UPDATED March 5, 2025

Fishing for Clarity: Knowledge Modeling to Support Cross-Organizational Collaboration and
Data Sharing About Salmon Escapement

AFS Washington-British Columbia Chapter Meeting Vancouver BC March 10, 2025 9:00 am – 2:30 pm
In person attendees will be in the hotel Salon C (Cordova Level)

Workshop Description
In this workshop (sponsored by Fisheries and Oceans Canada, NCEAS, PSMFC StreamNet, and PNAMP),
participants will learn about using a knowledge modeling approach to integrate data across multiple
organizations engaged in monitoring salmon spawner abundance. Focusing on the challenge of being able to
integrate salmon escapement observations across diverse entities, workshop attendees learn about processes
to develop a shared ontology, starting with mapping of concepts that underlie salmon escapement
observations. The workshop will introduce participants to the skills needed to build scalable, interoperable
data models, an important component of enabling integrated data across organizations for better analysis and
decision-making. Workshop participants will be invited to a future workshop where we share practical tools
and conduct further hands-on exercises to enable a roadmap for advancing data sharing and collaboration in
salmon management.

Workshop Objectives
● Shared Understanding of Challenges: Identify and address challenges in integrating heterogeneous data
from different systems and organizations.
● Strategies for Standardizing Terms: Understand the key principles and methodologies of knowledge
modeling.
● Best Practices for Salmon Data Stewardship: Invite critical review of best practices outlined in
manuscript, identify missing best-practices, coordinate authorship.
● Next Steps for Continued Collaboration: Discuss strategies for ensuring the scalability and sustainability
of data models in collaborative environments.

Workshop Flow:
The workshop will begin with brief roundtable introductions for in-person attendees and chat
introductions for virtual participants, following a welcome from the hosts. The objectives and informal,
discussion-based format for the workshop will be outlined.

Matt Jones (NCEAS) will set the stage by showcasing innovative data science and knowledge
engineering solutions used to improve salmon data integration and discoverability in Alaska. Their
work will serve as a springboard for exploring how similar approaches could address inter-agency and
transboundary data-sharing challenges.

Invited speakers will present their salmon data integration projects, focusing on the challenges of
defining and standardizing terms and how they overcame them to integrate data from disparate
sources.

We will also discuss an in-progress paper on salmon data stewardship principles, inviting new
co-authors to contribute ideas and continue collaboration beyond the workshop.

The hands-on session (1 hour) will be conducted in three breakout groups, each working with a
different dataset. Two in-person groups will focus on NuSEDS and SALHub, while the online breakout
group will work with Streamnet CAX-NOSA. The session will consist of two 30 minute activities: 1)
Decomposing dataset concepts – identifying core concepts and relationships within each dataset’s
vocabulary; 2) Clustering identified concepts – organizing them into broader conceptual categories.
Participants will use Google Sheets and Mural for these activities. Each dataset will have a designated
Google Sheet in the working drive here, containing its vocabulary and definitions. Breakout group
members will use these Sheets to guide their discussions, while the Group Leader and Scribe will
document key insights and results on the Mural Board.

The session will conclude with a discussion on next steps, identifying potential tools, processes, and
venues for formal collaboration toward more interoperable international salmon data.