Multi-stakeholder engagement around territorial bottomfish stock assessment: Perspectives from Hawaiʻi and Guam

This dataset includes qualitative interview data aggregated and entered into an excel csv file. We collected data by observing virtual Council-hosted meetings and conducting virtual unstructured interviews from September 2020 to July 2021. Interviewees were selected either for A) their participation in the 2015-16 Hawaiʻi bottomfish commercial fishery data workshops, or B) their knowledge of, contribution to, or direct participation in Guam’s bottomfish fisheries, fishery operations and data collection, stock assessment science, and subsequent management. Participants were identified through the 2015-16 workshop attendee list (Yau 2018) and the lead author’s points of contact within the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council (WPRFMC), the Guam Division of Aquatics and Wildlife Resources (DAWR), and Guam and Hawaiʻi fishing communities. Additional participants were identified through participant referral. A total of 42 stakeholders were interviewed. Data from interviews and participant observations were coded to track themes that emerged from the data. Data were coded to capture and organize themes relevant to multi-stakeholder engagement processes and the relationship between bottomfish fisheries, science, and management.