How Fishery Managers Can Harness the Power of the Crowd: Using Citizen Science and Nontraditional Data Sources in Fisheries Management

Abstract

A constant challenge in fisheries stock assessment and management is having sufficient data to inform research and analyses. Nontraditional data sources like citizen science, when collected and applied appropriately, can help fill such data gaps. Use of nontraditional data sources is on the rise, but its use and application in fisheries science and management remains largely untapped. In order to examine the use of such data sources, we held a symposium at the 2020 American Fisheries Society Annual Meeting entitled “How Citizen Science and Nontraditional Data Sources can be Better Incorporated Into Fisheries Stock Assessments and Management” (https://bit.ly/3V13vHe). The session included 12 talks and a panel discussion to examine best practices. This paper reviews seven nontraditional data programs and projects used to support fisheries management featured in this special issue of Fisheries. It concludes with key lessons from the panel discussion for best applying nontraditional data sources in fisheries.