Cooperative Research at the Northwest Fisheries Science Center: Improving Fisheries Management through Scientific Partnerships

The Northwest Fisheries Science Center (NWFSC) has engaged in cooperative research on a wide range of topics through collaborations and partnerships with local tribes, interstate-fisheries commissions, universities, commercial and recreational fishers, and other stakeholders. The level of involvement of research partners has varied from providing a cost-effective sampling platform to full engagement in the design, implementation and continued operation of fishery-independent surveys. Research at the NWFSC focuses primarily on salmon, marine mammals and groundfishes in the California Current Large Marine Ecosystem; cooperative-research projects have included bycatch reduction studies, the development of alternative survey methodologies, and tagging and tracking fish, among many others. This presentation will focus on three projects: a fishery-independent hook-and-line survey of shelf rockfishes in untrawlable habitats off Southern California, a fishery-dependent collaboration with Oregon and Washington commercial salmon trollers to provide samples for genetic stock identification research, and one where scientists worked with recreational anglers to try to differentiate between ESA listed stocks of Puget Sound rockfishes and marine stocks of the same species. The goal will be to describe specifically the challenges and benefits of cooperative research for each project and to highlight how they contribute important information to fisheries management.