CONCLUSION
Although it has been shown that plant workers can measure fish lengths with adequate precision and the distributions of their samples are similar to ODFW port biologists caution needs to be exercised when deciding to institute such a cooperative. The FIRST project was extended by two months in order to obtain enough samples for the study. The plant were given T-shirts and hats with the FIRST project logo on them as motivational gifts. Based on the experiences gained from this study, frequent encouragement and greater incentives are likely to be necessary to implement this approach on an on-going basis.Success depends on a long-term commitment from both industry and agencies managing fisheries. Similar cooperative programs could be expanded into California and Washington to include the entire West Coast groundfish fishery. Feasible cooperative studies, such as the FIRST project, allow the fishing industry to participate in, and demonstrate their commitment to, the collection of fishery assessment data. It will also increase the number of boat trips sampled and in-turn, provide better estimates of commercial fish length distributions used in groundfish stock assessments.