Conducting scientific research to support sustainable fishing, farming, aquaculture and renewable energy.
What's new at CFF?
11 / 22 /2022
Our very own research biologist and HABCam project lead, Tasha O’Hara, is featured on @noaafisheries new video “What Does it Take to be a Fisheries Observer in the Northeast?” Discussing her own experience as an observer. To see the full video and to find out more about the Northeast observer program, visit fisheries.noaa.gov/new-England-mid-Atlantic/fisheries-observers/fisheries-monitoring-operations-northeast
10 / 31 /2022
We hope you had a safe and festive Halloween! Our trainers had fun dressing up with the current ASM class, shark slides and all!
10 / 17 /2022
There was an awesome turnout at the Wellfleet Oyster Festival over the weekend! Big thanks to everyone who stopped by, checked out our activities and donated. If you missed out but you still want to sponsor a scallop, just email tags@cfarm.org for more information! A great gift for anyone!
10 / 3 /2022
Our marine surveys and offshore wind project is designed to evaluate the impacts of offshore wind development on commercial fish species and benthic habitats and communities using a suite of state-of-the-art, non-lethal survey methods including an open cod-end video trawl, a towed off-bottom optical survey vehicle, and anchored and ropeless stationary camera systems.
Surveys will be conducted before, during, and after wind farm construction to provide data on changes in commercial fish and marine invertebrate abundance and distribution, and the relationship of both to habitat changes, the presence of new structures (turbine bases), and changing underwater noise levels.
Through use of multiple non-lethal optical survey methods, this project will provide a holistic view of the habitats and communities that may be impacted by offshore wind development off Massachusetts and Rhode Island. In addition, automated detectors for twenty-four fish and invertebrate species, chosen because of their economic importance to the region, will be developed using the imagery collected during the surveys.
Project efforts will result in a new methodological framework for monitoring marine species in wind farms using optical surveys, including preferred survey designs, freely available automated detectors and image sets for training new machine learning algorithms, and schematics for any new gear designs.
9/ 9 /2022
The first trip of the 2022 seasonal survey returned last week. This long-term project began back in 2011 with the goal of optimizing the harvest of scallops while minimizing impacts to flatfish stocks. The project has since grown to encompass many different aspects (find out more on our website!). Huge thanks to the captain and crew of FV Regulus for all their help!
8/26/2022
As part of CFF's work on leatherback sea turtles and bioacoustics, a combination of AMX tags affixed to the turtles and a sparker will be used to test the impact of impulsive sounds on leatherback at-sea behavior. The team, lead by Samir, went offshore recently to run the sparker to calibrate the hydrophones on the tags. Tags will be deployed on leatherbacks over the coming months - check back for updates!
Turtle/tag photo: @noaafisheries Heather Haas
8/18/2022
Our annual HabCam v3 survey recently wrapped up. The team, lead by research biologist Tasha O’Hara, managed to cover over 1200nm in the Mid-Atlantic from Block Island to the New York Bight Closure and in Georges Bank from Nantucket Lightship South, Southern Flank and Closed Area 2. They found strong recruitment and are looking forward to sharing their results at the upcoming PDT meeting later this month!
The team also made sure their gumby suits were in working order. And they looked great doing it! 🦞
SUSTAINING SEA SCALLOPS -
A DOCUMENTARY FILM
Our feature film, Sustaining Sea Scallops, is now available online! Check out the promo clip here.
Watch the full documentary to learn how the collaborative research model embraced by CFF helped a flagging scallop fishing industry rebound.
HELP CFF'S WORK IN SUPPORT OF LOCAL FISHERS AND FARMERS IN OUR REGION WHEN YOU SHOP
Designate CFF as your charity at Smile Amazon and support our research every time you shop! Click the image above to visit Coonamessett Farm Foundation's Amazon Smile page.
Coonamessett Farm Foundation
Physical: 233 Hatchville Road
Mailing: 277 Hatchville Road
East Falmouth, MA 02536
Tel: (508) 356-3601
Fax: (508) 356-3603
12 / 07 /2022
We visited the United States Maritime Resource Center in Middletown, RI to see the Orsted Wind Farm Simulator. Some of our researches got to see first hand what navigating through a wind farm (Revolution Wind) might look like. In the simulation they were able to change the weather conditions and time of day!
Tori, Natalie, Tasha, Luisa (pictured), and Liese were joined by members of Orsted, Vineyard Wind, Eversource and Regent Craft on this exciting day.
