$15 million federal grant will fund fishing tech projects

A “third eye” camera for groundfishermen and autonomous robots for lobstermen. That’s, in part, what a group of New England commercial fishing advocates, oceanographic researchers and tech companies hope to build with a $15 million federal grant.

The goal of the U.S. National Science Foundation funding, awarded in late July, is to help commercial fishermen catch better, healthier fish and bolster the region’s seafood industry from harvest to processing.

Researchers will use some of the money to further develop a camera system that allows captains and crews to see what’s swimming into their nets, before it is hauled onto the deck. The innovation could mean the difference between a net full of bycatch — fish that crews don’t want, because they’re heavily regulated, or can’t keep — and a harvest that makes money.

Other parts of the federal grant will be spent to develop autonomous robots to detect environmental conditions underwater that could lead to bringing up traps filled with dead lobsters.

The awardees also plan to use the money to figure out how to strengthen the processing side of the seafood industry, said Jake Kritzer, executive director for the Northeastern Regional Association of Coastal Ocean Observing Systems — the organization leading the group awarded the grant — in an interview with The Light.

Robots and a ‘third eye’ for commercial fishing

Figuring out what exactly is swimming into a fishing vessel’s net can be difficult. Catching certain species that a crew isn’t intending to net can sometimes lead a fishing boat to go over its regulated species quota.

But what if groundfishermen had a “third eye” of sorts that could allow them to see what’s flowing into their nets?

Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth’s School for Marine Science and Technology (SMAST) will use some of that federal funding to develop those systems.

“If you had this camera system going in the net, not only could you have a screen on deck so that the captain could see what was going on,” SMAST Dean Kevin Stokesbury said, adding that the data could also be stored in a secure system.

Recorded data means more information for captains and observers — paid scientists aboard boats that make sure fishing regulations are being followed.

“Especially if there’s any dispute between the two,” Stokesbury said.

Bycatch isn’t the only issue commercial fishing crews are facing. Environmental factors can lead lobster vessels to a less-than-optimal catch.

The Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance is focused on developing autonomous robots to detect adverse conditions — like high temperatures and “pockets of low dissolved oxygen,” according to Kritzer.

Those pockets, also known as “hypoxia,” develop with the overgrowth of certain algae, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“That can mean that a trap comes up full of dead lobsters,” Kritzer said.

What happens when vessels bring back the catch is a separate part of the supply chain that the federal grant will also look to address. And it comes with its own set of issues.

Processing moves out of New England

Jobs in New England’s seafood processing industry have declined and moved overseas, Kritzer said.

That decline has hit New Bedford too. At least 150 local seafood processing jobs have been lost since 2023, The Light has reported.

Kritzer said figuring out how to revitalize that side of the commercial fishing industry is tricky.

“It’s one thing to try to support and even boost an existing and strong harvest sector,” Kritzer said. “It’s a different thing to really try to rebuild in many ways, a processing sector that over time has kind of left the region.”

Half a million dollars of the federal funds are earmarked for “supply chain roadmapping.”

It’ll be spent to figure out just how much of the region’s seafood processing industry has declined — and how that part of the industry can be rebuilt.

“It’s gone overseas where things can be processed more cheaply, and at higher volume, and we want to try to bring that back,” Kritzer said.

But the problem is hard to remedy without knowing the full extent of the region’s decline.

“There are likely some useful data out there with NOAA and state agencies,” he said. “But I don’t think anyone’s done the sort of comprehensive analysis we’re aiming to do.”

New Bedford has seen some of that decline in recent years, The Light reported.

Blue Harvest Fisheries closed its processing center in 2023, which left 64 people without jobs. And True North Seafood shuttered in 2024, laying off as many as 94 people.

“If we really want to kind of boost the seafood industry, there’s only so much we can do at the very start of the supply chain,” Kritzer said. “This is kind of exciting, but a little bit uncharted territory, to start moving across the rest of the supply chain.”

Money for ‘risk adverse’ times

The NSF grant will include projects that incorporate classic research work. But it’ll also be used to build an “innovation ecosystem,” according to Kritzer.

That ecosystem can be helpful in an industry that is usually innovative, but which has slowed down in recent years.

Now, “because of some of the economic struggle that it’s facing right now, it’s also a fairly risk-adverse industry,” Kritzer said.

Another risk: How do you dole out $15 million in public money?

“This is not a fishery that I think has the kind of capital that it can try something untested,” Kritzer said. “But it means that now we, as stewards of public resources, are incurring that risk.”

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This story was originally published by The New Bedford Light and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.