Fishery Monitoring & Research Division (FMRD)

The Fishery Monitoring and Research Division (FMRD) provides key services for our nation’s ocean resources and habitats, including maintaining productive and sustainable fisheries, helping the recovery and conservation of protected species and supporting healthy marine ecosystems.

The FMRD focuses on the collection and use of information from commercial and recreational fisheries to inform fisheries science and management and fills data gaps to complement fishery independent surveys through the utilization of commercial and recreational fishing platforms. The FMRD includes the Cooperative Research and Fisheries Sampling Branches, both of which work closely with fishing industries to collect, process, and manage fishery dependent data, and utilize industry platforms to obtain data on fish biology, environmental variables, and socioeconomic factors in support of stock assessments and ecosystem based fishery management. The Division develops and supports cooperative efforts between the NEFSC and industry that are essential to create robust and accurate datasets, and conducts outreach across the region to keep constituents informed of activities.

In addition, Division programs foster engagement between the NEFSC and industry in the development of technology and data products to improve fisheries reporting and availability of data to fishermen, scientists, and managers to proactivelymanage fisheriesand support industry's adaptation to climate change and shifting species distributions.