Bilateral Agreements

Australia

NOAA Fisheries has been working closely with Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in Australia for more than 40 years and formalized the relationship in 2010 through a Memorandum of Understanding. NOAA Fisheries has a long list of science engagements with Australia including research on bycatch reduction devices, use of genetic tools to estimate population sizes of bluefin tuna and swordfish, tracking and predicting movements of sharks among various coastal areas, and fish species identification. Within the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) and the South Pacific Regional Fishery Management Organization, NOAA Fisheries cooperates closely with Australia on the protection of vulnerable marine ecosystems, improvements in fisheries management measures, and adoption of measures to combat illegal, unregulated, and unreported fishing. The Atlantis model—created by CSIRO and NOAA Fisheries—has strongly influenced the direction of integrated ecosystem assessments. These assessments are essential to projecting climate impacts on coral and providing guidance to marine resource managers regarding appropriate harvest targets for forage fish.

Canada

Canada and the United States meet annually for discussion on fisheries management and science issues. Through collaboration the countries strive to develop management approaches that can be implemented domestically, as required by both countries. For years, joint fisheries surveys have been conducted in the Pacific and Atlantic and the U.S. and Canada participate in several international agreements pertaining to shared species. NOAA Fisheries has a long-standing relationship with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO). Working primarily with the Northeast, Northwest, and Alaska Fisheries Science Centers, NOAA and DFO collaborate on a variety of topics including marine mammals, climate change impacts on fisheries, ecosystem approaches to fisheries management, and ecosystem monitoring.

China

Collaboration with China on international science is encouraged under the U.S.-China Science and Technology Agreement, initially signed in 1979 by heads of state. Under this agreement, the “Protocol on Cooperation in the Field of Marine and Fishery Science and Technology” provided the framework for collaboration on marine and fisheries specific issues between the Chinese Academy of Fisheries Science (CAFS) and NOAA. The most active protocol bilateral panels are the Panel on Living Marine Resources (LMR) Panel and Panel on the Role of the Ocean in Climate Change. The LMR Panel is the formal body that implements collaborative science activities on fisheries and related issues. This Panel is chaired by the NOAA Fisheries Chief Science Advisor and the President of CAFS.

European Union

As two of the world’s largest harvesters of seafood and two of the largest importers, the United States and the European Union (EU) seek to assure consumers that their seafood, whether domestically produced or imported, has been legally and sustainably harvested. The EU and the U.S. have committed to domestic actions to end overfishing and rebuild depleted stocks through a variety of innovative management approaches and will continue to strengthen regional partnerships to advance these goals for international fisheries. Below are some of our joint activities.

India

As a strategic ally of the United States with a growing investment in scientific endeavors, India offers new and ample opportunities for data sharing, reciprocal capacity building, and access to local resources for NOAA Fisheries. NOAA formalized its partnership with India’s Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) in 2008. Since then, NOAA Fisheries and MoES have collaborated to conduct research on forecasting yields of key fish stocks and harmful algal blooms. NOAA is engaged in numerous programs, partnerships and collaborations with MoES and other Indian science agencies in meteorology, climate variability and change, hydrology, oceanography, and coastal and ocean management.

Japan

In 2017, NOAA Fisheries and the Japan Fisheries Research and Education Agency (FRA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to promote scientific research exchange on the following topics: productivity/oceanography, living marine resources and fisheries, climate change, ecosystem soundness, aquaculture, socioeconomics, communication, and ecosystem modeling. The MOU formalized many years of ongoing research cooperation. NOAA Fisheries also collaborates with Japan to develop sustainable aquaculture techniques under the U.S./Japan Cooperative Program in Natural Resources (UJNR). 

Mexico

NOAA Fisheries and the Mexican Secretariat for the Environment, Natural Resources and Fisheries (SEMARNAP) conduct an extensive fisheries cooperation program. This program was initiated in 1983 and projects have included fisheries management, enforcement, seafood trade, endangered species conservation, aquaculture, and scientific cooperation. Periodic meetings provide a forum to exchange views and plan cooperative projects. The achievements in dolphin and turtle conservation, and cooperative scientific research have been particularly notable. NOAA Fisheries and SEMARNAP scientists also meet annually to coordinate research in the Gulf of Mexico and Pacific through two research cooperation programs.

Norway

In September 2008, the Norwegian Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries and NOAA executed a Memorandum of Understanding intended to strengthen, promote and further develop cooperation on the conservation and management of living marine resources. This was followed in 2012 by an addendum on Cooperation in Marine Ecosystems Research and Assessment between NOAA Fisheries and the Norwegian Institute of Marine Research (IMR). This led to over a decade of collaboration through joint sponsorship of scientific workshops, scientist exchanges and cooperative research. The two organizations alternate hosting annual science bilateral meetings to have in-depth discussions on science and policy coordination, focused on fisheries stock assessment sciences, advancements in acoustic observing technologies, machine learning and data visualization programs, eDNA, aquaculture, data management, climate vulnerability and integrated ecosystem assessments.