Multi-Stakeholder Engagement Around Territorial Bottomfish Stock Assessment: Perspectives From Hawaiʻi and Guam
January 31, 2023
The first step in bridging gaps to build relationships and shared understanding through a multi-stakeholder engagement process.
Fishing communities, Western Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Council staff, and territorial and federal agency scientists and managers are separated by geography, language, historical conflict and mistrust, institutional cultures, and the specialized knowledge that each stakeholder group wields. Yet, these stakeholders’ roles are highly interdependent in their contribution to territorial bottomfish fisheries and their stock assessment. This project represents a first step in bridging these gaps to build relationships and shared understanding through a multi-stakeholder engagement process. We collected data through unstructured interviews and participant observation at public meetings from September 2020 to July 2021.
The Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center of NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service uses the NOAA Technical Memorandum NMFS-PIFSC series to disseminate scientific and technical information that has been scientifically reviewed and edited. Documents within this series reflect sound professional work and may be referenced in the formal scientific and technical literature.
Iwane MA, Kleiber D, Leong KM. 2023. Multi-stakeholder engagement around territorial bottomfish stock assessment: Perspectives from Hawai'i and Guam. U.S. Dept. of Commerce, NOAA Technical Memorandum NOAA-TM-NMFS-PIFSC-137, 55 p. https://doi.org/10.25923/wytr-mj21.