The Northeast Cooperative Research Program has prepared a report “A Mid-Course Review of the Strategic Direction for the Cooperative Research Program in the Northeast” based on input from regional workshops with the Mid-Atlantic and New England Councils and five public outreach meetings held in 2011. Workshops and outreach meetings were held to gather recommendations to assess and evaluate progress made on the Cooperative Research Strategic Plan for 2010-2014.
The following themes were articulated during the review of the cooperative research strategic plan and they reflect the current needs identified by stakeholders:
The fishing industry desires a greater understanding and role in the stock assessment process. Fishermen would like to meet with scientists in small fishery-specific working groups early in the stock assessment process. They need to become familiar with the stock assessments, understand how data that they provide are used, and be invited to take a more proactive role in the stock assessment improvement plan.
Communication and outreach with the industry requires continual attention. The industry wants to know more about how to get involved in cooperative research, what research is being done, and, most importantly, how the results are incorporated into fisheries management plans.
– Stakeholders are concerned about the accuracy of discard estimates and fishermen continue to seek ways to avoid by-catch. The institution of ACLs and sector management has increased the incentive to avoid by-catch species while maximizing catch of healthy species. Many fishermen expressed concern about discard estimates and NCRP was encouraged to move beyond gear work and assist the industry with by-catch avoidance strategies.
– Stakeholders encouraged NCRP to focus its efforts on data poor stocks, schooling semi-pelagic species, high volume fisheries, protected resources (turtles, sturgeon) and species of concern (river herring). Fishermen raised concerns about a variety of specific species. The ideas ranged from predator/prey considerations to additional gear work to information on the effectiveness of closed areas.
– Highly Migratory Species (HMS) has specific research needs that should be addressed by HMS managers. There were a series of recommendations by stakeholders in the Mid-Atlantic specific to HMS.
– The Henry B. Bigelow trawl survey is not well understood by the industry and additional outreach is needed. The NEFSC fishery-independent trawl survey continues to receive significant attention by the fishing industry as the information is considered a critical component in determining the status of fish stocks. There remains a high level of frustration among some industry members regarding the survey methods and costs associated with running the new vessel.
– There is an increased interest from the recreational community to be involved in the cooperative research process. The 2010-2014 Cooperative Research Plan noticeably lacks specific recommendations for engaging with the recreational fishing community and this was seen as a major oversight, particularly in the Mid-Atlantic where there is a greater recreational fishing presence.
– Community leaders are interested in designing socioeconomic and community development programs to support fishing communities. Determining the social and economic health of the fishing communities, especially in light of recent management changes, was raised as an important issue for NCRP to consider.
– There continues to be a need to foster upfront conversations among researchers, fishermen, and managers to align their expectations and to foster use of cooperative research results in management actions. In addition, concerns were raised about the capacity of the scientific community to engage with the fishing industry on research of relevance to fisheries management. NCRP was encouraged to become more proactive in promoting the review of cooperative research results within the management process.
– The fishing industry would like NOAA Fisheries to play a greater role in supporting marketing and public relations. Although perhaps beyond the scope of cooperative research, there were participants who expressed concern regarding marketing of catch and NOAA Fisheries’ role in improving the public’s perception of US fisheries.
– Stakeholders raised concerns regarding the NCRP programmatic issues, but these were not the primary focus of the discussions at the meetings. The Pate report highlighted the issue of transparency with the grants and contract process, especially with regard to RSAs, yet these issues received surprisingly little attention during the cooperative research meetings. However, some suggestions were made to explore new methods of distributing research set-asides and improve the process. Permitting issues and concerns about the Letter of Acknowledgement process were also raised, but to a lesser extent.