Resurrecting the public record: Assessing stakeholder participation in Alaska's fisheries

Stakeholder participation is lauded as a key component of successful fisheries management, but few studies have characterized and assessed this participation. Using integrated data digitization and coding methods, this paper tests out a new method to analyze archived management proposals submitted to Alaska's Board of Fish and explores whether this approach can be used to assess stakeholder participation and success rates in Cook Inlet, Bristol Bay, and Southeast Alaska from 2000 to 2015. This pilot study asks the question, “Are there differences in user participation and success rates across the three regions during this time period?”