Symposium Summary: Managing Data to Meet Shrinking Budgets and Growing Needs

Sponsors: Fisheries Information and Technology Section, Organization of Fish and Wildlife Information Managers, Pacific Northwest Aquatic Monitoring Partnership Symposium This symposium featured more than 20 speakers, beginning with Doug Austen, AFS executive director, and concluding with an excellent panel and group discussion focused on the necessity of creating data products that are high quality and communicable. Using the stages of the data life cycle as a framework, the speakers illustrated how a good data management plan can sustain funding, foster collaboration and increase organizational productivity. Good planning, standardization, data collection, validation and QA/QC, documentation, and storage were demonstrated to improve efficiency and maintain the integrity of data. These datasets can be shared across organizational, geographic, and regulatory boundaries, fostering collaboration and creating new research opportunities. Speaker questions and discussions during the panel session and breaks revealed that this topic is vital to all fisheries and aquatic sciences, but tends to be largely overlooked as necessary training for students and professionals. The excellent attendance and active audience participation during talks and the panel discussion emphasizes the need to continue to discuss good data management practices in fisheries.   — Julie Defilippi, ACCSP, [email protected] Read the symposium abstracts here.