W-119-13
The Fisheries Blog: A Lesson in Engaging People with Fisheries Science

Stephen R. Midway , Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA
Patrick B. Cooney , Director of Electrofishing Science, Smith-Root; The Fisheries Blog, Vancouver, WA
Abigail J. Lynch , USGS National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center, Reston, VA
Dana K. Sackett , Oceanography, University of Hawaii, Manoa, HI
Brandon Peoples , Fish and Wildlife Conservation, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA
Fisheries science is grounded predominantly in the academic journal model, which can often be slow and costly.  Increasingly, scientific communication uses internet-based media outlets such as Facebook and Twitter to inexpensively draw attention to scientific topics, yet the scientific content is most often authored by reporters or other non-scientific professionals.  The Fisheries Blog (TheFisheriesBlog.com) was introduced in 2012 by a group of fisheries professionals to author topical fisheries themes that are freely accessible online.  Using a blog-forma, each Monday The Fisheries Blog team and invited guests author a popular-style article, with content ranging from reviews of primary literature, synopses of ongoing research projects, and information on fisheries-relevant themes.  Web analytics demonstrate that not only fisheries scientists, but a diverse and international audience, are increasingly seeing value in short, free, internet-based articles for learning and conveying pertinent fisheries science information.  The Fisheries Blog is not intended to be exhaustive of fisheries material, but rather an open forum to disseminate information and generate discussion from a broad network of people.  Importantly, The Fisheries Blog serves as a small laboratory, for experimenting with new communication forms—such as graphical abstracts and science based videos—that may otherwise be difficult for larger publishers to quickly adopt.