January 6, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:
Social scientists at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center have found a new way to tame an old problem: how to put the data we collect into a form that’s relevant not only to fellow researchers, but also to a wider public.
“For years we’ve put out a lot of data on the health and well-being of fish stocks. Now we can put forth similar data for our commercial fishing fleets and communities, and our new tool makes it easy for anyone to see the results,” said John Walden, an economist in the science center’s Social Sciences Branch and a leader of the project.
While there are other places where similar kinds of data are already available, this is the first to aggregate the information by fishery management plan. Users can see the information in graphs and charts that render on demand and update annually, with options to download the data for use in other applications.