August 30, 2017 — Earlier this year, officials with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration used the Lisa Marie, a private fishing boat, to collect data for its annual coastal pelagic species survey. The move was part of an effort to increase collaboration between the public and private sectors.
Earlier this summer as officials with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration completed work on an annual survey of coastal pelagic species (CPS) in the Pacific Ocean, they received some assistance from a new source: the private sector.
Not only were representatives from the West Coast seafood trade industry on board a federal vessel for five days while survey samples were taken, but one fisherman allowed NOAA officials to outfit his boat with equipment to survey more shallow waters near the coastline. The collaborative venture marked a milestone in a public-private dialogue that’s been going on for years.
The CPS survey collects data primarily on Pacific sardines, said Kristen Koch, the acting science and research director of NOAA’s Southwest Fisheries Service Center in La Jolla, California, but it also includes observations on other CPS fish such as northern anchovy and jack and Pacific mackerels. Typically, officials use the Reuben Lasker, a NOAA vessel, to conduct the survey. However, private sector representatives felt the government was missing out on some key data in their work.
Government leaders welcomed the idea to get more data to fill in the gaps they also sought to fill.
“Data is like gold to us,” said Koch. “If we can collect more of the kind of data we need, it improves the precision of our assessments of these species.”