An international team of experts in fisheries management, spearheaded by UW professor Ray Hilborn from the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, is trying to lead the conversation about sustainable fisheries using a less traditional approach—reaching the general public directly through a new website and social media outreach.

The initiative is called the Collaborative for Food from Our Oceans Data, or “CFOOD” for short, and offers data and commentary on the sustainability of global fisheries.

Many scientific reports and resulting media coverage about fish stocks collapsing or being overfished are incorrect or widely misinterpreted, they say. They launched the effort two weeks ago to provide a forum for experts to discuss or explain certain claims.

Two UW School of Marine and Environmental Affairs graduate students, Max Mossler and Jack Cheney, manage the Twitter account (@cfoodUW) and website.