January 27, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:
Staff involved with cooperative research and fishery monitoring at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center interact daily with the fishing industry. It’s a challenging job, and an essential one: scientists and fishermen working together in areas of mutual interest improves fisheries science and management.
It’s little wonder that managing the many moving parts of this effort requires constant assessment and adaptation. The most recent effort is a major one that has resulted in a new internal structure to improve operations and maximize resources.
The ultimate goal is to ensure accurate representation of fishing activity.
“Improving integration of our efforts, modernizing our systems, and making the data we collect even more useful will enable us to have increased confidence in our science, take some of the burden off the industry, and make it easier for fishermen to access information,” said Amanda McCarty, chief of the center’s Fishery Monitoring and Research Division, which includes the fishery monitoring and cooperative research efforts.