Marine Organisms Observed During The NOAA NMFS Spring and Fall Groundfish Surveys
INTRODUCTION
Joe Kunkel participated in 27 NOAA Groundfish Surveys from 1998 to 2022 during which he served as Volunteer Scientist in sorting and analyzing bottom trawl hauls of marine organisms including vertebrates and invertebrates brought to the surface in 20 minute standard trawls in randomly chosen locations on the coastal waters of the Northeast USA and Canada. Joe primarily participated in legs III and IV which ranged from waters off NJ, LI, RI, CT, MA, ME USA and NB Canada. Images for those survey legs taken by Joe are found as links from the following link: Kunkel Fish and Aquatic Invert Site. Many, but not all, of the observations have been registered on iNaturalist and commented on by INat members to augment the original preliminary identifications made aboard ship.
METHODS
Volunteer Duties: Volunteer and NOAA professionals cooperated in processing trawls of organisms at about 100 randomly chosen sites where a 20 minute standard trawl was carried out. The catch was initially sorted into target species of the survey and off survey species to be just recorded/saved as environment food items to be identified.
Photography: While the Watch Chief him/herself would take images of particular specimens that were to be referred to NMFS specialists on-shore, Joe Kunkel took private images of specimens that crossed his experience on-board and often taken when he was off-duty and observing the activity of the other shift. He typically used a Nikon D40 camera with a 50 mm lens and occasionally closeup extenders.
Data Processing: Data from NMFS on the locations and geophysical properties of the trawl sites were available from the database of NMFS subsequent to its submission and processing on land.
