Data Sharing Agreements in Pacific Highly Migratory Species Fisheries 

Digital Public

One of the largest barriers to data modernization is the complicated process for creating legal and policy agreements governing data sharing, including agreements within and across agency offices as well as with state and international partners. z

This project supported the NMFS Highly Migratory Species Professional Specialty Group to hire a skilled contractor to develop tools for better data sharing agreements for U.S. fisheries in the Pacific region. Based on interviews with the group and research on analogous programs, Digital Public prepared and distributed two reports. The first describes specific issues and challenges around data sharing across state, federal and international partners in the Pacific region. The second report is a reference guide providing example language and guidance for crafting data sharing agreements that can be used by anyone, regardless of fishery or region.