NOAA Fishery Stock Assessment Research and Stock Modeling
Dr. Paulinus Chigbu (mentor), Brandi Brehon

The Fishery Stock Assessment course is a four-week course that is designed to introduce undergraduate and graduate students to fish stock assessment and fisheries management. The course was held at Jackson State University in Jackson, Mississippi. Various students from different institutions with various majors were selected to be in the program. The students selected came from backgrounds such as Computer Information Systems, Mathematics, Biology/Marine Science, Elementary Education, Business Administration, Computer Science, Chemical Engineering, and Physics. The institutions represented by the various students were Prairie View A&M University, ECSU, Jackson State University, Virginia State University, University of Maryland, Eastern Shore, and Tufts University. The class was not just limited to undergraduate and graduate students; there were two fisheries biologists from the Pascagoula NOAA lab in Mississippi who took the class to gain more knowledge in the area of stock assessment.

The fisheries stock assessment course consisting of thirteen students was held Monday through Friday from nine to five in a computer lab on Jackson State University's campus. The instructors consisted of Dr. Dvorah Hart, Dr. Steve Cadrin, Dr. Stockhauser, Dr. John Brodziak, which were all from the Woods Hole NOAA Lab in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. The staff also consisted of the Principal Investigators for the course Dr. Ambrose Jerald and Dr. Paulinus Chigbu, and Dr. Ralf Riedel, coordinator of the course. Every three days a different instructor would come to JSU to lecture a certain section of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission: Fisheries Stock Assessment User's Manual. After the lecture, assignments were assigned to the class to complete in a group or individually.

Introduction to the course was given by Dr. Hart. During her lecture period, she reviewed the foundation of fisheries stock assessment. In the three days that Dr. Hart was at Jackson State University she reviewed Calculus I-III, Differential Equations, and Statistics. The various instructors reviewed estimation of mortality rates, selectivity of marine fish harvesting gears: general theory, size selection experiments and determination of size selection curves, development and application of yield per recruit and spawning stock per recruit models, production models, stock and recruitment, and sequential population analysis: age and length structured stock assessment models. At the conclusion of the course we were given a final project to complete in a group or individually. The final project involved assessing the status of a cod population and interpreting the results in terms of fishery management advice for the stock. The project took form of a report to a management agency, interpreting the results of the analyses to evaluate the status of the stock and to provide management advice. For successful completion of the final project, calculations were done in Microsoft Excel.

After successful completion of the course, we were sent to different NOAA labs for an additional four to eight weeks for the remainder of the summer. The NOAA labs participating in this year's fisheries stock assessment internship program located in Beaufort, North Carolina; Woods Hole, Massachusetts; Miami, Florida; Seattle, Washington; Panama City, Florida; and Pascagoula, Mississippi. During our time at the NOAA labs we will have an opportunity to utilize the skills learned during our four-week course and receive hands-on experience in the marine science area.

The fisheries stock assessment course was a wonderful opportunity for students to gain knowledge in the unfamiliar world of marine biology. Before attending the course, I was unaware of the vast amount research that goes into protecting our marine life. Much time, effort, and money and used to make sure that our generations does not over and under populate the marine world for the many generations to come. I also gained mathematical skills while attending the course. Although the course demanded hard work and much effort calculating equations and deriving formulas, we also gained hands-on experience. We attended the Museum of Natural Science in Ridgeland, Mississippi and we also went trawling in Biloxi, Mississippi. Going trawling was an exciting experience that I am hoping to do again. While trawling we were able to one of the ways research vessels capture fish to be researched. We were able to be involved in the catching of shrimp, crabs, starfish, catfish, silver fish, and many more species of marine life.