Trading expertise: The rise and demise of an industry/government committee on survey trawl design

Abstract

Understanding how industry-science collaborations work and how the resulting knowledge is used is critical for improving the incorporation of fishers' knowledge in policy-making. We use the concept of 'trading zones' to analyze a collaborative effort to integrate fishers' and scientists' expertise in the Northeast U.S.: the Trawl Survey Advisory Panel. The aim of this collaboration was to improve the production of knowledge for fisheries management by developing a new and improved trawl system (survey net and gear) for the routine data-gathering survey carried out by the federal government. The collaboration was expected to increase the legitimacy and credibility of the science by increasing transparency through a participatory process that made use of fishers' contributory knowledge. We describe how this collaboration shifted among "trading zones," as well as the role of boundary processes in this transition. Although the government scientists invested heavily in the collaboration, they were ultimately not able keep the process going, as industry members left, sensing that their expertise was not appreciated, boundaries had been erected, and the trading zone for genuine collaboration was closed. © 2012 Johnson and McCay.