Relationships, Honeymoons, Engagement, and Offspring: Summary and Successes of a Collaborative Research Network, Gearnet

GEARNET was a multi-year, multi-institution collaborative research network that worked closely with groundfish fishermen to identify and fund priority projects to pilot innovative fishing gears and methods that reduce bycatch, avoid waste, or improve efficiency. Using a bottom-up approach that developed close relationships between fishermen and scientists, over 35 different projects with >125 industry participants were developed and funded over the 3.5 years, focusing on 6 different themes: fuel saving; trawl selectivity; gillnet selectivity; alternate gears; seabed impact; education. Despite the close working relationships developed with fishermen, success of the project was mixed. I present a summary of this project and explore whether this initiative achieved goals of being more efficient, more effective, and with greater uptake of new fishing technology than previous collaborative research models.