SMAST’s Kevin Stokesbury: On scallops, community collaboration, and a lifelong love of the ocean

much time as possible swimming, searching for sand shrimp, and soaking up the sun with his siblings.

Now as dean of the School for Marine Science and Technology (SMAST) at UMass Dartmouth, he’s finding practical applications for his passion with the sea. Stokesbury has played an integral role in revitalizing the scallop industry in New Bedford, inventing a drop camera in 1999 that snapped photos of scallops living on the seafloor, giving scientists and fishermen much more precise estimates of scallop numbers than previously available. The location map and information accompanying the photographs have proved vital.

Stokesbury’s invention has greatly boosted the local economy. Before the drop camera, scallop boats brought in an annual harvest valued around $89 million. In 2021, it was $670 million, according to a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) commercial landings report.

Stokesbury has dedicated his career to fisheries sciences, specifically fisheries oceanography. His work involves studying sea scallops and looking at technological innovations to examine stock assessments and resources on the seafloor. He also researches groundfish and recently has been delving into the impacts of offshore wind turbines on fisheries and the environment.

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