Monitoring the vulnerability
and adaptation of coastal
fisheries to climate change
project
Funded through the Australian “International Climate
Change Adaptation Initiative (ICCAI)”
Outline
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Objective of the project
Workshop on monitoring protocols
Site selection for pilot projects
Monitoring approaches
Proposed additional sites and collaborations
Current status of the project
Work plan for next 12 months
Project objective
Assist PICTs to design and field-test
monitoring protocols to determine
whether changes are occurring to the
productivity of coastal fisheries, and if
changes are found, to identify what is
attributed to the effects of climate
change as opposed to other causes (e.g.
overfishing, pollution, habitat
degradation etc)
Workshop on monitoring approaches
• Workshop held in Noumea 19–22 April 2010 with
20 experts from around the region
• Objective 1: identify data currently collected in the
Pacific, their purpose and whether they will allow
separation of climate change effects
• Objective 2: Identify optimum monitoring design,
including practical indicators, survey designs and
methods.
• Outcomes used to develop monitoring protocols
to be trialed at pilot sites
Site selection
• Assessment made of what data was available from
the different research projects in region
• Focus was mainly on atolls; most vulnerable to
climate change effects
• Need for a geographical spread of pilot sites
• Sites need to be accessible for regular monitoring
• Agreement reached between SPC and government
to establish the pilot site and commitment to
future monitoring
Selected sites
Monitoring approach
• Most large-scale
oceanographic
data already being
collected.
• Purchase satellite
imagery for each
site for mapping
and groundtruthing habitat
Monitoring approach
• Monitor local
water
temperature
at pilot sites
with a logger
Monitoring approach
• Conduct baseline resource surveys including
habitat, plus build local capacity to undertake
future monitoring
Monitoring approach
• Conduct specific photo
quadrat surveys for coral
cover and type
Proposed additional sites: FPF
loggers only
Overall coverage (SPC and GOPS)
Current status of project
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Sites selected, 1 established and loggers deployed
Finalising agreements for other 4 pilot sites
Equipment purchased for the 5 pilot sites
Database established for resource data
Ms Maria Sapatu joined the project in Feb 2011
Recruitment underway for 2 Pacific Islander
attachment positions, 1 covering information
management and 1 reef fisheries scientist
Work plan for next 12 months
• Finalise recruitment for 2 positions
• Trial photo quadrat process and establish database
for photo storage and coral identification
• Baseline surveys and local capacity building
scheduled for Majuro in March/April, and other
locations later in the year
• Additional sites will be established with loggers if
the FPF proposal is successful
• If additional funding is located, will undertake
baseline surveys in some of the additional sites
THANK YOU
QUESTIONS?