The Ad Hoc Meeting on Management of Deepwater Fisheries Resources of the Southern
Indian Ocean, organized and hosted by the Government of Namibia with the technical cooperation of FAO, was held in Swakopmund, Namibia, from 30 May to 1 June 2001.
The Meeting reviewed the status of information available relating to these fisheries and the events in their recent development. The perspectives that were discussed tried to include those of governments whose vessels were fishing on the high seas in the study area and those of the industry with commercial operations in the area.
A major concern of those present was how to move to a responsible form of management in the absence of a treaty system, though it was unanimously agreed that preparations for future technical meetings able to undertake stock assessments should begin immediately. A major focus of the meeting was how data could be made available given the informal status of discussions. General agreement was reached that government fisheries scientists who had access to these data would bring such information to future stock assessment workshops on the basis that circulation of the information would not go beyond the meeting venue and that no permanent records of the data would be made available to other participants.
Discussion covered various other relevant topics, including movement towards a standard of data collection and involvement of other international agencies in activities in the area, e.g. that of the Global Environmental Facility.
