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2021 MAINE SUSTAINABILITY & WATER CONFERENCE – 4/1/2021
Session10 – The Eastern Maine Coastal Current Collaborative: Building a Regional Network and Research Framework to Support Ecosystem Based Fisheries Management
Paul Anderson, Executive Director, Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries
The Eastern Maine Coastal Current Collaborative (EM3C) is a project between Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries, NOAA Fisheries, and the Maine Department of Marine Resources to develop a research framework that supports ecosystem-based fisheries management in the watersheds and coastal areas adjacent to the Eastern Maine Coastal Current. An ecosystem-based approach provides a comprehensive and collaborative mechanism with the goal of improving the resiliency of coastal communities and the sustainability of fisheries. This approach provides an opportunity for adaptive processes by which we can learn and evolve approaches to management. Active participation from tribal and local stakeholders is essential. To this end, EM3C hosted a State of the Science conference in June 2019 to bring together experts from local governments, fishing, science, and academic communities. The conference was the first step toward producing a comprehensive understanding of our current knowledge of Eastern Maine’s watersheds, intertidal, nearshore, and offshore ecosystems. Continuing the conversation in early winter 2020, EM3C convened two watershed-based meeting that included a unique mix of local leaders including members of the tribal, fishing industry, academic and regulatory communities. When the COVID pandemic hit, other planned engagement meetings were forced to stop. These meetings were re-started in 2021 using remote meeting tools. We aim to spark a rich dialogue toward producing a deep understanding of a local community fisheries vision and building the human network necessary to support it. This session will describe the engagement process used for collecting local stakeholder input that provides a framework for integration of scientists and policy makers over time. Preliminary findings will be shared along with discussion of the importance of this comprehensive and bottom-approach to steering future science and policy.
For more information about the 2021 Maine Sustainability & Water Conference, go to https://umaine.edu/mitchellcenter/2021-maine-sustainability-water-conference/.
