The Founders

In 2005, a small group of Oregon salmon fishermen, marine ecosystem scientists, and resource managers formed a partnership to begin developing new approaches to help fishermen conserve weak salmon runs. The partnership is Project CROOS (Collaborative Research on Oregon Ocean Salmon). Project CROOS is a new type of research enterprise based on principles of collaborative research, innovation, and “real time” science. The core focus of Project CROOS is to understand salmon migration patterns that, in turn, will help improve salmon management. Through this work, the Project CROOS partners also realized that the research enterprise created new possibilities for collecting, tracking, and sharing information with a broad range of communities and partners. This realization spawned the vision for Pacific Fish Trax. The vision is a dynamic information system that tracks fishery and seafood information that engages people to get involved in supporting and sustaining West coast fisheries.

The Project CROOS collaborators:

• Community Seafood Initiative
• Hatfield Marine Science Center
• Oregon Salmon Commission
• Oregon Sea Grant
• Oregon State University, College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences
• Oregon State University, Coastal Oregon Marine Experiment Station
• Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife
• NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service
• Port Liaisons — residents of fishing port towns who act as the coordinators between the fishermen collecting information and the scientists who record and analyze it.