25 years due to
stocking, natural reproduction, and lamprey control. The health of the
population has eliminated the need to stock lake trout in many areas of
the lake. Lake trout provide an excellent sport fishery and, in a few
parts of Lake Superior, a viable commercial fishery. The siscowet, an
extremely fat form of lake trout, has increased significantly throughout
Lake Superior and is many times more abundant than the lean lake trout.
Lake herring, nearly eliminated from the lake in the 1970s and 1980s,
have made a remarkable comeback and have produced several large year
classes. Lake whitefish commercial harvest over the last 15 years has
been higher than anytime since the late 1800s. Species currently
harvested commercially from Lake Superior include lake trout, whitefish,
herring, chubs (deepwater ciscoes), siscowet (deepwater lake trout), and
smelt. Both trout and salmon support a viable charter and recreational
fishing fleet that contribute significantly to the region\'s economy.

Research Priorities and Emerging Issues:

-   Develop predictive models of fish population dynamics.

-   Examine factors critical to coaster brook trout rehabilitation.

-   Examine factors critical to lake sturgeon rehabilitation.

-   Examine aquatic invasive species impacts on food web dynamics.

-   Determine sustainable fisheries harvest levels by species (sport and
    commercial).

-   Address charter-fishing industry needs.

-   Develop sustainable commercial fisheries.

-   Document changes in food web dynamics.

-   Locate and document all spawning grounds along the Minnesota North
    Shore.

Identified Outreach Priorities:

-   Put fisheries simulation models on a Web site so that interested
    commercial fishermen, anglers, environmentalist, teachers, students
    and others can explore how the Lake Superior fishery may change with
    changing management strategies.

-   Train skilled fisheries managers for the Great Lakes.

-   Train leaders of commercial fishing, recreational fishing, tribal,
    and environmental organizations in the science behind fishery and
    ecosystem management.

-   Publish all historical data on Lake Superior fisheries on a CD-ROM,
    DVD-ROM, or on the Web.

-   Provide information about Lake Superior predator-prey relationships
    and the impacts on commercial and recreational fishing of the
    introduction of predator fish.

# Seafood Science and Safety

Goal:

Develop research and outreach efforts to support the development and
marketing of seafood products that are safe for the environment,
healthy, and sustainable. This goal includes:

-   Expanding aquatic animal product utilization.

-   Helping consumers understand the health benefits and risks of
    consuming seafood.

-   Providing the seafood industry with information, techniques, and
    risk management principles for ensuring seafood safety.

Challenge:

Consuming fish and seafood benefits human health in many ways, yet the
incidence of illness attributed to seafood and elevated levels of
contaminants like mercury and PCBs remains a concern. Researchers
worldwide are working to develop transgenic strains of over 35 species
of fish and aquatic invertebrates including rainbow trout, salmon, carp,
shrimp, and tilapia; meanwhile, global fisheries are nearing or have
passed their sustainable catch rates. At the same time, some fish from
the Great Lakes are underutilized and still others receive prices well
below expected levels, given the demand for seafood products and our
current trade deficit.

Sea Grant seeks to better understand the benefits, as well as the human
health risks, of eating seafood. In Minnesota, research directed at
seafood market and product development (especially for siscowet lake
trout \-- a very fatty, deepwater species) has been identified as high
priority.

Research Priorities and Emerging Issues:

-   Develop better methods for detecting contaminated seafood, improving
    processing and depuration, increasing storage life, and controlling
    parasites and disease sources.

-   Determine health implications of omega fatty acids and fish oil
    supplements.

-   Determine potential uses, product development, and marketability of
    the siscowet trout and other nontraditional species.

Identified Outreach Priorities:

-   Describe the impacts of cultural habits of fish consumption,
    including preparation methods and quantities consumed.

-   Better describe environmental contaminant levels and fish
    advisories.

-   Conduct a synthesis workshop to explore the fishery management,
    product development, and marketing issues surrounding the
    development of a siscowet trout fishery for their oil or other use.