New Collaborative Process Can Help Improve Management Of Marine Recreational Fisheries

In the September issue of the journal Fisheries, the team documents how this innovative process resulted in more content stakeholders while implementing more conservative harvest measures for the king mackerel fishery in the Southeast United States.

The "FishSmart" program works with a wide diversity of fishery stakeholders to develop a set of protective harvest measures agreeable to recreational anglers, conservation organizations, commercial fishermen and managers. Unlike the traditional fisheries management process in which the views of stakeholders are considered after harvest limits have been proposed, the FishSmart process involves the stakeholders from the outset to come to consensus on a shared vision of a "successful fishery" for the target species. Read the full report here.

Source: EurekAlert!.