State-Federal Commercial Landings Sampling Workshop

The Northeast Region Coordinating Council sponsored a State-Federal Commercial Landings Sampling Workshop on September 22 & 23, 2025. The workshop was organized in response to concerns about decreased biological sampling (e.g., lengths, ages) of commercial landings in the Greater Atlantic region which threatens the data underpinnings of stock assessments used to support fisheries management. The workshop had four objectives: 1) promote information exchange relative to sampling activities among state and federal programs; 2) share sampling technology and best practices among programs, 3) evaluate the collective dependency of our landings sampling programs on various sources of funding; and 4) generate recommendations to improve sampling coordination and data accessibility.