1. During the recent FAO Technical Consultation on Improving Information on Status and Trends of Capture Fisheries (March 2002) the delegates agreed on a "draft strategy" to address the needs for improving fisheries information. The "strategy" was subsequently endorsed by the Twenty-fifth session of the FAO Committee on Fisheries (February 2003) and recommended to the FAO Council for final approval.
2. The strategy listed a number of "required actions" for its implementation. Those actions included the need for capacity building in developing countries and the need for those countries to cooperate through their regional fishery organizations, and where necessary with FAO, to develop and adopt pragmatic and effective systems of data collection.
3. In an effort to enhance the capacity of their member countries in the Caribbean subregion, FAO and the CARICOM (through its Fisheries Unit [CFU]) collaborated in a workshop to improve information and data collection systems in their small-scale multispecies fisheries.
4. The workshop was convened to achieve the following:
i) Train participants to utilize improved approaches and techniques for conducting sample-based fishery surveys, and analysing the data collected (using modules from the FAO ARTFISH software).
ii) Train participants to use the CARIFIS database (upgraded TIP/LRS database) as a tool for data storage, querying/analysis and reporting.
iii) Review and determine the best approaches and prepare national plans for the implementation of the recommendations from the Consultant's Report: "Expansion of Existing Data Collection Systems to Capture, Store and Manage Social and Economic Data from the Fisheries Sector".
