Multi-stakeholder engagement around territorial bottomfish stock assessment: Perspectives from Hawaiʻi and Guam

This dataset includes qualitative interview data aggregated and entered into an excel csv file. We collected data by observing virtual Council-hosted meetings and conducting virtual unstructured interviews from September 2020 to July 2021. Interviewees were selected either for A) their participation in the 2015-16 Hawaiʻi bottomfish commercial fishery data workshops, or B) their knowledge of, contribution to, or direct participation in Guam’s bottomfish fisheries, fishery operations and data collection, stock assessment science, and subsequent management. Participants were identified through the 2015-16 workshop attendee list (Yau 2018) and the lead author’s points of contact within the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council (WPRFMC), the Guam Division of Aquatics and Wildlife Resources (DAWR), and Guam and Hawaiʻi fishing communities. Additional participants were identified through participant referral. A total of 42 stakeholders were interviewed. Data from interviews and participant observations were coded to track themes that emerged from the data. Data were coded to capture and organize themes relevant to multi-stakeholder engagement processes and the relationship between bottomfish fisheries, science, and management.

These data document engagement challenges and opportunities to improve both relationships between stakeholders involved in bottomfish stock assessment, and stock assessment inputs and processes themselves.

Main Hawaiian Islands

This dataset includes qualitative interview data aggregated and entered into an excel csv file.

While every effort has been made to ensure that these data are accurate and reliable within the limits of the current state of the art, NOAA cannot assume liability for any damages caused by errors or omissions in the data, nor as a result of the failure of the data to function on a particular system. NOAA makes no warranty, expressed or implied, nor does the fact of distribution constitute such a warranty.

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We collected data primarily through virtual unstructured interviews from September 2020 to July 2021. Interviewees were selected either for A) their participation in the 2015-16 Hawaiʻi bottomfish commercial fishery data workshops, or B) their knowledge of, contribution to, or direct participation in Guam’s bottomfish fisheries, fishery operations and data collection, stock assessment science, and subsequent management. Participants were identified through the 2015-16 workshop attendee list (Yau 2018) and the lead author’s points of contact within the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council (WPRFMC, hereafter referred to as “the Council”), the Guam Division of Aquatics and Wildlife Resources (DAWR), and Guam and Hawaiʻi fishing communities. Additional participants were identified through participant referral. We interviewed 42 stakeholders in total. Sixteen of these met criteria A, and 30 of these met criteria B, with several interviewees meeting both criteria. Interviewees provided representation from fishers and fish vendors (15, nearly equally split between Hawaiʻi and Guam), the NMFS Pacific Islands Regional Office (PIRO) or Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC) and its contractors (15), the Guam DAWR (5), and the Council, its contractors, and committee members (7).

We also attended meetings hosted by the Council and its territorial Advisory Panels in which the territorial bottomfish fisheries, their stock assessment, and/or management were discussed by multiple stakeholder groups. Participant observation provided insights into how stakeholders with membership in fishing, research, and management communities across federal and territorial institutions perceive and communicate around such issues. As these discussions focused on American Samoa’s bottomfish fisheries and their stock assessment given their earlier stock assessment timeline, we take the opportunity to document relevant insights from American Samoa intermittently throughout this report.

The data represent the opinions and beliefs of the participants of these interviews.

Data are currently stored on secured network drives at PIFSC, maintained by PIFSC IT services

This dataset includes qualitative interview data aggregated and entered into an excel csv file. We conducted unstructured interviews with 42 stakeholders from fishing communities, the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council, Guam Division of Aquatics and Wildlife Resources, PIRO, and PIFSC based out of Hawaii and Guam between September 2020 and July 2021. We used a mixture of key informant, purposive, and snowball sampling. Interviews were conducted in the English, the primary language of all interviewees. Interviews focused on the interviewee’s relationship to bottomfish fisheries, their stock assessment, and management; experience with multi-stakeholder engagement around bottomfish fisheries; valuable engagement outcomes and goals; preferred engagement processes and venues; and expected challenges. An interview guide provided a general framework with which to conduct unstructured interviews, but interviewees were encouraged to introduce and elaborate on topics relevant to their expertise or perspective.