INTRODUCTION
Fishery dependent data-length distributions, sex ratios, maturity schedules, and species composition of landed catches-are necessary for stock assessments. These data are currently collected by state port biologists using a sampling design that randomly selects samples from a small percentage of a very large target population. Because of changes in the fishery, sampling programs may need to increase the sample size and possibly expand data collection times into evenings and weekends. This must also be accomplished in an economically reasonable manner, which is a significant challenge. Working cooperatively with the seafood processing plants is one way to meet these challenges.This study explored the feasibility of implementing a cooperative sampling program for West Coast groundfish, with the goal of improving the precision and accuracy of estimates derived from the fishery dependent samples. This project, called the Fishing Industry and Research Scientists Together (FIRST) project, specifically explored the feasibility of using seafood processing plant workers to collect fishery dependent data that are statistically comparable to data collected by Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODF&W) port biologists.