Located at Oregon’s Hatfield Marine Science Center, Project CROOS (Collaborative Research on Oregon Ocean Salmon) is a unique collaborative effort between fishermen and scientists to sustain Chinook salmon populations and the commercial salmon industry.
Salmon fisheries are now managed to protect “weak” stocks. If a river population, for example from the Klamath River, has numbers too low to harvest, ocean fishing can be closed for all stocks until the population rebounds.
Project CROOS is developing new methods to help fishermen harvest healthy salmon stock and avoid fishing weak stock. Fishermen catch salmon and sample fin clips for scientists to analyze DNA. Genetic information allows CROOS scientists to match an individual salmon to its river or region of origin, thus determining whether it comes from weak or healthy stock. With the goal of helping fishermen find healthy stock in the ocean, Project CROOS is investigating the relationship between stock distribution and ocean variables.
Project CROOS is also developing an information network (www.pacificfishtrax.com) where data collected by fishermen can be shared by scientists, fishermen, managers, processors, marketers, and the general public. For example, a customer can find out who caught her salmon and learn more about the salmon trolling industry.
http://sagemagazine.org/?p=1251 (Fishing for the Future of Fish)