Novel NSF-funded, grassroots, and agency initiatives are poised to provide high-quality, open-access data distributed across broad spatial and temporal scales with direct or indirect ties to fisheries science. Such resources will allow researchers to conduct unprecedented analyses well beyond what may be achieved using the facilities of individual laboratories. Yet the full potential of such initiatives will only be realized if the scientific community is cognizant of the available data. Symposium presentations will introduce programs such as the National Ecological Observatory Network, the Global Lakes Observatory Initiative, the National Fish Habitat Action Plan, and the National Ecological Data Base (National Water Census) as well as regional or local initiatives that offer open-access data to researchers. Presenters may also discuss findings derived from such initiatives that serve as examples of how these systems may benefit individual fisheries scientists. To help foster interdisciplinary collaboration among AFS members, presentations will include marine, estuarine and freshwater system-targeted programs as well as those with indirect ties to fisheries science, such as hydrological or atmospheric databases. Central to the discussion will be linking appropriate hierarchical scales, such as river networks, watersheds, and coastal environments and comparing these datasets to spatially contiguous layers of information to address questions of interest.  Presentations may also involve the utility of various raw (e.g. presence/absence) or synthesized (e.g., areas of potential vulnerability) datasets in aiding management decisions and promoting future research.  Consequently, AFS members attending this symposium will become familiarized with open-access data resources that they may not be familiar with, learn how to access such data, and receive introductions to initiatives that may foster interdisciplinary collaboration.