Collaborative fisheries research: the Canadian Fisheries Research Network experience

The Canadian Fisheries Research Network (CFRN) was a collaboration among fish harvesters, academic researchers, and government scientists that undertook research between 2010 and 2016 on questions about fisheries that were identified by fish harvesters and pertinent to management objectives. This paper provides a synthesis of the scope and results of the CFRN. It explores the link between the increasing challenges to fisheries sustainability and the need for increased research capacity and for a collaborative approach. It documents the creation of the collaboration, the research it accomplished, and its benefits and explores the need for ongoing collaboration. The papers in this special issue on the CFRN demonstrate the benefits of collaborative fisheries research that are of relevance internationally and support the need for a permanent collaborative platform to conduct research to support fisheries management capacity and decision-making in Canada.