Fisheries Roundtable: communications

“All I want to do is to be heard. I want a voice,” a commercial fishermen told a panel of speakers from the NOAA Fisheries and NEFMC communications teams. The panel was part of a Fisheries Roundtable discussion at the Hampton Public Library on November 10^th, 2011. The Fisheries Roundtable discussion — co-hosted by the Northeast Consortium and N.H. Sea Grant — focused communications within the NOAA Fisheries Northeast Regional Office and the New England Fishery Management Council and with fishermen, providing a forum for fishermen to talk candidly about what might improve communication between the three groups.

Alison McHale, leader of the outreach and communications team for the NOAA Fisheries Service Northeast Regional Office, began by explaining that NOAA’s four communications program areas include outreach (coordinating public meetings, developing outreach material and guidance documents), education, media (news releases and alerts), and internal communication (briefing documents for NOAA, DOC and Congress).

McHale said that NOAA Northeast Regional Office is working on a “Plain Language Campaign” that necessitates simpler language, brevity and an emphasis on visually displayed information for all their documents, including permit holder letters. The campaign is expected to begin in early 2012. NOAA also developed an interactive website called Fish-on-Line that allows fishermen to check their landings from the last six months and review individual data sets. McHale said the site will eventually include more outreach information, operational and technical guidance and data. Some audience members suggested this web site should include an FAQ section or a box for fishermen to ask their questions, but the general reaction included positive feedback about the site. For more information, please visit the web site: https://www.nero.noaa.gov/NMFSlogin/login/login

McHale mentioned that her team was considering use of social media, technology for smartphones and iPads, focusing on web stories rather than traditional press releases and interactive online tools. While some of these plans could be useful to a certain cross-section of the commercial fishing fleet, attendees noted that cell phones do not work out at sea. With the average age of fishermen increasing, attendees felt that developing smartphone apps and social media should not be a priority.

“I don’t care about technology,” stated one commercial fisherman in the audience. “But I want an equal partnership between fishermen and NOAA.” He suggested that each group should function as a board, with a board of fishermen and a board of NOAA staffers that interact with each other. That, he said, would produce more effective change in communication than developing a new smartphone app.

NOAA keeps a hotline open for fishermen to call with any questions they might have about various species or management rules for New England waters. However, the hotline is only open during regular business hours and it often takes a while until fishermen receive the answer they need. One fisherman suggested a 24-hour hotline might be more useful for those in the fishing industry who work unusual hours.

Some fishermen in the audience expressed their frustration with the new management regulations and the technology they are expected to adopt that sometimes does not work properly and thus can cause delays and lost wages.

“The tools you want us to use don’t even work right,” one fisherman said to the NOAA panel speakers. “Fishermen can’t even leave the dock. That’s such a basic problem and you’re not even listening,” he added.

Pat Fiorelli, Public Affairs Officer of The New England Fishery Management Council, discussed ways to create positive change at Council meetings to maximize collaboration and simplify communication. Even a simple change like serving coffee during the breaks on each Council meeting day could encourage Council members and staff to engage meeting attendees, Fiorelli said. Other suggested changes include holding an informal social hour, posting Council member bios online and enhancing their meeting management skills.

It might be worthwhile, one attendee noted, to convene ad hoc meetings or boards based on issues to parse out the variables to ensure the different viewpoints are expressed and heard by the Council. With hundreds of fishermen in the fisheries, a lot of voices can go unheard.

Audience members mentioned the difficulty of keeping track of the numerous acronyms used in the meetings and requested that a concise glossary of acronyms should be made available at Council meetings and online. In addition, all public meetings should be recorded and put online or broadcasted live so people do not have to travel and physically attend the meetings to find out the latest information about fisheries management issues.

As the dialogue transitioned to the role of stock assessment and computer models in establishing fisheries regulations, some attendees noted that there are discrepancies between what fishermen see on the water and what scientists estimate for population changes. It should be a two-way street between the scientists and fishermen, a few audience members said, and NOAA staffers might benefit from spending time on fishing boats to experience the reality of the management rules they create and enforce.

“We had over two hours of honest and constructive dialogue," said Roundtable coordinator Rachel Feeney from the Northeast Consortium. "The Regional Office and Council are making great strides to improve communications, and we were able to exchange a lot of good feedback and ideas,” she added.

Fishtival 2011

A few scenes from this year's Fishtival:

Fish printing in the style of Gyotaku, a fun activity for the kids. They chose some great colors for the flounder!


The final product from the UNH Marine Docents' Build a Sailboat in a Weekend workshop--a 12' Oyster River Cat.

Boat tours were offered to show the inner workings of real commercial fishing boats.

Aside from tasty food, the Fishtival provided plenty of opportunities for folks to really see the fish found in New England waters, many of which we eat. A Fishtival volunteer shows kids the tail end of a bluefin tuna and other fish they could touch.

Some crabs and sea stars were on display.

Monkfish/goosefish are a type of anglerfish that use their pectoral fins to "walk" along the bottom of the ocean. They also have a long filament they can dangle from the top of their heads to lure prey into their large mouths.


Thanks to everyone who made the Fishtival a success once again this year!

September 8, 2011, AFS Seattle. Electronic frontiers in fisheries.

The final session that I attended this week profiled what Gil Sylvia, an economist from Oregon State University, refers to as the third of a three-part revolution in fisheries. The first part is the movement toward sustainable fishing practices and fully rebuilt fish stocks. The second is the shift toward catch share or property rights in fisheries. The final part is the movement toward a completely electronic form of reporting in real-time of fishing activity from fishermen to managers. This is what Gil and a long list of other scientists, programmers and members of the fishing industry gathered to talk about during the "Electronic Frontieres in Fisheries" Symposium.

The third revolution will enable a centralized data-management system with access nodes that can be used by fishermen, managers, fish marketers, fisheries scientists, and consumers. Amazingly, this type of system is already up and running off the coast of Washington and Oregon. The system can be used by fishermen to understand, in real-time, when and where threatened stocks of salmon are being caught; information that allows fishermen to avoid those areas thus conserving endangered stocks and allowing them to continue to fish populations that are doing well. Fisheries scientists are using the system to access data that they will analyze to improve their understand fish biology and ecology. The fish caught in the fishery are even given an ID tag so consumers can see where, when and who caught the fish they buy at the market......pretty amazing and powerful stuff, and a huge improvement on a system where redundant reporting on hand-written forms can drive fishermen (and managers) crazy.

The old system is confusing, labor intensive and lends itself to mistakes and errors. Plus, the information under the old system takes one-way path to managers, and the opportunity to USE that information for the benefit of the fishermen and the local community is lost. For more information on the project that Gil Sylvia has been working on with lots of other people, visit: http://pacificfishtrax.org/
Although much of the day was spent discussing the technological and practical challenges of implementing such a system (not the least of which are transmitting the data from the boats and the interest and technological capacity of fishermen), a number of different groups, including The Nature Conservancy, and private fishing industry members, are developing the software and hardware to begin implementing these types of systems on all coasts of the U.S.

One of the most interesting talks, however was presented by Catherine O'Keefe, a PhD student at the University of Massachussetts at Dartmouth (student of Dr. Steve Cadrin) who has used low-tech methods to provide real-time information on the distribution of yellow-tail flounder (rare species) to scallop fishermen. The scientists on the project did this by making a gridded map and having the fishermen provide information on where they caught yellow-tail flounder through email from the boats. The scientists compiled this information and provided fast-response warning about the location of "hot spots" where yellow-tail flounder were caught. Fishermen used this information to avoid these areas and have substantially reduced their catch of yellow-tail flounder. This is important for the conservation of the species AND the fishermen because the flounder remain in the water and because the fishermen must stop fishing for scallops once they catch their allotted quota of yellow-tail flounder.


-Erik Chapman

September 8, 2011 - AFS Seattle. Cognitive ecology, fish behavior and fisheries....

This morning, I went to a series of presentations in the field of fish cognitive ecology. These scientists are engaged in questions relating to how fish behavior determines the distribution and abundance of fish populations. This is extremely important for understanding how fish populations interact with their environment which is critical information for successful fisheries management. Dr. Victoria Braithwaite from Pennsylvania State University began the discussions, outlining ideas and research around how fish make decisions based on their orientation to physical features in their environment. Dr. James Anderson from the Univeristy of Washington followed with a presentation on how fish learn and why they decide to move between foraging areas. Other presenters began to discuss how fish communicate information about the location of food by observing the behavior and the changing condition of their neighbors.  Later talks discussed the exchange of information within and between schools of fish. 

Another interesting session at a great meeting!
-Erik Chapman

September 7, 2011 - AFS Seattle. Dr. Brian Rothchild outlines recommendations for fisheries management and catch shares

Dr. Brian Rothchild of the University of Massachussetts at Dartmouth made some interesting points and suggestions during his talk yesterday during the Catch Shares Symposium. First, he suggested that for catch share systems to be effective, they need an efficient support institution that provides a cost effective information system. The information systems available today in many fisheries are not capable of keeping up with the rigorous reporting demands of catch share system. This creates alot of problems for fishermen, dealers, and fish managers. He also suggests that catch share systems should incorporate structures that limit the number of "slipper skippers" or fishermen who lease their quota each year, making money without ever taking their boats out on the water. He also emphasized that implementing a catch share system requires a great deal of time and patience, something that was not afforded to the Northeast groundfish sector management system that was implemented after a brief, one-year planning period despite the protests of fishermen and the Northeast Fisheries Management Council. Dr. Rothchild also emphasized the importance of communicating the philosophy behind the catch share system to industry representatives and listening to the groups that will be most effected by the system.

He also floated the idea of developing a dedicated National Institute that we develop new strategies for using ocean weather and climate information to forecast stock variability. He feels that this type of institute would be able to capitalize on our improving understanding of the role that climate plays in fish population dynamics to improve management. An interesting idea to say the least!

-Erik Chapman

September 7, 2011, Seattle AFS. Hilborn urges fishermen to embrace catch shares.

Yesterday, Ray Hilborn, a controversial and high profile fisheries scientists at the University of Washington, wrapped up the Catch Shares Symposium at the AFS Meeting by urging people to embrace the catch shares system. He lived up to his reputation and stirred the pot by saying that anthropologists and sociologists should stop "whining" about some of the challenges presented by catch shares to fishing communities. He also emphasized that catch shares is a very broad term that can mean many things and is a system that is flexible enough to adapt to a particular fishery. He said that it is not a perfect system, but "pretty good" and that it is the best alternative for the majority of today's fisheries. Dr. Hilborn made an interesting point - that catch shares, because they essentially enforce "who can fish and who cannot", were similar to the enforcement of the 200 mile Exclusive Economic Zone which forced foreign fishermen out of US Coastal waters and was universally applauded by the US fishing industry. Hilborn also claimed that we must accept that fishing jobs and vessels are going to be lost - regardless of how fisheries are managed - simply because the US fishing fleet is too big as a result of the recent regulatory history of the industry.
Dr. Hilborn responded to critics of catch shares who claim that they destroy fishing communities by emphasizing that there are opportunities to combine community development with catch share programs. He also made the point that it is difficult to disentangle the effects of catch share systems with other outside forces that were going to affect fisheries and fishing communities.
Unfortunately, this talk came at the end of the day. I got the feeling that the group in the room could have discussed his comments into the night. It would have been very interesting to hear that discussion - one that those involved in sustainable marine fisheries will be a part of as we move forward.
-Erik Chapman

September 7, 2011- Seattle, AFS. Beware of media coverage of fisheries!

Have you ever been confused by the media's coverage of fisheries and their impact on marine ecosystems? Chances are, you've been drawn to headlines with shocking statements about the global state of the world's oceans. Sometimes, the headlines are contradictory. Are the oceans dieing, or are fish stocks recovering? Jennifer Jacquet, a researcher at the University of British Columbia, gave a really interesting talk yesterday that took a close look at how media covers fisheries science.  Often media articles reflect information presented in a press release by a University communications office, a private organization, or the scientist his or herself - and this is the important part - before they have been peer-reviewed. Dr. Jacquet gave several examples where media reported science that had not been peer-reviewed and where the same media outlet alternately presented scientific results that indicated opposite trends in global fisheries stocks. She suggested that journalistic standards should emphasize careful reading of peer-reviewed science and that some standards should be used to present scientific research as having "global" implications (often global implications are indicated by media based on research in a small area). Obviously, these standards are difficult to enforce in the highly competetive 24hr news cycle.

Nevertheless, these are all extremely important points that highlight our need to be more demanding of media coverage of science.   Dr. Jacquet highlights the need for careful reading of science presented in the media, and for objective and careful communication of science through objective sources. There is growing interest in fisheries in the general public, but also a growing level of confusion about marine ecosystems and fishing. The need for high-quality sources of information are more important than ever. But where will these trusted sources of information come from?

-Erik Chapman