DEM and URI Partner to Promote Sustainable Fisheries

Department of Environmental Management Director Janet Coit will join Dean Bruce Corliss of the University of Rhode Island’s Graduate School of Oceanography and others at an event to announce the formation of the new RI Marine Fisheries Institute (RIMFI) on Monday, May 5 at the University of Rhode Island’s Bay Campus in Narragansett.

Based on the successful model developed between the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries and the University of Massachusetts, DEM and URI have worked over the past year to develop the RIMFI. Its mission is to promote sustainable fisheries by providing timely information and guidance to protect, conserve, and manage Rhode Island’s marine fisheries resources through research, education and public service. Its partnership-based approach, drawing upon close ties with Rhode Island’ marine fishing industry, will leverage collective state assets to better understand and manage Rhode Island’s marine resources.

An informational meeting, followed by a signing ceremony, will begin at 4 p.m. at the Mosby Center at the URI Bay Campus. In addition to Director Coit and Dean Corliss, participants at Monday’s event will include Congressman Jim Langevin; University of Rhode Island representatives Vice Provost Clifford Katz, Dean John Kirby of the College of the Environment and Life Sciences, Dennis Nixon, director of the Rhode Island Sea Grant Program, and Professor Jeremy Collie;  and Jason McNamee of DEM’s Division of Fish & Wildlife, Marine Fisheries Section.