A pilot marketing project called PacificFishTrax – a joint venture involving Oregon State University (OSU), the Community Seafood Initiative (CSI), and long-time Oregon fishermen – is a combination scientific research and public outreach effort designed to simultaneously get the word out about Oregon’s commercial fisheries, and strengthen wild fish runs, including salmon.
It is said that this new system would be unveil at two News Seasons Market locations in Portland today (Friday). According to information CSI set sail in 2002 with grants from the Kellogg Foundation and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Funds for Rural America. The initiative focuses on finding new markets and product opportunities for the seafood industry, especially albacore tuna, shellfish, and sardines.
With the funding, CSI’s Seafood Consumer Center in Astoria launched four new projects for the seafood industry: leadership training for newcomers to the seafood business; six joint research efforts to develop new markets and new value-added products (such as seafood with longer shelf life); efforts to enhance marketing opportunities for fishermen and seafood companies; and developing a seafood traceability system that uses genetic and environmental data to track fish stocks and provide real-time information on the condition of regional fisheries.
Project manager Wendy Yorkshire from CSI designed and developed the project, working with project advisor Jeff Feldner, a long-time local fisherman who is now a seafood and fisheries specialist with OSU’s Oregon Sea Grant Extension. It is told that the idea first emerged from the Collaborative Research on Oregon Ocean Salmon (CROOS) project, an OSU Coastal Oregon Marine Experiment Station (COMES) effort based at Hatfield Marine Science Center (HMSC).
Gil Sylvia, an OSU seafood economist and COMES superintendent, said that all of the participants have similar goals of using science to improve management of the resource and to help sustain our seafood harvest.
