Project Director: Thao Vu

Funding Organization: National Academies of Science, Engineering, Medicine: Gulf Research Program

Funding Cycles: Capacity Building 1

Description: MSCVAFF works to address the immediate and long-term needs of the Vietnamese-American fishing communities that have been adversely impacted by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. With this award, the project team plans to connect scientists with multi-ethnic fishing communities in Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi to encourage a two-way information exchange. Scientists will benefit from the traditional ecological knowledge that they learn from fisher folks, while fisher folks will learn about ecosystem research and data collection methods from their academic research scientist partners. By encouraging cooperative research that connects these two groups, the project team hopes to inform scientific research and fisheries restoration priorities with more comprehensive information about coastal ecosystems and to develop solutions to address chronic challenges that fishing communities face.