Harmonization of Fisheries and Aquaculture Information System in the IORA Member States

Fisheries are one of the main resources of the Indian Ocean that provides food to hundreds of millions of people and greatly contributes to the livelihoods to coastal communities.

The fisheries sector plays an important role in contributing to food security, poverty alleviation, job creation and also represents huge business opportunities. However, Information system on fisheries and aquaculture activities in IORA Region are fragmented and uncoordinated. For example:

• reported landings are estimated to be around two thirds of actual catches;
• reported marine landings are based on fishing from boats, ignoring harvesting by hand; and
• estimated numbers of fishers are not available in many countries, or do not distinguish between marine and freshwater fishes. Fisheries data collection methods are influenced by various factors such as the characteristics of the fishery, the local importance (social or economic) and the available staff and resources.

Broadly, data collection is essential for making informed and rational decisions on how various aspects of the fishing sector is managed, describing relationships which exist within the sector and predicting how certain actions can affect the future outcome of those interactions but IORA Member States are diverse in terms of available resources, skills and technical knowhow to carry out their fish stock assessment, as well as for fisheries data collection, management and analysis.

In view of strengthening regional-level Blue Economy initiatives and to guide regional co-operation through improving reporting and knowledge of fisheries and aquaculture information, the Fisheries Support Unit (FSU) in collaboration with the IORA Secretariat is hosting the  Workshop on Biennial Review of IORA Fisheries & Aquaculture Sector - “Harmonization of Fisheries and Aquaculture Information System in the IORA Member States on 29-30 October 2019 in Muscat, Sultanate of Oman.

The Workshop aims:

• To build on existing reporting initiatives coordinated by various fishery and aquaculture bodies (such as FAO, RECOFI, IOTC, APFIC),
• To compile existing and new information into a biennial review of fisheries and aquaculture report for Member States in a user-friendly format and finally to identify the (political, technical or financial) gaps in the collected data with emphasis in similarities and dissimilarities concepts.

The workshop will comprise of presentation from Member States on the challenges and opportunities of their respective fisheries statistics: Opportunities and Challenges, as well as presentations from experts on: Fisheries Data Collection, management and analysis: lesson-learnt and best practices; Fisheries Stock Assessment in the IORA region; Fisheries Data Collection and Management: Strategy and Methods. Member States will also discuss on the possibility of having a standardised method and procedures for fisheries data collection, management and analysis in the Indian Ocean rim region and developing a biennial review of fisheries and aquaculture report for Member States.

In order to properly develop and manage the fisheries sector in the Indian Ocean region, a standardised method of data collection, management and analysis is a necessity. The upcoming workshop will promote efforts to coordinate work done on fisheries data collection, management and analysis within IORA.