Sea Grant 3rd Annual Science Symposium Lobsters as Model Organisms for Interfacing Behavior, Ecology, and Fisheries: Discussion Session Summary on Cooperative Research

Abstract

When J. Stanley Cobb needed a way for his student, Annette Juinio, to collect lobster larvae far offshore from the Rhode Island coast, he turned to a lobsterman. At the time, it was difficult to find fishermen willing to help scientists. However, a few lobstermen did volunteer, and in so doing they began a new era of cooperation between the research and fishing communities. In the early years, the lobstering community was cooperating with scientists, but it was not yet called research. Since then cooperative research expanded and evolved throughout New England and the rest of the world as more fishers, scientists, and managers have seen the advantages of working together. This sea change in attitudes spawned numerous collaborations and with them myriad opportunities and challenges. To take stock of these changes and to consider what is possible for future collaborations, this special discussion session was held in the symposium. Bonnie Spinazzola Executive Director of the Atlantic Offshore Lobstermen's Asssociation, led off and facilitated the discussion. The problems and the promise of cooperative research were evident when Spinazzola interviewed scientists, managers, and fishermen before the symposium. Although details differed, the three groups had curiously similar causes for optimism and for concern. Specifically, scientists wanted to learn something new but wondered if they could trust the data coming from fishermen (and if those data will ever be publishable). The managers wondered what data gaps they could fill with the aid of fishermen, but they too wondered if they could trust the results from fishermen. The fishermen were interested to