History
of Discontinued Technical Series
Most of the discontinued series of NEFSC-published technical literature
(i.e., literature covering science but written in a manner to appeal
to a range of scientific, technical, and popular audiences) can trace
their ancestry to one administrative series -- the MONTHLY NARRATIVE
REPORT series. The series was a carryover from the old U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service's Bureau of Commercial Fisheries to the new NOAA
National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) in 1970. The Monthly Narrative
Reports were prepared by the Northeast Fisheries Center (or NEFC,
which in turn became the Northeast Fisheries Science Center, or NEFSC,
in 1991) for the NMFS Northeast Regional Director (forerunner position
of the current NMFS Northeast Regional Administrator), and summarized
key research activities and findings by the NEFC during the preceding
month. Until its last issue -- for February 1977 -- the Monthly Narrative
Report series reported on research activities and findings on a laboratory-by-laboratory
basis.
In March 1977, the Fisheries Conservation and Management Act of 1976
(i.e., the "200-mile-limit act") came into force, and NMFS changed
from a predominantly service-oriented agency to a predominantly regulatory-oriented
agency. Recognizing the need to communicate better with a host of constituents,
from fishermen to lenders to environmentalists to legislators to the general
public, the NEFC began retargeting its technical communication efforts
from strictly the bureaucracy to include its diverse constituents. The
retargeting began with the conversion of the Monthly Narrative Report series to the NEFC NEWS series. The NEFC News series continued to be published monthly, but began covering research
activities and findings on a program-by-program basis (resource assessment,
aquaculture, resource utilization, etc.), and began to be mailed directly
to a number of constituent organizations and individuals. With the September
1980 issue, the name of the series was slightly changed from NEFC News to NEFC NEWSLETTER.
While the reporting of research activities and findings on a program-by-program
basis was interesting and sometimes useful to the NEFC's constituents,
the NEFC Newsletter often failed to answer some of the more important
questions on why a particular research project had been undertaken, how
it related to other research in the NEFC and elsewhere, and what the long-term
implications and applications of its findings would mean for the NEFC's
constituents. Consequently, with the November 1980 issue, many of the
monthly issues of the NEFC Newsletter included a "spotlight" feature.
Each such feature was similar in length and style (including illustrations)
to a popular magazine article, focused on a single research project (e.g.,
fish egg/larval surveys) or topic (e.g., viral diseases of marine
finfish and shellfish), and sought to answer some of these more important
questions. Also, a special issue dedicated to just one topic (i.e.,
"Haddock: A Review of the Record and a Forecast") was issued on July 1,
1983.
Because of the time involved in preparing the spotlight features, the
special issue, and additional feature articles for external media (e.g., Commercial Fisheries News), it became impossible to continue issuing
the NEFC Newsletter on a monthly basis. Beginning in May-June 1981,
the NEFC Newsletter changed from a monthly periodical to a nonperiodical,
with most issues covering two months. Because the typical issue of the NEFC Newsletter covered a two-month period, the series was renamed
the NORTHEAST FISHERIES CENTER BIMONTHLY REPORT beginning
with the November-December 1984 issue. The Bimonthly Report series
terminated with the March-April 1985 issue for reasons noted below.
The July 1983 special issue of the NEFC Newsletter on haddock
was well received, and there were requests for more special issues on
important commercial and recreational species. Consequently, a new series
-- called NORTHEAST FISHERIES CENTER TARGETED INFORMATION -- was started in April 1984. The first issue was a reprint of the July
1983 special issue on haddock. The second issue of the Targeted Information series also came out in April 1984, and dealt with "Bluefish: Biology
and Management along the Atlantic Coast." The Targeted Information series terminated with its second issue, also for reasons noted below.
As the NEFC Newsletter moved from a monthly periodical to a nonperiodical,
a void was left for the timely dissemination of information on NEFC research
activities and findings. That void was filled with the creation of the NORTHEAST FISHERIES CENTER MONTHLY HIGHLIGHTS series.
The Monthly Highlights began in August 1983. Unlike all of its
predecessors, each issue of the Monthly Highlights was not an edited
compilation of write-ups which had been prepared by the NEFC's scientists,
but was a collection of brief (i.e., typically only one paragraph)
news items focused on news value and expressed with journalistic style.
In addition, each news items had the name and telephone number of an NEFC
scientist to contact for more information. The series became very popular;
its mailing list quickly grew to more than a thousand organizations and
individuals in the NMFS Northeast Region. That popularity was a major
factor in the termination of the Bimonthly Report and Targeted
Information series.
In November 1991, the Monthly Highlights series was renamed the NORTHEAST FISHERIES SCIENCE CENTER RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS series in order to distinguish it from a couple of other series also called Monthly Highlights being issued by programs in NMFS's headquarters
and regional offices. The name change also permitted the series to change
from a monthly periodical to a nonperiodical, with most issues covering
two months. In summer 1994, the deterioration of stocks of the Northeast's
traditional groundfish species (i.e., haddock, Atlantic cod, and
yellowtail flounder) reached crisis level. One of the consequences of
the crisis was a major upgrading and retooling of the NEFSC's program
for communicating with its constituents on the implications and applications
of its research. Direct and frequent -- often daily -- contact was established
between the NEFSC and its constituents, particularly the Northeast's news
media. Telephone calls, faxes, e-mails, etc., replaced the Research
Highlights as the primary means of communicating with the NEFSC's
constituents -- both comprehensively and in depth -- on the implications
and applications of NEFSC research. The Research Highlights series
terminated with the July-October 1994 issue.
There was another administrative series besides the Monthly Narrative
Report which was a carryover from the old U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's
Bureau of Commercial Fisheries to the new NOAA National Marine Fisheries
Service (NMFS) in 1970: the ANNUAL REPORT. Through
1975, the Annual Report included summaries of the major activities
and findings of the NEFC's research programs during the preceding year,
as well as a listing of the papers which had been published by NEFC authors
during that year. The Annual Report was prepared for the NMFS Northeast
Regional Director, who combined it with a similar report for the Northeast
Regional Office's management and enforcement arms, and forwarded the combined
report to headquarters. In 1976, the series dropped the listing of authored
papers. In 1977, the series dropped the combining of fisheries center
and regional office write-ups; the NEFC sent its Annual Report directly to headquarters. In 1978 and 1979, the series returned to its
1976 pattern. In 1980, the Carter Administration terminated all non-statutorily-mandated
annual reporting by federal agencies: that included the NEFC's Annual
Report series.
Although the Annual Report series had been terminated, there
was still a desire by the agency to document its activities, findings,
and recommendations on an annual basis. Accordingly, early in the Reagan
Administration, NMFS started an agency-level End-of-Year Report.
The first agency-level End-of-Year Report covered calendar year
1982. The NEFC followed suit at the regional level, issuing its own NORTHEAST
FISHERIES CENTER END-OF-YEAR REPORT beginning with calendar
year 1983. The NEFC series was largely composed of the brief news write-ups
which had appeared in the Monthly Highlights for that year. The
NEFC-level End-of-Year Report series terminated with the 1990 issue.
None of the aforementioned discontinued series of NEFSC-published technical
literature are available on the Web. Paper copies of all issues of all
series are maintained by the NEFSC's Woods Hole Laboratory Library and/or
the NEFSC's Editorial Office.
