SAFE

About the Scientists and Fishermen Exchange
(SAFE)

An informal group of fishermen and scientists working together to build trust and a mutual understanding of the industry and ocean sciences. We strive to provide an open environment for discussing research activities, needs for scientific information and potential collaborations that are relevant to marine issues.

Background: Early in 2002, Newport, Oregon commercial fisherman Terry Thompson contacted OSU Sea Grant marine extension agent Ginny Goblirsch expressing an interest in finding a format where fishermen and scientists could meet, get to know each other better, and exchange information about fisheries research. Terry knew that scientists had a lot of good basic information that would be useful to fishermen and likewise fishermen had real world experience and knowledge that would benefit fisheries research.

Given the highly charged atmosphere in most industry and fisheries scientists and management meetings, it was felt that for a group like this to work, politics and fisheries issues would have to be checked at the door. The first of what have come to be known as SAFE meetings was held in April of 2002.

The OSU College of Oceanographic and Atmospheric Sciences expressed a great deal of interest in this process early on and has provided the leadership for the scientists in cooperatively working with members of the fishing industry. Oregon Sea Grant provides the basic organization and leadership to keep the group on track and meeting its goals.

Currently, meetings are kept small (about 20 people per meeting roughly half fishermen and half researchers) until a comfortable format has been established. Once that has been accomplished, the meetings will be slowly expanded to include more fishermen and researchers. This collaborative process has gotten off to a good start. A couple of examples include the potential for serious gear conflicts between researchers and crabbers being averted (just in time!), and the development and funding of a multi-year cooperative research project.

While the SAFE process has been embraced by the participants, there are still many challenges in working together. Mistrust and miscommunication are two major challenges which must continually be addressed. To be successful, all parties must experience real benefits as a result of participating in SAFE.

Fishermen at these meetings represent Oregon ’s key fisheries. Researchers represent a variety of agencies including Oregon State University , the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Marine Fisheries Service, Oregon Sea Grant, and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. All are committed to the success of this process.

Current opportunities