Efforts by the Marine Conservation Alliance Foundation (MCAF) to boost cooperative research partnerships between scientists and industry to improve fishery sustainability are highlighted in a booth presentation and poster display at the annual conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in San Francisco.
"Alaska fishermen are working with scientists to be both proactive and adaptive in addressing conservation issues facing the industry," said MCAF executive director David Benton. "Cooperative research efforts such as these are part of the reason why Alaska is regarded as a model of sustainable fishery management."
The poster displays detail development of techniques to reduce seabird mortality in the longline cod fishery by over 80%; work on an excluder device to reduce halibut bycatch in the Gulf of Alaska trawl fishery; progress toward a salmon excluder device in the Bering Sea pelagic trawl fishery; and a presentation on MCAF's overall cooperative research program. A slide presentation on MCAF's marine debris program will also be on display.
Attending the conference and available to answer questions will be John Gruver, the Intercoop Manager for United Catcher Boats and a former pollock skipper; Brent Paine, Executive Director for United Catcher Boats; Ed Richardson, PhD a resource economist for the At-Sea Processors Association ; and Vidar Wespestad, the Scientific Advisor for the American Fisheries Research Foundation. All of whom have been involved in work on the various excluder devices.
Part of the AAAS conference on "Science and Technology for Sustainable Well-Being," February 16 through 19, the presentation and poster display of MCA's cooperative research program can be viewed at booth 112.
Based in Juneau, Alaska, the Marine Conservation Alliance Foundation promotes the conservation and sustainable use of marine resources in the North Pacific through cooperative research programs, public education, and the cleanup of marine debris. Its members include most fishermen, seafood processors and fishing communities involved in the crab and groundfish fisheries of the North Pacific. The marine debris program funding is provided by NOAA.