SNAPP: Managing Data Limited Fisheries for Economic and Biological Objectives

Overfishing threatens the health of many of the world's fish stocks and the millions of people who rely on fish for their food and livelihood. One challenge is that we lack regular assessment data for more than 90% of Earth's fisheries, and reliably assessed fisheries tend to be better managed, thus less overfished. Scientists have developed innovative, inexpensive approaches to assess data-limited fisheries. But there are still significant barriers to widespread implementation of these approaches. The Data-Limited Fisheries Management project, a project of the Science for Nature and People (SNAP) initiative, will convene fish stock assessors, social scientists, ecologists and marine conservation practitioners. Collectively they will: 1) develop a fisheries assessment and management framework that can be applied across geographies, fishery archetypes, data availability, and spatial scales; 2) provide risk-based guidance on the socio-economic and conservation value of improved data collection of stock status; and 3) implement adaptive assessment and management guidelines in collaboration with The Nature Conservancy and Wildlife Conservation Society field programs, and potentially other NGOs This project is supported by the Science for Nature and People (SNAP) initiative, generously funded through founding grants by Shirley and Harry Hagey, Steve and Roberta Denning, Seth Neiman, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Ward W. and Priscilla B. Woods, and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.