URI Fisheries Center
Department of Fisheries, Animal and Veterinary Sciences
College of Environment and Life Sciences

Fisheries is an economic and social activity that produces food and recreation for the world’s growing human population. A healthy ecosystem with sufficient reproducing stocks is the building block of this vital system. The management of fisheries for long term sustainability is a complex interaction between the fish, the marine environment, fishermen, scientists, environmentalists, managers and the public. All complex systems share behaviors that cannot be explained by a sum of their parts. The role of the URI Fisheries Center is to provide tools and opportunities for the types of interactions needed to create change. Our intention is to create an environment where stakeholders invested in creating a healthy resource and fishery can work to develop innovative methods of multidisciplinary fisheries research, extension and outreach for the management of these valuable fisheries resources.

There are currently 5 staff working at the Fisheries Center.

	Kathleen Castro, PhD Phone: (401) 874-5063 Email: kcastro@uri.edu Fisheries development and co-management, extension practices, Lobster ecology, gear technology, local knowledge, training and capacity building.
	Christopher Parkins, (MS 9/2011) Phone: (401) 874-7152 Email: cparkins1@gmail.com Bycatch reduction, gear technology, fisheries science, observing and data collection, international training, GIS mapping.
	Laura Skrobe, MS Phone: (401) 874-9360 Email: lskrobe@uri.edu Fisheries surveys, bycatch reduction, statistics and data analysis, extension and outreach, and collaborative research.
	Najih Lazar, MS Phone: (401) 874-7852 Email: nlazar@uri.edu International fisheries development , stock assessment and management, survey design.
	Barbara Somers, MS Phone: (401) 874-2012 Email: bsomers@ds.uri.edu Bycatch reduction, Lobster biology and disease, data base management, public education and recreational fishing outreach.