CA Sea Grant Specialist to study halibut fishery

California Sea Grant Fisheries Specialist Carrie Pomeroy has received a one-year grant from Collaborative Fisheries Research West to study the commercial California halibut fishery.

The study, which begins this month, aims to gather socioeconomic data on the fishery, in partnership with the commercial fishing community and state fisheries managers.

“The focus is on the human system – the players, places and processes that interact with the ecological system,” explained Sea Grant’s Pomeroy, a social scientist, based at Center for Ocean Health at UC Santa Cruz.

Pomeroy and team will soon begin reviewing trends in commercial catches of the species by port, where the fish are landed, and by the gear used to catch the fish. The scientists will then work with fishermen to interpret the trends and explain why they are occurring.

“We will be working to develop a collaborative process and a template for documenting, evaluating and predicting change in the fishery’s human system, which in turn can be adapted for use in other fisheries,” Pomeroy said. “The work will be iterative, and will include vetting and refining our initial results with a larger group of commercial California halibut fishery participants before the final results are made public.”

A final summary report will be posted on the California Sea Grant and California Department of Fish and Wildlife websites.

The formal title of Pomeroy’s project is,“Collaborative Fisheries Research to Build Socioeconomic Essential Fishery Information: A Test Case.” Her co-investigators on the grant are Monica Galligan of CSU Monterey Bay; Paul Reilly of California Department of Fish and Wildlife, and Carrie Culver, a California Sea Grant coastal specialist, based at UC Santa Barbara.

Written by Christina S. Johnson