Expeditions Virtual Field Trip with FISHstory - Stepping Back in Time: How Historic Dock Photos Can Help Fisheries Management
Summary
What can historic dock photos reveal about fisheries? The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council’s new citizen science project, FISHstory, aims to find out.
FISHstory (pronounced like history) trains volunteers to identify and count fish in historic dock photos from Daytona Beach, FL from the 1940s-1970s. Data collected will help fishery managers build a more complete picture of these fisheries prior to the beginning of dedicated catch monitoring programs. To gather this data, we’re using the power of the crowd through the online crowdsourcing platform, Zooniverse. The project is completely online, open to all, and includes fish identification training
materials for those that aren’t fish ID experts. We need help from citizen scientists like you to unlock the data in these photos!
Join EarthEcho International and the South Atlantic Fishery Management staff, Allie Iberle and Julia Byrd, to learn more about FISHstory and how you can get involved in the project!
Panelists
Julia Byrd
Julia Byrd is the Citizen Science Program Manager for the South Atlantic Fishery Management
Council (SAFMC). She oversees the SAFMC’s citizen science efforts - helping connect fishermen,
scientists, and other stakeholders to develop and support projects that address SAFMC research
priorities. Previous positions include working for the SEDAR Stock Assessment Program helping
coordinate fishery stock assessments for the Southeast U.S. and serving as biologist for the South
Carolina Department of Natural Resources where she worked on a variety of fisheries management. She received a Master’s degree in environmental science and policy from the College of Charleston and a Bachelor’s degree from Wake Forest University.
Allie Iberle
Allie Iberle is the Citizen Science Project Coordinator for the South Atlantic Fishery
Management Council (SAFMC). She earned a Bachelor’s in marine science from Coastal Carolina
University and went on to complete a Master’s degree in environmental science and policy from Johns Hopkins University. During her Master’s degree program she partnered with Dr. Chip Collier from SAFMC to complete a thesis examining the effectiveness of regulations on fishing mortality, landings, discard mortality, and discards on three South Atlantic species. Allie currently serves as the FISHstory Project Coordinator, but also assists with other SAFMC citizen science projects and program activities.
Classroom Resources
FISHstory Field Guide
FISHstory (pronounced like history) is a citizen science project developed by the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council's Citizen Science Program. This project trains volunteers to identify and count fish in historic fishing photos from Daytona Beach, FL from the 1940s-1970s. Data collected will help fisheries managers paint a clearer picture of the fishery prior to dedicated catch monitoring programs. This Field Guide will help you learn the basics of fish identification and start the project on Zooniverse.org
What’s the Stake?: A Lesson on Fisheries Management
A fishery is a geographic region that contains a population of aquatic species which are a natural resource that needs to be managed. This management requires people from different backgrounds and in different fields, such as stakeholders, scientists, fisherpeople, government groups, and citizens. The goal of managing fisheries is to ensure that the different fish populations will be sustainable and a resource for now and future use. It can be a difficult thing to manage since people in different roles will have different priorities. Students will re-enact a fisheries management meeting by adopting the roles of various stakeholders in Plymouth (commercial fishers, recreational fishers, environmental groups, citizens, scientists, etc.) and advocate for a certain policy based on their role as a stakeholder.