Interstate fisheries management planning and implementation

A key need for fishery management planning and implementation is access to adequate scientific data. The Department of Marine Resources (DMR) recently undertook two efforts to improve its ability to manage marine resources. The first was the development of a centralized biological database that would consolidate all of biological and environmental data collected by the DMR. This database will enable multiple users, managers, scientists, and eventually the public, to access and integrate a vast amount of data on many species such as American shad, striped bass, American eel, American lobster, northern shrimp; commercial and recreational landings data; and environmental data for use in fishery management planning and decision-making. It will also enable the DMR to archive data collected over a number of years to facilitate time series analyses to development improved understanding of management efforts, population and ecosystem changes, and the impacts of global climate change. The second initiative undertaken in this project was to continue the identification of research priorities for Gulf of Maine marine resources, make this information broadly accessible, and begin to implement research to address the priorities. Project: 3-ACA-084 Completion Report Grant no. NA06FG0380