ISSF Skippers Workshops bring tuna fishers together with marine scientists for participatory sessions — at key fishing ports worldwide — to share ideas and information on best practices to reduce bycatch.

ISSF Skippers Workshops bring tuna fishers together with marine scientists for participatory sessions — at key fishing ports worldwide — to share ideas and information on best practices to reduce bycatch.

The aims of the Inception Workshop were to introduce key stakeholders (government officials, foreign fisheries agents, ports authority, and other NGO representatives) to the Port-based Outreach Pilot Project based in Suva, which falls within the BirdLife component (Output 3.2.1) of FAO’s GEF-funded Common Oceans Tuna Project. It also provided the stakeholders the opportunity to share concerns and provide valuable information on how best to access vessels docking in port.

The main aim of this workshop was capacity building of the national observers responsible for collecting data onboard tuna longline vessels operating out of South Africa. Unlike the training provided for Namibia and Indonesia, this group already had a very good understanding of fisheries observing. Capricorn Marine Environmental (Pty) Ltd. (CapMarine) is a South African-based observer agency which has been training fisheries observers for years – both locally and internationally. They are also the only operational observer agency in South Africa. This training session was organized in conjunction with them, with a strong focus on seabird identification skills, but we also provided training in RFMOs, ecosystem considerations, and what the data they collect is useful for.

A capacity building workshop was held in Nadi, Fiji on 20-21 February 2018 with a goal to create a better understanding among Western and Central Pacific Ocean States of the precautionary approach, Harvest Strategies (HSs) and management strategy evaluation (MSE) for sustainable tuna fisheries. Interest in the workshop was underscored by the participation of 23 individuals from 11 countries, representing a diverse range of roles and experience in the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) processes.