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Lynker Project Now Also Benefits At-Risk Community

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As this year’s bottomfish fishery-independent survey comes to a close, the fishermen participating in the survey have met the challenges of the pandemic to once again produce an incredibly robust data set. The bottomfish caught during the survey which are highly prized by local community are normally provided as bio-samples to the life history staff at the Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center for use in the fishery stock assessment, but only the otoliths (bones in the ears that can be used to determine age) and the gonads are all that is necessary for analysis while the fillets are discarded. In an effort to give back to the community in some small way, Lynker has piloted a program to donate the fillets from bottomfish bio-samples to help feed the local community, which has become a case study in ‘ohana’. 

Our first bottomfish donation (about 20 lbs of mixed opakapaka, ehu, kalekale and hapu’upu’u fillets) was caught on Nathan Abe’s boat, Ride On, while surveying off of the Big Island. The fish were shipped to Oahu, and delivered to Ashley Watts, owner of the sustainable seafood distribution non-profit, Local I’a (Local I’a | Community Supported Fishery | Hawaii). Ashley’s fish cutter, Rodel, then filleted the fish at the commercial kitchen Ashley shares with Ed Kenny’s (Ed Kenney) Mud Hen Water restaurant and donated to Ka’iulani Odom, program manager for  Kokua Kalihi Valley  which provides meals and organic produce to local at-risk seniors (among many other groups).

This level of cooperation serves as a reminder of the connectedness of communities in the Islands, and that we really are “all in this together”. Many thanks to the cooperative research fishers, the Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center’s lead, Ben Richards, and the Pacific Islands Fisheries Group’s Clay Tam for supporting this pilot as well as Local I’a and Kokua Kalihi Valley for their inspirational commitment to the community. 

Ashley Watts (Local I’a) and Ka’iulani Odom (KKV) with the donated bottomfish fillets (above), Ashley Watts holds a donated Opakapaka while Rodel processes the donated fish (right)

“Great job! Forest ties to the project in terms of benefits beyond the science is huge in putting this project at a whole different level from others. As benefits from the project go direct to helping /feeding our island community! ” – Clay Tam.

Lynker’s Port Coordinator, Forest O’Neill, with a nice Opakapaka!

Fall 2020 Bottomfish Fishery-Independent Survey in Hawaii Earning Praise

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The coronavirus pandemic has placed enormous pressure on all aspects of the Hawaiian community. In addition to the personal health and economic toll, it has hamstrung NOAA’s ability to perform annual surveys using their large research vessels to collect mission critical data. One such project is the survey of our local bottomfish resources. Normally, the 224 foot NOAA R/V Oscar Elton Sette would perform a significant share of the survey mission, but due to the unique challenges created by COVID-19, this mission (as most others nationally) has been cancelled.

In addition to the work done from the Sette, local bottomfishers, contracted through Lynker and our partner Pacific Islands Fisheries Group (PIFG), conduct hook-and-line sampling using a sampling design developed with PIFSC scientists. In a typical year, these cooperative research fishers conduct two-thirds of the overall sampling. This year they have stepped up to the plate and are conducting 100% of the sampling.
These small, open-deck fishing vessels, crewed by a small number of people, represent a much safer alternative to the large NOAA Ship. Nevertheless, all parties are taking every precaution to make sampling as safe as possible. Crews work as isolated units, self-evaluations with temperature checks are conducted each morning prior to departure, and masks are worn at all times.

While this partnership with the local community has always been important, this year it has been absolutely critical to the continued success of the survey. The effort has caught the attention of NOAA leadership, earning praise from Regional PIFSC Administrator Mike Seki, and Rear Admiral Tim Gallaudet, the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere / Deputy NOAA Administrator, and serves as a model for successful operations during these increasingly challenging times.

As in years past, this data will be incorporated into the Main Hawaiian Islands Deep7 Bottomfish Stock Assessment, used by managers to set commercial catch limits for the fishery.

This successful effort has been led by a collaboration between NOAA’ Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, the Pacific Islands Fisheries Group cooperative, and Lynker. Lynker’s Project Manager, Forest O’Neill, has led our company’s collaboration with PIFSC, PIFG, and the outstanding vessel crews and observers in our collective efforts to complete this year’s survey in and around the main Hawaiian Islands.

Photo Caption: Capt. Mike Abe and crew member Riki Hun of F/V Ao Shibi IV with the day’s biosamples, four opakapaka, a lehi, and a hapuupuu. August 15, 2020 off Big Island, Hawaii (Photo by Lynker/PIFG observer Gary Shirakata).

 

Emergency Maintenance Under a Bridge, At Night, in a Pandemic

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On April 12, 2020, strong storms rolled through the Charleston, South Carolina area with wind gusts around 40 miles per hour. The next day, Lynker, working with NOAA’s Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services, was notified that the battery voltage of the NOAA air gap sensor under the Ravenel bridge was dropping and not renewing during the day. The sensor measures the distance between low steel obstructions to the water surface to ensure safe ship clearance under the bridge.

The sensor is strictly solar powered. It was clear an emergency maintenance trip to replace the solar panels was needed. Planning a repair during a pandemic required more time and coordination.  The team developed a more robust way to anchor the solar panels to the sensor.

Even under non-pandemic circumstances, to work on the Ravenel Bridge requires completely closing the road lane next to the station. The city doesn’t allow lane closures until after 9:00PM EST to minimize city impacts. The team put together the new solar tower during the day and worked through the night installing the tower, replacing old equipment, rerunning cables, and adding new antennas for a variety of satellite connections.

Thanks to our amazing staff, the Ravenel Bridge sensor is back and better than before.

Storyboarding for the Perfect Visualization

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These days, video is quickly becoming the most popular medium. However, making a great video is no easy task. Michael (Mike) Pai, working with NOAA’s Office for Coastal Management, makes it look easy. He works with project teams to distill the message, storyboard the content, and put it all into an appealing package.

While the process sounds simple, it can be very complex. Mike starts out finessing the message to determine the medium: “fast draw” video (which he hand draws himself!), animations, or a more traditional video of images and clips. The creation of each type of video takes layers of visual and audio components, perfectly timed, to get all the pieces to come together and make magic. Check out Mike’s fast draw videos highlighting the dangers of storm surge, the coral reef economy, or his video showcasing the wonders of America’s coasts.

Lynker Wins NOAA NEFSC Contract!

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Lynker won 2 NOAA Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) contracts!

The Lynker Team is excited to support the NEFSC Fisheries Monitoring and Research Division (FMRD), including the Fisheries Sampling Branch’s (FSB) Northeast Fisheries Observer Program (NEFOP). Lynker also won as a subcontractor on a Woman Owned Small Business (WOSB) contract to support data services, analysis, administration and management at the NEFSC FMRD.

Under these awards, Lynker employees will focus on the collection, processing, and management of fishery data and utilization of industry platforms to obtain data on fish biology, environmental variables, and socioeconomic factors in support of stock assessments and ecosystem-based fishery management. Activities will also support at-sea observer and monitoring operations aboard commercial vessels and at shoreside facilities, training and certification of observers and monitors, data quality and management activities, and advancement of new technologies to support these activities.

Lynker Wins Award to Continue Supporting NOAA’s MBNMS!

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Lynker is thrilled to receive an award for a 4-year contract to support NOAA’s Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary (MBNMS). This win is a continuation of our support to MBNMS, having won the previous 5-year contract.

Designated in 1992, MBNMS is a federally protected marine area offshore of California’s central coast. It is one of our nation’s largest marine sanctuaries, larger than Yellowstone and Yosemite National Parks combined. We are honored to continue supporting MBNMS and protecting this underwater treasure!

Our service to MBNMS involves assisting sanctuary managers and staff with a variety of functions related to resource protection and government and community relations in Monterey. We also support MBNMS’ visitor center operations at the Coastal Discovery Center (CDC) in San Simeon, CA and Sanctuary Exploration Center (SEC) in Santa Cruz.
The CDC provides interpretation, education, and outreach about natural and cultural resources in coastal California, from Cambria to Big Sur. The SEC is the premiere visitor center for MBNMS and affiliated with the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation, a non-profit partner of the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries.

Check out this video made by Lynker’s Nick Ingram which highlights our work at the Sanctuary Exploration Center: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dwf9-km_FnxGg_mjs8c1kr3bS-4KPY3P/view

Lynker Wins GARFO IT Support Contract!

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Lynker won the re-compete of our Greater Atlantic Fisheries Regional Office (GARFO) IT
Support contract. This continues our support of this important office and is
a direct result of our staff and their dedication to the success of GARFO. Our efforts support
the GARFO Technology and Data Management (TDM) division, which is responsible for providing
technical support for approximately 250 internal and many external customers (fisheries
management councils, states, other fishery management groups, and commercial fishing
industry users). Our data management, web development, mobile application development,
and help desk staff supports all of GARFO’s sites on the Eastern Seaboard Maine to North
Carolina and external customers in the fishing management and fishing communities.

Contending with COVID: Lynker Innovates to Address the Coronavirus and Help the Recovery of the Hawaiian Longline Fishery to “Business as Usual”

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The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged Hawaii and especially local commercial fisheries, an important component of the state and regional economy. The Hawaiian Longline fleet has been hit especially hard, given the reduced demand for fish from restaurants and markets in Hawaii as well as the US mainland and abroad. Mandatory quarantine and social distancing have also introduced uncertainty in how best to address crew safety and health, as well as that of Federal fisheries observers, who serve as guests aboard fishing vessels at sea to record catch and protected species interactions. 

On March 25, 2020 NOAA Fisheries issued an emergency action to waive observer coverage on a case by case basis for the Pacific Islands Regional Observer Program (PIROP) in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. For Lynker’s fisheries observers this meant an abrupt hiatus in work. Typically, Lynker has between 25-35 observer deployments at sea on any given day. With the fishery itself suddenly restricted to a few boats going out to sea, we were all, for about two months, ‘dead in the water’. 

But where there is adversity there is innovation, and Lynker – the US Federal government’s provider of fisheries observers in the Pacific region under NOAA – has taken a proactive approach in putting into place protocols to address the Federal compliance requirement for observer coverage on longline fishing trips. The pandemic has also given us an opportunity to deepen our relationships with NOAA and the fleet, which includes collaborating with the Federal Pacific Islands Regional Observer Program (PIROP) and the Hawaii Longline Association (HLA) in the development of standard operating procedures, protocols, and best practices to allow our protected species observers to safely and confidently return to work. We continue to be proactive and forward-thinking in how we support the invaluable PIROP mission, ensuring NOAA has reliable, timely fisheries and protected species interaction data from the longline and shallow set commercial fishing fleet to support the scientific research and sustainable management of our nation’s living marine resources in the PIR. 

Lynker has integrated rigorous actions to helping prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the fishery and protect the health of our observers returning to work. These include mandatory quarantine for employees returning to Hawaii from the Mainland or elsewhere, social distancing where possible, company-paid personal protective equipment (PPE), and 100% covered pre- and post-trip screening and testing – all in compliance with CDC and Hawaii State Department of Health guidance.

 We are also working in conjunction with HLA to complement their ongoing efforts in monitoring the health and safety of vessel crews. We have incorporated social distancing guidelines and PPE into our pre-trip vessel safety inspections. Prior to placement, and upon return, observers are screened for elevated temperature and whether they have experienced covid-like symptoms or know anyone who has.

Our combined efforts will result help safeguard not only the health of observers and fishers, but enable the fishery to restore to full capacity – critical for the economic recovery of the region.

Lynker also developed a web-based application to enable our observer and port coordinators who assist in the vessel placement – to capture real-time data from the mandatory boat safety inspection using a tablet which leverages Google Apps (Forms, Sheets, Gmail) and facilitates the real-time transmission of data, photos, and video from the boat to Federal supervisors for instant review and approval. Our app has greatly improved the safety inspection process, improved consistency of the observer data captured, and provided a value-add in enabling the capture and association of visual information with the trip record. These images are invaluable in assessing the actual condition of safety equipment onboard while also facilitating the current need for social distancing. 

In addition, Lynker is collaborating with the Federal government to deploy Garmin InReach devices with at-sea observers. The InReach technology significantly reduces the cost while also increasing the speed and reliability of daily communications (currently performed via satellite phone). InReach will not only facilitate the rapid reporting of potential health issues, it will also enhance the quality, consistency, and richness of at sea observation in real time. 

Lynker values our employees, and is providing health coverage for our staff – including our observer workforce – affected by “Shelter In Place” orders. Our proactive approach will also expedite testing and rapid medical attention to any employee exhibiting coronavirus symptoms or have reason to believe they may be infected with COVID. 

 Never before has PIROP or the Hawaii longline fishery faced such challenges. Lynker’s trust relationships with our observer employees and vessel operators, captains, and crew have enabled us to rapidly respond, mobilize, and get our observers back to work in a safe, virus-free environment. Our COVID-19 Recovery Plan has also received notice from NOAA’s National Observer Program leadership, with elements serving as models for other fisheries in the NMFS portfolio.
Lynker’s primary mission remains to ensure the safety of all of our employees as they return to the workplace. Our PIROP observers’ workplace is unique, and has required us to take extra steps to protect our people as they fulfill NMFS mission in the PIR. This is an evolving process that requires diligence and cooperation on an unparalleled scale, and we would like to express our appreciation to Lynker observers for their patience and professionalism in this uncertain time – efforts that enable sustainable fishing in the Pacific, helps restore the US economy, and supports the local community and our nation’s ability to feed itself now and into the future.

Lynker Staff Help Coastal Coupling Community of Practice Take Their Meeting Online

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The Coastal Coupling Community of Practice held their second annual meeting virtually on May 12-13, 2020. Lynker’s Outreach Specialist/Coastal Scientist, Cayla Dean, who supports NOAA’s Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Service, also worked with NOAA’s National Weather Service to host keynote speakers such as Jesse Feyen, the Deputy Director of NOAA’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory and John Warner, an oceanographer at the U.S. Geological Survey at Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center. Other presentations were from NOAA’s Office for Coastal Management, IOOS Regional Associations, Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Sciences, Inc., and the University of Texas at Austin. The meeting also featured facilitated discussions focused on developing and sharing consistent data sets, gathering stakeholder information, and future engagement opportunities for the community of practice.

The Coastal Coupling Community of Practice was formed to leverage federal and academic knowledge to address the complex challenges NOAA faces when delivering water information to meet the needs of the 21st century. The goal of the annual meeting was to advance collaboration around model coupling and learn how modeled solutions are being applied across diverse perspectives. The community has grown significantly over the past year due in large part to Cayla Dean, with over 90 participants joining this year’s meeting, up from 45 attendees last year.

 

 

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