CFF participated in a virtual workshop focused on reducing seabird bycatch in commercial gillnet, longline, and trawl fisheries. The virtual meeting, sponsored by the Trilateral Bycatch Working Group and the Atlantic Marine Bird Cooperative, took place on February 11-12, 2026. More than 120 scientists, managers, and fishermen attended from North, Central, and South America and Europe.
CFF played a key role in the meeting, with our current project “Investigation of baiting practices on catch and bycatch in gillnets and design of an effective outreach program to minimize seabird bycatch” serving as a model for effective collaboration with fishermen and promotion of bycatch reduction methods. CFF led the session on Bycatch Reduction Promotion Methods, with help from our project collaborators at the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance (CCCFA) and two of the fishermen who participated in the project...
Winter Signals from Eastern Georges Bank: January Cruise
The January 2026 cruise of CFF’s Seasonal Survey documented several notable winter observations across eastern Georges Bank, including continued increases in juvenile haddock abundance, a marked rise in northern sea robin, and the capture of a rarely observed torpedo ray. Scallop catches were lower relative to previous years...
2/17
2024 Final Report Available: RSA Seasonal Survey
The Coonamessett Farm Foundation (CFF) Seasonal Survey team, Luisa Garcia, Natalie Jennings, Farrell Davis, and Liese Siemann, has completed the final report for the 2024 Sea Scallop Research Set-Aside Program. The project, Seasonal Survey for the Atlantic Sea Scallop Fishery on the Eastern Part of Georges Bank, builds on...
2/12
Press Feature: Inside 'Sea Turtle Biology and Behavoir'
CFF’s Mid-Atlantic sea turtle research was recently highlighted in an article by Gabriel Stephenson (SERC/ACT Network). The article explores how the project has evolved from reducing sea turtle bycatch in the offshore scallop fishery into a highly collaborative research effort using telemetry, biological sampling, and...
2/10
Our feature film, Sustaining Sea Scallops, is now available online! Watch the full documentary to learn how the collaborative research model embraced by CFF helped a flagging scallop fishing industry rebound.
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