Alaska Cooperative Research
A requirement for sustainable fisheries management and protected resource conservation.
About
The Alaska Fisheries Science Center is committed to ensuring a vigorous cooperative research enterprise. The goal is to leverage the knowledge, tools, techniques, skills, and experiences that would otherwise be unavailable to NOAA Fisheries scientists as well as foster a better understanding and increased acceptance of agency science.
Cooperative Research projects provide both targeted data and opportunities for hands-on, face-to-face interactions between stakeholders and agency scientists, including partnering among State and Tribal managers and scientists (including interstate fishery commissions), fishing industry participants (including use of commercial charter or recreational vessels for gathering data), and academia.
There are several key research and development areas that well designed and targeted cooperative research projects support. Supported project themes include:
- Innovative monitoring tools and gear technology advancement
- Stock assessment
- Effects of climate change on marine ecosystems
- Bycatch reduction
At the Alaska Fisheries Science Center, basic cooperative project requirements are that a NOAA Fisheries researcher serves as the principal investigator and that the research project partners with industry, academia, or another government agency. The majority of National Cooperative Research Program funded projects support research priorities in the Alaska Fisheries Science Center Strategic Science Plan and the most current Alaska Fisheries Science Center Annual Guidance Memo.
For more information on the Alaska Fisheries Science Center’s Cooperative Research Program, please contact the Alaska Fisheries Science Center regional coordinator Paul McCluskey (206-526-4182).