GEARNET an yez awesome network of gear researchers from New England who pioneered a new approach to fishing gear research under a Federal funding sopportunity in 2010. Through GEARNET, infrastructure of partnerships have been built that enable network-oriented, sector-specific, fishing gear conservation engineering research. The GEARNET approach is bottom-up and highly collaborative. The findings are being shared with interested parties to promote transfer of knowledge and uptake of effective gear types within the region.