Multispecies Survey of Bay Fisheries

Continued concerns over the sustainability of commercial fisheries have led to a public commitment to multispecies management of the Chesapeake Bay's fisheries. Implementing such an approach demands a greater understanding of these resources.

The Chesapeake Bay Fishery Independent Multispecies Survey (CHESFIMS) program was initiated in 2001 in response to the need for extensive monitoring data. Expanding upon surveys of the Bay's fisheries conducted from 1995 to 2000 (TIES Program), the multi-institutional CHESFIMS team, led by Dr. Thomas Miller, has surveyed bentho-pelagic fish communities in the Bay's mainstream and tributaries, quantified trophic interactions among key species in the fishery ecosystem, and developed model-based estimates of the abundance and distribution of commercially and ecologically important species in the Bay.

This research is providing estimates of the levels of variability in important forage species, as well as species targeted by commercial and recreational fisheries. A current focus of this work is the development of a greater understanding of the role of less studied species, such as Atlantic croaker and hogchoker, in the ecosystem. For more information, see CHESFIMS and Trophic Interactions in Estuarine Systems (TIES)