Comment on NFMS Fisheries of the United States Report

Researchers from the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future submitted feedback on the NOAA Fisheries "Fisheries of the United States" (FUS) report, offering three main improvement recommendations. First, they advocate for a more diverse, multi-disciplinary approach that incorporates expertise from various NOAA divisions and external experts, particularly from indigenous and underrepresented communities, similar to the UN FAO's SOFIA report model. Second, they suggest significantly improving data visualization by replacing tables with graphs and making raw data available through databases and Excel files to increase the report's impact and usability. Finally, they recommend adopting a comprehensive food systems and fish as food perspective that explicitly addresses systems dimensions such as livelihoods, worker safety, food security, and sustainability alongside production data.