Reflecting on the recent history of coastal Maine fisheries and marine resource monitoring: the value of collaborative research, changing ecosystems, and thoughts on preparing for the future

Abstract

AbstractThe Maine Department of Marine Resources (MEDMR) is a state agency tasked with developing, conserving, researching, and promoting commercial and recreational marine fisheries across Maine’s vast coastline. Close collaborations with industry members in each of the 30 or more fisheries that support Maine’s coastal economy are central to MEDMR’s efforts to address this suite of tasks. Here we reflect on recent decades of MEDMR's work and demonstrate how MEDMR fisheries research programmes are preparing for an uncertain future through the lens of three broadly applicable climate-driven challenges: (1) a rapidly changing marine ecosystem; (2) recommendations driven by state and federal climate initiatives; and (3) the need to share institutional knowledge with a new generation of marine resource scientists. We do this by highlighting our scientific and co-management approach to coastal Maine fisheries that have prospered, declined, or followed a unique trend over the last 25+ years. We use these examples to illustrate our lessons learned when studying a diverse array of fisheries, highlight the importance of collaborations with academia and the commercial fishing industry, and share our recommendations to marine resource scientists for addressing the climate-driven challenges that motivated this work.