TIMES RECORD • July 25, 2024
In 2012, local fishermen, tournament directors and scientists teamed up to pursue a common goal: data collection. Now, commercial tuna stocks, once depleted by overfishing, are on the rebound thanks to new management proposals informed by data from the University of Maine at Orono’s Pelagic Fisheries Lab. Blaise Jenner, a team member and scientist at the Maine Department of Marine Resources, is studying bluefin foraging ecology. He said that stomach samples from local tournaments play a key role in identifying the species’ diet, informing a management framework to better protect predator and prey.