To the immense credit of both fishermen and scientists, these two communities have recognized that they need each other, that the sum of their understanding of the fishery ecosystem is greater than their individual knowledge, that they need to re-establish trust and working relationships. The hunger of all parties to acquire better information on the fishery ecosystem, the resurgence of fish stocks on Georges Bank, the desire to develop greater consensus about management strategies for the Gulf of Maine, extensive cooperative efforts between science, industry and management, and substantial new federal funding have set the stage for an exciting period of collaborative fishery research.

This new era of collaborative fishery research could be extraordinary. "Data fishing" will offer a new source of revenue to fishermen and diversify their financial base, which is so important when fishing options are so tightly constrained. Scientists will draw on fishermen to assist them in defining research questions and developing methods to answer often tough questions, which is so important in light of the complexity of the marine ecosystem and the extreme expense traditional research vessels. Fishermen will draw on scientists to assist them in using the credible scientific method as a framework for testing and communicating their theories about the fishery ecosystem. Fishermen and scientists working together will lead to more discussion of tough questions, more provocative hypotheses, more creative and cost-effective strategies to test such hypotheses, and joint ownership of results.