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Editorial
Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 32 Number 11
July 2005
Cooperative research is good for industry
Cooperative research took some pretty stiff punches at a late May meeting of New Hampshire fishermen. Listening to their passionate complaints, it’s not hard to understand why they were so upset. But it’s important to put those complaints in the proper context.
It is true that some fishermen have benefited from cooperative research projects. One reason Congress approved early cooperative research funding late in 1999 was to provide supplemental employment opportunities to keep fishing boats afloat while stocks rebuilt.
Since then, projects administered by the Northeast Consortium and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) Cooperative Research Partners Program (CRPP) have employed scores of commercial fishermen. The consoritum alone has compensated more than 200.
These fishermen are paid for the use of their vessels, their service as captains, their expertise on the water, and for their willingness to learn scientific methods and actually do research. They do not profit from having access to fish at the expense of other fishermen.
The only way to get a piece of this pie is to participate. That’s not easy for everyone to do, but the opportunity is open to just about everyone with a seaworthy vessel and a clean enforcement record.
The Northeast Consortium has built a network of industry outreach workers to help fishermen connect with scientists and learn how to meet the consortium’s high scientific standards.
The CRPP has established partnerships with numerous state fisheries agencies, universities, research institutes, and fishermen’s organizations and is planning to hold workshops in the fall to explain how more fishermen can get involved.
As part of its efforts to facilitate participation, the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, in collaboration with several groups, including Commercial Fisheries News, maintains a web site at <www.FishResearch.org> to provide information on cooperative research opportunities. The site currently includes a list of more than 50 scientists and their interests to help fishermen looking for scientific partners.
It’s also true that not all cooperative research projects produce results that are immediately put to use. Scientific research not only finds out what works but what doesn’t, especially when it comes to fishing gear design. And it can take years before research partners accumulate enough data to influence stock assessments and management decisions.
But over time, cooperative research does produce results – the raised footrope trawl for the Gulf of Maine whiting fishery and the Nordmore grate for the shrimp fishery, plus improved fishing opportunities for sea scallops, monkfish, and Loligo squid are just a few examples.
The cooperative research funding process isn’t perfect and there are still serious questions about how efficiently project results are translated into management actions. But the pros vastly outweigh the cons.
Fishermen and scientists are building productive working relationships and mutual respect. The science on which fishery managers depend to make decisions is improving. And cooperative research is producing more results that work in the real world and fewer useless reports that molder on university library shelves.
When you add it all up, cooperative research is good for the commercial fishing industry. /cfn/
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