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The U.S. South Atlantic region has many long‐standing data needs and limited data collection resources for federally managed marine fish stocks. Much of the harvest is dominated by recreational fisheries, where data are limited, especially during historic time periods. FISHstory, a pilot project developed through the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council's Citizen Science Program, developed a standardized protocol for archiving and analyzing historic photos from the 1940s to 1970s from a for‐hire fleet based in Florida. These photos document the beginnings of the South Atlantic for‐hire fishery and are potentially an untapped source of data that can help recreate information on catch and length composition prior to when dedicated fishery dependent surveys began. Many careful steps were taken in the design of FISHstory to ensure data collected would be fit for purpose and useful to management. This paper highlights these steps and describes lessons learned through project development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing costs are challenging the capacity for resource management agencies to keep up with mounting needs for robust data about fish populations and their habitats. Furthermore, trust among scientists, government agencies, and the public is fundamental to effective fisheries management, and relations among these three groups are increasingly strained when decisions about fishing limits are made (or are perceived to be made) on the basis of limited information or analysis. In the South Atlantic region of the United States, the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council has begun building a citizen science program to increase the quantity and quality of data used for fisheries management decisions throughout the region and to build trust and foster mutual understanding among those involved in the process. The goal is to build on existing management infrastructure to address key challenges to managing fisheries for long-term sustainability. In the present article, we examine the collaborative process used to establish the program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A constant challenge in fisheries stock assessment and management is having sufficient data to inform research and analyses. Nontraditional data sources like citizen science, when collected and applied appropriately, can help fill such data gaps. Use of nontraditional data sources is on the rise, but its use and application in fisheries science and management remains largely untapped. In order to examine the use of such data sources, we held a symposium at the 2020 American Fisheries Society Annual Meeting entitled "How Citizen Science and Nontraditional Data Sources can be Better Incorporated Into Fisheries Stock Assessments and Management" (https://bit.ly/3V13vHe). The session included 12 talks and a panel discussion to examine best practices. This paper reviews seven nontraditional data programs and projects used to support fisheries management featured in this special issue of Fisheries. It concludes with key lessons from the panel discussion for best applying nontraditional data sources in fisheries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]