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The first of the workshop series under Capacity Development initiative of the EAF-Nansen Programme: “Monitoring and Assessing Data and Capacity-Poor Fisheries in the context of Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries” was held from 25 to 26 November 2020. These two-day virtual sessions brought together 51 participants from 16 countries with the intention to facilitate the understanding of the requirements necessary for fisheries monitoring, assessment and production of management advice in the context of a Fisheries Management Cycle compliant with an Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries (EAF). The training also aimed at introducing the participants to current approaches, methods and tools adequate for data and capacity-poor fisheries.

Desired effect of Fisheries Management. ©FAO/Barros

For a large majority of the world’s fisheries, available data and technical capacity are insufficient for fitting "traditional" fish stock assessment models. These fisheries, where there is not enough data or technical capacity to apply more complex models, are commonly known as “data and capacity-poor fisheries.” The multi-species, multi-fleet and artisanal nature of many, if not most, fisheries increase the complexity and cost of providing sound evidence-based advice using current assessment and advice procedures, and making them in general not usable for these fisheries. Despite this, novel and not-so-novel approaches to providing fisheries management advice exist that can and have been used to sustain solid, evidence-based and adaptive frameworks for advising fisheries management. Applied in the context of an EAF-compliant Fisheries Management Cycle, these approaches and tools can allow for sustainable, well-managed fisheries.

‘This first workshop has presented a good opportunity to discuss with a large and diverse audience alternative approaches towards monitoring, assessing and producing management advice for capacity and data-poor fisheries in the context of the Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries. The proposed approaches have the potential to expand evidence-based advice to a large number of fisheries that either lack scientific assessment, or for which no management advice is regularly produced. Moreover, these approaches can also help enlarge the application of the basic principles of the Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries to many new fisheries,’ explained Dr Pedro Barros, Fishery Resources Officer at FAO and the leader of the training workshops.

Many of the current systems and tools used in intensively managed fisheries require large amounts of high-quality data, and entail advanced technical capacity of data analysis and modeling. In addition to that, most of these tools refer to biological dimensions of fisheries only, while methods focusing on providing evidence-based advice on the social and economic aspects of the fisheries are still less common. The EAF, the framework promoted by FAO and the EAF-Nansen Programme for achieving sustainable fisheries, calls for explicit consideration of the biological, social and economic dimensions of sustainability. At the same time, it requires full stakeholder participation and the use of the best available knowledge in the Fisheries Management Cycle. Such an approach makes fisheries management decisions more legitimate and as a result, these decisions have higher chances of being implemented in practice. Focusing only, or mostly, on data- and capacity-intensive methods results in the exclusion of most of the world’s fisheries from the full application of the EAF requirements.

Implementing EAF-compliant Fisheries Management Cycle for data and capacity-poor fisheries calls for the use of assessment and monitoring approaches and methods. These are suitable for providing evidence-based fisheries management advice in the actual, non-ideal conditions of these fisheries, and while facilitating participation of the stakeholders at every step of the process. Applied in an organized manner, these tools can support EAF-compliant management of the world’s fisheries, including ecological, social and economic sustainability, while using data that are easier to collect and monitor.

The next workshop in the series will broaden this subject by presenting and discussing specific examples of tools and processes useful for monitoring and assessing the state of fisheries and fish stocks. It will also aim at providing management advice at different levels of data- and capacity limitations.

The upcoming session, tentatively scheduled for the first quarter of 2021, will focus on the use of empirical indicators for monitoring, assessing and producing management advice for data and capacity-poor fisheries, within the EAF-compliant Fisheries Management Cycle. This knowledge will contribute towards producing fisheries management advice in a way that is simultaneously compatible with requirements of the EAF approach, and that combines flexibility of the information used with rigorous process of validation and verification of the collected information.