Communication and Engagement in Fisheries Management: Working with Stakeholders to Achieve Sustainable Fisheries and Healthy Ecosystems

Fisheries biologists and managers are increasingly being asked to communicate and engage with stakeholders to achieve sustainable fisheries and healthy ecosystems. As such, public information, public participation, stakeholder engagement, social media, extension, blogging, outreach, citizen science, and science communication are just a few of the terms used to describe efforts to involve the public in fisheries and fisheries management. The goal of this symposium, is to define and describe communication and engagement strategies. Some questions we will address are: Who is the audience? What is the goal? Which medium do I use? How do I frame what I want to say? How do I listen? How do I use audio and images in communication? How to engage non-traditional audiences in fisheries management? What are universal access resources for communication and engagement? This symposium will present an overview of communication and engagement strategies and how these approaches and tools can help fisheries biologists and managers with fisheries management.