The Fisheries Blog: Communicating Fisheries Science To An Internet Audience

Increasingly, scientific communication is using popular social media outlets such as Facebook and Twitter.  The weblog (hereafter ‘blog’) has also been a diverse information-sharing medium well-established in fields such as politics, news, and culture.  Fisheries science is still grounded in the academic journal model as a basis from which peer-reviewed information can disseminate.  However, in addition to the journal mode of communication, fisheries professionals are beginning to see the value in short, free, internet-based information to convey the vast amounts of pertinent fisheries information found in reports or often-inaccessible professional journals.  With this need in mind, The Fisheries Blog was introduced in January 2012 to make available topical fisheries themes accessible to anyone with internet access.  Each Monday, The Fisheries Blog features a popular-style article, with content ranging from reviews of primary literature, synopses of ongoing research projects, and information on topical fisheries themes.  The blog is not intended to be exhaustive of fisheries material, but rather an easily accessible forum to disseminate information and generate discussion through comments and guest bloggers.  Our goal is for articles to be useful to a wide audience: from seasoned fisheries professionals, to undergraduate fisheries students new to the discipline, and to curious fisheries-minded citizens.