I think it works both ways. Fishermen have a vast knowledge that the investigators need to share with in order to face the problem of shortages due to over-fishing. In Newfoundland the government imposed a moratorium on cod fishing that has lasted many years. The Governments (on the recommendation of the investigators) have to impose moratorium on certain species when they become scarce after consulting/ meeting with the fishermen unions. There is no need to educate the fishermen; they know the problem of shortages from over-fishing very well, but they are doing their job. No fishing, no money.

Problem is for example in France, some fishermen exceeds by far the allowed quotas for red tuna... Those ones would need "education" because by their acting, they penalize all the other fishermen.

I think it is necessary some alternatives if they (fishermans) can not catch fish. For example, in the Danube Delta many fishermen have given up their jobs, and they are turned to tourism activities ... boat trips, bird watching. And they are very satisfied.

In China  the fisheries resources are in a situation that can be likened to "the tragedy of the commons". They know the status of the fisheries resourse. But they have to due ot their living . So it is not good if we only educate fishermen.  In  China government has imposed the moratorium of fishing since 1995. I think it woks. 

I particularly think we should talk of co-management. For some information see the link below. As example the EU created the RACs (Regional Advisory Committees) where fishermen are the protagonist and scientist invited. Also NGO are participating in co-management. In November 2013 GFCM co-organised a meeting on Mediterranean SSF and one of the topics was co-management (link below). You can also go to the meeting report.

http://www.fao.org/fishery/topic/16625/en

http://www.ssfsymposium.org/SitePages/WelcomePage.aspx

Our educational work with fishermen is in order to show them the main concepts in common use of resources and the "tragedy of the commons" to then present what is fisheries management. We also analyze the challenges we have today in Brazil to collect data, mainly for small-scale fisheries. In a second part , we make a group dynamic "word coffee" where the fishermen themselves analyze and discuss previously prepared questions on fish stocks. They have to suggest  control measures.  There is always a member of our team in the group taking notes. The results are amazing.

As per my experience, we need not to educate the fishermen regarding the status of species. Because, fishers have traditional knowledge and wisdom and they know the situation on species abundance and fluctuation etc. very well than the others. They are actually expert in this regards. Only thing we need to do is to make them aware what will happen if this happen further. The other stakeholders should consider management strategies for sustainability.