Principal Investigator: Conor McManus (RI DEM)

Collaborators: Jason McNamee (RI DEM), Rich Bell (TNC), Chris McGuire (TNC), Jeremy Collie (URI GSO), and Chris Brown (RICFA)

Funding Source: U.S. Fish and Wildlife State Wildlife Grant

This project will use a collaborative research approach to analyze fisheries-dependent data on windowpane flounder caught in the Southern New England. The primary purpose of this project will be to analyze trip and catch information from video data collected on commercial fishing

trips to understand local populations of windowpane flounder. Video monitoring data from three Rhode Island fishermen’s trips will be analyzed to understand relative abundance, size structure, and habitat associations for windowpane flounder. This project will synthesize data from this video system, and compare data to other fisheries-dependent and independent datasets within Southern New England to evaluate similarities and differences between the data sources and methodologies. Data products from this work will be available to inform management processes for the Northeast Multispecies Fisheries Management Plan in the context of the windowpane flounder’s impact on the program and accountability area controls.