National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Jackson State University Program in Fish Stock Assessment

Abstract

There is a great need to recruit and train students in fish population dynamics/stock assessment to meet the staff needs of state agencies, universities, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA/NMFS), and international aid agencies in order to more effectively manage our fisheries resources. The need prompted the U.S. National Research Council to convene a workshop in 2000 to discuss ways of increasing the number of fisheries stock assessment specialists in the United States. In 2001, NOAA and Jackson State University (JSU), a historically black institution, established a three-year summer program consisting of a four-week course at JSU and a four to eight-week internship at NOAA/NMFS laboratories. The program, the first of its kind in the United States, was funded by NOAA Educational Partnership Program. Students majoring in biology, mathematics, computer science, or related fields from various institutions were recruited and exposed to fisheries science, particularly fish stock assessment. Forty-one students from 18 institutions and NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service Pascagoula Laboratory participated in the short course; 23 of the students were undergraduates. Eighteen of the students interned at NOAA laboratories after taking the short course. Seven of the participants are currently in graduate programs in fisheries science/applied mathematics, four of whom belong to underrepresented groups. The program was subsequently expanded, and funds were secured from the National Science Foundation to conduct an interdisciplinary training of students in biological and mathematical sciences with emphasis on fisheries stock assessment.