Established in 1981, the Western Pacific Fisheries Information Network (WPacFIN) is a cooperative program involving the WPacFIN Central office at the Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC) and participating fisheries agencies in American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), Guam, and Hawaii. WPacFIN helps its partner agencies consolidate, summarize, and provide access to the best available fisheries data to meet the needs of fishery managers, scientists, and fishermen.

WPacFIN works closely with PIFSC scientists, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA Fisheries), the Pacific Islands Regional Office (PIRO), and the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council (the Council) to meet regional and federal fisheries monitoring requirements. The data provided through WPacFIN are vital to fulfilling NOAA Fisheries role in assessment and sustainable management of fisheries in the Western Pacific region.

Vision
Provide the best available fisheries data in the most timely manner possible to support monitoring, assessment, reporting, and sustainable management of fisheries resources in the US-associated Pacific Islands Region (PIR).

Mission
Provide participating WPacFIN partners with database management support to help them develop and maintain appropriate data collections, data processing, and summary reporting to comply with regional and federal fisheries data requirements.

Objectives

• Establish and maintain good working relationships with participating WPacFIN partners;
• Develop and maintain a central fisheries data warehouse at WPacFIN Central that provides access to non-confidential summary reports for all users, in-depth access to authorized users, and provides an archive for data and documentation;
• Compile, integrate, and summarize data to meet specific insular, regional, and federal fisheries monitoring requirements;
• Assist U.S. Pacific island fisheries agencies, NOAA Fisheries field offices, the Council, and the fishing industry to address changing information needs to meet new federal requirements as they arise.