Challenge: Under new NOAA regulations, the West Coast Groundfish Trawl Fishery transitioned to a Catch Share program in 2011. Instead of the traditional, single fleet-wide quota, this approach used a Shorebased Individual Fishing Quota (IFQ) program, providing equitable shares of the overall allowable catch (or “catch shares”).

The catch shares are designed to benefit both fish and fishermen, holding fishermen accountable for their deliberate catch as well as bycatch. To monitor compliance, the Catch Share program required at-sea observers on 100% of participating vessels — a four-fold increase over the previous coverage. The at-sea observers are scientists who collect and analyze bycatch and other data to promote sustainable and productive fisheries along the U.S. West Coast.

This dramatic increase in observers and the accompanying influx of data resulted in critical administrative needs, ranging from observer onboarding to data entry. NOAA issued a sole-sourced IDIQ Task Order to TDEC for a Program Support Technician to handle these critical administrative functions.

Solution: Staffing the position required a good sense of the workplace culture and what a good fit looked like. With this insight, the TDEC hiring team quickly identified the ideal candidate for the job — Rebecca Hoch. Rebecca was not a scientist (and it wasn’t a requirement of the job), but she was personable, smart, organized, and resourceful, and was selected by NOAA.

On its face the position was administrative, but in reality the Observer program needed someone who could adapt as the program evolved — a “jack of all trades” as Rebecca described herself. Apart from data entry, the position required interaction with members of the Observer community, from scheduling meetings to initial onboarding and annual reviews. Rebecca’s broader judgment let her make the necessary calls when dealing with observer candidates and contractors.

Results: Rebecca’s tenure at the West Coast Groundfish Catch Share Observer Program was evidence of her success in the position, with widespread impact on the program: accurate and timely entry of at-sea observer data fed NOAA Fishery scientists’ sustainable-fishing studies; she handled communications with observers and fishermen, formatted reports, and even acted as an on-shore safety “spotter” during at-sea sessions; she was the keeper and archivist of the paper-based trip log data and logbooks; and she launched the quarterly “Word on the Waves” newsletter, writing, editing, and wrangling contributors to build community across a disparate and solitary observer corps.