The fisheries for shrimp and groundfish of the Brazil-Guianas shelf are amongst the most valuable fisheries in the Western Central Atlantic and occur in the coastal waters of Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela, Guyana, Surinam, French Guiana and Brazil. In recent years, considerable attention has been focused on these fisheries in a series of activities undertaken by the WECAFC Working Party on the Shrimp and Groundfish Fisheries of the Brazil-Guianas Shelf, in cooperation with the coastal state national fisheries departments, CARICOM Fisheries Resource Assessment and Management Programme and FAO Project GCP/INT/575/DEN. Since mid-1998, the FAO component of this project has fallen under the FishCode project.
In 1996, 1997 and 1998 assessment and management workshops were held, and further meetings are scheduled for 1999 and 2000. These workshops are aimed at assessing the status of the major stocks and making preliminary assessments of their social and economic value. A fundamental principle underlying this work is that the different fisheries in the region, commercial and artisanal, targeting shrimp and groundfish, are inter-linked through technical interactions i.e. through catches of common species. Hence, it is impossible to manage them individually and the member states and the region need to develop holistic assessment and management approaches, aimed at obtaining optimal benefits from the resources in a sustainable manner. The project aims to undertake such holistic assessments, including socio-economic assessments, and to use these to provide information and advice to the managers. It also aims to assist the managers to develop suitable management plans based on this information and advice, and developed in consultation with the fisher groups.
The project has made good progress in analysing existing information, encouraging the collection of crucial data for monitoring and assessing the fisheries, and beginning the process of involving the managers and fisher groups in working towards improved utilization and management of the resources. The fisheries are complex, however, and the relevant data are not always available. In particular, data on bycatches, especially discards, is rarely available and information on catches of less important species and from the smaller scale fisheries is frequently absent or incomplete. Such information is essential for successful assessment and management of the fisheries, and the need for it demonstrates the clear linkage between this project and the GEF Project EP/INT/724/GEF. It is hoped that the GEF project will provide both information on by-catches and discards, and suggested techniques or approaches for reducing bycatch and discards, which will assist the FishCode project, and hence the member states, in improved assessment and management of the fisheries of the region. In turn, the contacts and informal structures created by the FishCode project, as well as the expertise being developed and the information being gained through it, should prove invaluable to the GEF project. It is therefore strongly recommended that the two projects should cooperate fully.
