Book's by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Advisory Committee on Fisheries Research. Working Party on Status and Trends of Fisheries
The Advisory Committee on Fisheries Research (ACFR) Working Party on Status and Trends of Fisheries met in Rome to consider how fishery status and trends reporting could be improved in terms of quality, scope and timeliness and better coordinated to allow a more systematic synthesis of information from national to regional and global levels. Owing to the importance of status and trends reports, and the scrutiny they receive, the Working Party recommended that the global system of status and trends reporting be advanced by: increasing completeness by including some fisheries and fishery resources that are currently under-represented; expanding the scope of current reports that are primarily on catch and fishery resource information to include other dimensions of fisheries; and enhancing quality assurance and credibility.
The Advisory Committee held its sixth session in Rome, Italy in October 2006 and topics discussed included: a review of the work of the FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Department with a focus on fish trade, small-scale fisheries and aquaculture; and support for the work of FAO in aquaculture, particularly the timely inclusion of fish species in the Programme of Work of the FAO Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture.
In recent years, the demand for reliable data and reporting on aquaculture has greatly increased, driven not only by the need to formulate and monitor sound policies and development plans, but also by the reporting requirements of international agreements and by increasing public demand for transparency and accountability. This document sets out the findings of a FAO expert consultation, held in January 2004, to discuss relevant issues including approval of a draft strategy and outline plan for improving information on status and trends of aquaculture.
Topics discussed at this meeting included options for enhancing regional fishery bodies and the FishCode Strategy for Improving Information on Status and Trends of Capture Fisheries partnership; a review of progress by member organisations; aquaculture statistics; issues related to vessel and port classification; fishery data quality indicators; and the status of FishStat Plus.
The Advisory Committee on Fisheries Research (ACFR) Working Party on Status and Trends of Fisheries met in Rome to consider how fishery status and trends reporting could be improved in terms of quality, scope and timeliness and better coordinated to allow a more systematic synthesis of information from national to regional and global levels. Owing to the importance of status and trends reports, and the scrutiny they receive, the Working Party recommended that the global system of status and trends reporting be advanced by: increasing completeness by including some fisheries and fishery resources that are currently under-represented; expanding the scope of current reports that are primarily on catch and fishery resource information to include other dimensions of fisheries; and enhancing quality assurance and credibility.
The Committee's report welcomes the attention given by the World Summit on Sustainable Development 2002 to fisheries issues and provides guidance on the responsible fisheries management goals. It recommends the establishment of a working party on small-scale marine fisheries to develop a draft research agenda and evaluate its role and significance, and identifies human capacity building as a key cross-cutting issue.
This publication contains the report of the Working Group's second session, held in Thailand in November 2003, which included 19 experts from 15 countries covering a range of disciplines related to small-scale fisheries. Issues discussed included a research agenda based on five main themes including policy and institutional arrangements; and the importance of small-scale fisheries to national economies, food security and poverty reduction.
The Advisory Committee on Fisheries Research (ACFR) Working Party on Status and Trends of Fisheries met in Rome to consider how fishery status and trends reporting could be improved in terms of quality, scope and timeliness and better coordinated to allow a more systematic synthesis of information from national to regional and global levels. Owing to the importance of status and trends reports, and the scrutiny they receive, the Working Party recommended that the global system of status and trends reporting be advanced by: increasing completeness by including some fisheries and fishery resources that are currently under-represented; expanding the scope of current reports that are primarily on catch and fishery resource information to include other dimensions of fisheries; and enhancing quality assurance and credibility.
Conclusions of the 25th session of the Committee included: the need for a strategy to improve information on capture fisheries; reaffirmation of the need for global implementation of measures against illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing; the importance of the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries and its related International Plans of Action (IPOAs) in promoting long-term sustainable development of fisheries; and identification of key priority work areas for 2004-05.
This document contains the report of the fourth meeting of the Part 6 Working Group established by the Parties to the Agreement on Port State Measures to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing (hereinafter referred to as the Agreement or the PSMA), held in Rome, Italy, on 4 April 2023. The Part 6 Working Group discussed the requirements of developing States in the implementation of the PSMA, and made concrete recommendations on priority areas for technical assistance and capacity development. The Part 6 Working Group also discussed the status of implementation of the Terms of Reference for the Funding Mechanisms under Part 6 of the PSMA, and noted the need to increase funding to assist developing States in the implementation of the Agreement through, among others: (i) earmarked contributions to FAO for specific project(s) and programme(s); (ii) contributions to the multilateral partner PSMA Part 6 Trust Fund administered by FAO.
This report presents the outcomes of the twenty-fourth session of the GFCM Scientific Advisory Committee on Fisheries. The Committee reviewed the work carried out during the 2022–2023 intersession, including in the context of the MedSea4Fish programme, and provided advice on the status of priority stocks and ecosystems and on potential management measures addressing key fisheries and vulnerable species in the Mediterranean. At the regional level, the Committee provided advice on: i) European eel, red coral and common dolphinfish fisheries in the Mediterranean; ii) minimum conservation reference size for GFCM priority species, including deep-water red shrimp and European hake at the regional level as well as small pelagics in the Adriatic sea and round sardinella in the eastern Mediterranean; and iii) the socioeconomic impacts of a potential extension of bottom trawling limits. With regard to small-scale fisheries, the Committee supported the need to revise the monitoring framework of the Regional Plan of Action for small-scale fisheries in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. It discussed additional work in support of the GFCM, endorsing dedicated research programmes, including on recreational fisheries and on jellyfish in the Alboran Sea, as well as a draft regional plan of action to monitor and mitigate interactions between fisheries and vulnerable species in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea and identified further actions towards the implementation of standardized monitoring plans for fisheries restricted areas (FRAs) and the development of pilot studies to identify boundaries of known vulnerable marine ecosystems. It also discussed issues related to decarbonization and climate change, estimation of discards and fishing capacity. In line with the subregional approach, the Committee formulated advice on i) blackspot seabream in the western Mediterranean; ii) small pelagics in the Alboran Sea; iii) a FRA in the Cabliers Coral Mound Province; iv) Norway lobster, red mullet and striped red mullet in the central Mediterranean; v) round sardinella, small-scale fisheries and non-indigenous species in the eastern Mediterranean; and vi) small pelagics and key demersal stocks in the Adriatic Sea. Finally, the Committee agreed upon its workplan for 2023–2025.
The 2023 annual meeting of the ICES-FAO Working Group on Fishing Technology and Fish Behaviour (WGFTFB) and the International Symposium on “Innovations in Fishing Technologies for Sustainable and Resilient Fisheries” was held from 13 to 17 February 2023 in Kochi, India. [Author] The symposium was hosted by FAO in collaboration with the Department of Fisheries, Government of India, organized by the Bay of Bengal Programme Intergovernmental Organisation (BOBP-IGO) and National Fisheries Development Board (NFDB) in collaboration with Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) Fisheries Institutes and State Fisheries Universities. [Author] The symposium brought together 325 participants comprising of scientists, researchers, officials, policymakers, diplomats, industry, entrepreneurs, and students from 32 countries both online and offline delivering a total of 137 presentations providing a platform for discussions on the challenges facing world fisheries including depleted fish stocks, habitat destruction, pollution, climate change, fish loss and wastage bycatch, and ghost fishing. [Author] This report summarizes the symposium on “Innovations in Fishing Technologies for Sustainable and Resilient Fisheries” which comprised of eight thematic sessions: (i) active gears (ii) passive gears (iii)indicators (iv) abandoned, lost or otherwise discarded fishing gear (ALDFG) (v) survival/behaviour/physiology (vi) energy efficiency (vii) general topics and (viii) gear design. [Author]
This report presents the outcomes of the twenty-first session of the Scientific Advisory Committee on Fisheries (SAC) of the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) held in Cairo, Egypt, from 24 to 27 June 2019. During the session, the Committee reviewed the work carried out during the 2018–2019 intersession, including within its four subregional subsidiary bodies. Ce rapport présente les résultats de la vingt et unième session du Comité scientifique consultatif des pêches (CSC) de la Commission générale des pêches pour la Méditerranée (CGPM) tenue au Caire, Égypte, du 24 au 27 juin 2019. Au cours de la session, le Comité a passé en revue les travaux réalisés pendant la période intersessions 2018-2019, notamment dans le cadre de ses quatre organes subsidiaires sous-régionaux.
The sixth meeting of the Western Central Atlantic Fishery Commission (WECAFC) Working Group on Queen conch was held in a hybrid format. The meeting was hosted in San Juan, Puerto Rico on 16 March 2023, but most attendees participated in the meeting remotely. The following members and regional partner organizations participated: Bahamas, Belize, Brazil, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, United States of America, Western Central Atlantic Fishery Commission (WECAFC), Centre for the Protocol concerning Specially Protected Areas and Wildlife for the Wider Caribbean Region (CAR SPAW/SPAW RAC-Guadeloupe), the Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM), the Caribbean Fishery Management Council (CFMC), Organization for Fisheries and Aquaculture of the Central American Isthmus (OSPESCA), the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), the Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute (GCFI), the Regional Committee of Marine Fisheries and Marine Aquaculture of Guadeloupe (CRPMEM for its acronym in French) the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Wildlife Conservation Society (Belize). Discussions focused on monitoring the implementation of the Regional Queen conch Fisheries Management and Conservation Plan, various Queen conch recommendations and resolutions along with recommendations adopted at the 18th meeting of the Commission in 2022. Participants reviewed the CITES CoP19 decisions and recommendations and discussed the progress of activities as called for in the Work Plan for 2022–2024.
This publication contains the report of the Working Group's second session, held in Thailand in November 2003, which included 19 experts from 15 countries covering a range of disciplines related to small-scale fisheries. Issues discussed included a research agenda based on five main themes including policy and institutional arrangements; and the importance of small-scale fisheries to national economies, food security and poverty reduction.
The Committee agreed to establish a Sub-Committee on Aquaculture and adopted the International Plan of Action to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IPOA-IUU) Fishing. It agreed that future reporting on the implementation of the Code of Conduct and related IPOAs should be based on in-depth analysis of problems associated with their efficient implementation, using case studies.
The Working Party received national reports of each of the countries and examined the status of fisheries catch and effort data and statistics. It discussed minimum data requirements for effective fisheries management in five generic fisheries types: industrial shrimp, artisanal shrimp, trap fisheries, demersal line and beach seine fisheries.
The Second Meeting of the Regional Fisheries Data and Statistics Working Group (FDS-WG) was convened online in three (3) sessions with the main session on 12–16 October 2020, extended session on 25–28 May 2021 and conclusion session on 10 March 2022. The Regional FDS-WG is a joint working group of the Western Central Atlantic Fishery Commission (WECAFC), the Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM), and Organization for Fisheries and Aquaculture of Central America (OSPESCA). The second meeting of the FDS-WG contributed to: • review the FDS-WG first meeting intersessional work and develop consensus and identify remaining work needed for technical session topics (vessel mapping, sub area and divisions, list of main and reference species, WECAFC-FIRMS stocks and fisheries inventory, Small-Scale Fisheries Matrix, and Data Collection Reference Framework and standards); • review country updates on national data collection systems, vessel registries, continuing challenges and needs; • identify, prioritize, and develop a criteria list of national countries capacity-building projects; • review the FDS-WG Terms of Reference; and • develop the FDS-WG2 Workplan for 2020–2022, including recommendations in preparation for the extended session, and initiate WG recommendations for the WECAFC Scientific Advisory Group (SAG).
The twenty-fourth session of the European Inland Fisheries Advisory Commission (EIFAC) was held in Mondsee, Austria, from 14 to 21 June 2006, in concomitance with a Symposium on Hydropower, Flood Control and Water Abstraction: Implications for Fish and Fisheries. The session reviewed EIFAC's activities since 2004 in the fields of fishery biology and management, aquaculture, protection of the aquatic environment, and social and economic issues. EIFAC revised and decided its future programme of work, in particular the activities which should be carried out until the next session of the Commission in 2008. The twenty-fifth session will be preceded by a Symposium that will focus on interactions between socio-economic and ecological objectives of inland fisheries, commercial and recreational, and aquaculture.
The Fourth Meeting of the WECAFC/CRFM/IFREMER Working Group on the Shrimp and Groundfish of the Northern Brazil-Guianas Shelf was held virtually on 18 and 19 November 2020. Among the 39 participants were Working Group Members, national fisheries officers and representatives of government organizations, academia, fishing industry, partner organizations and the FAO. The final draft of the Sub-regional EAF Strategy and Fisheries Management Plan (FMP) for the shrimp and groundfish fisheries of the North Brazil-Guianas Shelf was reviewed. Among the issues discussed were options for the institutional mechanisms, including a technical and a decision-making body, required for implementation of the strategy and FMP. Representatives of Brazil, Guyana, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago presented an overview of the current status and outlook of their respective fisheries and national FMPs. While progress has been made toward management of the shrimp and groundfish fisheries, several challenges were encountered and some stocks continued to be overexploited. Results were presented of the pilot application of the Governance Effectiveness Assessment Framework in fisheries, pollution, and habitats and biodiversity on the North Brazil Shelf. The need for improvement in data collection was highlighted. In addition, the key findings of a decent work assessment of the shrimp and groundfish fisheries in Guyana, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago as well as at the regional level were discussed and recommendations presented. A major concern is IUU fishing in the context of human and labour rights violations and undocumented migrant workers. An update of the FIRMS inventories indicated that 29 resource fact sheets and 35 fisheries fact sheets for the WECAFC region have been produced for the reporting period 2016–2020. A call was made for Member States to submit fishery inventory updates. The proposed revised structure of the list of main species for WECAFC as well as the preliminary boundary proposals regarding FAO Fishing area 31 were discussed by participants. An update on vessel mapping for the WECAFC-proposed regional classification of fleet segments was presented. This is based on classifying fishing vessels according to the predominant gear used, to match the diversity of artisanal vessels and gear types that exist in the WECAFC region. The proposed modified structure of the interim Data Collection Reference Framework (iDCRF) and data policy were discussed. Participants reviewed and validated the WECAFC decision support system, which will support decision making in ecosystem approach to fisheries (EAF)-ecosystem based management (EBM) in the region. The current status of a
Thirty-one regional fishery bodies (RFBs) participated in the Eighth Meeting of the Regional Fishery Body Secretariats’ Network (RSN-8). The meeting brought together RFBs with diverse mandates from all geographic regions, including FAO and non-FAO regional fishery bodies, marine and inland fishery advisory and management bodies, the UNDOALOS and other invited organizations. The meeting allowed participants to exchange views and discuss both global fisheries management and development issues in aquaculture, as these related to regional and global processes of particular relevance to RFBs. In addition, RSN-8 provided the opportunity to discuss the development and strengthening of the RSN, as well as a space for reflection on the outcomes of COFI 34 and their implications for regional fishery bodies. The meeting had a high level of participation, which underlined the role of the network as a unique forum in which to foster cooperation, facilitate discussion and share experiences.
This document includes eight studies showcasing good practices in support of sustainable small-scale fisheries. FAO commissioned these studies aiming to share experiences and promote the implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication (SSF Guidelines). The case studies were also intended to promote participatory approaches – in line with the SSF Guidelines principles – and to promote increased interaction between research and fishing communities, including the use of traditional knowledge and participatory research. It is hoped that the case studies will inform policy and policy processes and, in this way, promote sustainable small-scale fisheries according to the SSF Guidelines and the human rights-based approach to development (HRBA). The case studies constitute a rich selection of experiences and are diverse, not only with regard to their geographical setting but also in scope and approach. They span from looking at one specific tool for sharing experiences (the fisheries learning exchanges methodology in Madagascar and Mozambique) or examining the enabling environment in a specific thematic area (disaster risks in Bangladesh), to regional policy formulation on small-scale fisheries (the SSF Guidelines protocol for Caribbean policies) and reflection on how to use the SSF Guidelines in participatory processes (the Myanmar step-by-step approach to discussions with small-scale fisheries communities). A few of the papers look at co-management, in some cases combining fisheries management and social development (Senegal, Uruguay and Nepal), with one focusing on the role of small-scale fisheries and community organizations (India). Generally, the case studies refer to HRBA but, perhaps because many of the activities have taken place in the past, it seems that HRBA has rarely been consciously and explicitly implemented. Still, the case studies bear witness to a number of experiences and practices that are clearly steps in the right direction. Key good practices emerging from the studies refer to, among other things, holistic approaches to co-management and social responsibility; broad engagement, inclusiveness and partnerships; the power of communication; and gender equality and the role of women. As more experience is gained, our knowledge of how to go about implementing the SSF Guidelines will improve and nurture new and continued initiatives. For the present and the future, efforts should be made to apply HRBA, while continuing to share experiences and good practices showing how to do so when implementing the SSF Guidelines.
An increase in the number of fishers as a result of population growth and migration to coastal fishing communities can be a contributing factor in the overexploitation of fisheries resources and the deterioration of the coastal envrionment. The findings of the development dynamics of rural fishing communities "suggest that contrary to the assumed global trend, the number of coastal fishers has started to decline or stagnate in recent years in some developing countries. The findings further suggest that artisanal fisheries no longer are a "last resort employment" for people in some coastal areas.
The third Working Party on Fisheries Data and Statistics was attended by participants from Comoros, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Seychelles, Somalia, South Africa, the United Republic of Tanzania, and Yemen. The Working Party received updates of the status of fisheries data collection by the member countries of the South West Indian Ocean Fisheries Commission (SWIOFC). Since 2008 improvements have been made, Madagascar and the Comoros started to improve their system the only count ry without a data collection system is Somalia. The Working Party discussed reported catch statistics and the availability of statistical bulletins. The Working Party discussed the development of an integrated Regional Information System based on three existing systems (STATBASE, WIOFish and FIRMS). Improvement of minimum requirements for a number of fisheries was discussed, major improvements are related to frame surveys implemented since the second Working Party in 2008. Information on socio economics of fisheries is generally lacking in the region and should be improved. The statistics of fishery catches in each country was examined and recommendations made for their improvement. First draft definition for the classification of artisanal fishing vessels based on length, vessel material and motorisation was made. Further, the sustainability of databases developed by the SWIOFP was discussed and the participants agreed the the costs related to hosting and instititutional aspects sh ould be studied. The Working Party made recommendations on improving the situation of fisheries data and statistics for the consideration of the Scientific Committee of the SWIOFC.
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