Like grouper? Ocean gliders could help Lowcountry fishermen net more

They look like torpedoes.

Yellow torpedoes, about the size of a person, 5 feet, 5 inches long, 120 pounds.

When they go on a month-long mission — like they soon will off Beaufort County’s coast — they surface every few hours to call home, transmit data and request further instructions.

Gliders, or underwater autonomous vehicles, from the University of Georgia Skidaway Institute of Oceanography’s new glider network will soon move through South Carolina waters taking temperature and salinity readings, and listen for fish behavior. Researchers say glider data could help fishermen increase their hauls, among other things. The network will be the first regularly funded program of its kind in the region, according to the institute. It will span an area of the Atlantic Ocean from Florida to North Carolina through which the gliders will cruise at a leisurely pace.

“They move slowly, about 35 centimeters a second, which is kind of like a walking pace,” network director Catherine Edwards said Tuesday.

Edwards spoke from Mississippi’s Gulf coast, where she is readying two similar gliders to study the lingering effects of the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The Atlantic gliders will operate in coastal waters from West Palm Beach, Fla., to Cape Hatteras, N.C., the area known as the South Atlantic Bight.

The first mission into the bight will launch in mid-August when two gliders will deploy from Florida and join another to be launched from Georgia as they work their way north toward the Carolinas, she said. They will use “passive acoustic” microphones to gauge such things as grouper hunting and spawning behavior. They will identify and track migratory patterns of previously tagged fish. And they will collect data about “bottom temperature,” something particularly useful for fisherman.

“One of the big things, if you’re a fisherman, is maps of temperature and salinity,” she said. “Often times you find species of interest near (weather) fronts. ... The bottom temperature may indicate zones of higher productivity, which may indicate higher populations of fish.”

Bottom temperature data is highly desirable for fisheries managers, according to Debra Hernandez, executive director of the Southeast Coastal Ocean Observing Regional Association, or SECOORA.

The association, which is funding the glider network with a five-year, $750,000 grant, is a member of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Integrated Ocean Observing System. Glider data, Hernandez said, will complement high-frequency radar and buoy data and provide real-time information for NOAA weather models. It also might help fisheries understand how populations are affected by water conditions and weather, not just overfishing.

And gliders will monitor for dissolved oxygen and look for conditions that could lead to fish die-offs, Edwards said.

While the gliders will complement preexisting SECOORA observation tools, they’ll also expand the organization’s coverage area. There are “gaps” in SECOORA’s data net, Hernandez said.

A SECOORA-funded buoy sits off Fripp Island, but the other two closest SECOORA buoys are in Charleston and Jacksonville, she said. While there are other NOAA operated buoys in the area, SECOORA’s are closer to shore, between 10 and 35 miles out. Gliders will cover the areas between those buoys, which could lead to better weather forecasts, marine conditions reports and understanding about the ocean.

The glider network is not just a research project, Hernandez said. It’s a project that will provide practical, instantly usable data.

“We know more about the moon than the ocean,” she said

That real-time data can be used in classroom to teach kids about the ocean and weather, Edwards said, adding that the grant funding should allow for three to five missions per year. And while it benefits folks who make their living on the water, the rest of us will see the effects.

“The benefit to the fisheries extends to the general public,” she said.

“I mean, I like to eat grouper.”

This story was originally published July 6, 2016 at 11:11 AM with the headline "Like grouper? Ocean gliders could help Lowcountry fishermen net more."