Dale Squires serves as chair of the Highly Migratory Species Plan Development Team. Sam Herrick serves as a member of this team and the Coastal Pelagics Species Team. Donna Dealy provides computer support. The applied economics research has focused on the definition and measurement of fishing capacity as part of the FAO Global Plan of Action. The group hosted the 1998 FAO Technical Working Group on fishing capacity.
Applied research is also focused on measures of productivity,technical change, and efficiency.