Understanding Fisheries
Management Tools and Data
needs
Ian BERTRAM/Etuati ROPETI
Coastal Fisheries Programme
SPC –Division of Fisheries, Aquaculture and Marine
Ecosystems
Outline
• Background to coastal fisheries
• Management tools/controls & role of
traditional knowledge
• Data collection
• Challenges and measuring progress of
community based approaches
Background
• 30,000 island scattered across the Pacific
Ocean
• Just over 10 million people
• Coral reefs of 70 coral genera
• Over 4,000 fish species
• 30 mangrove species
• Finfish, Invertebrates, Mammals
Coastal fisheries resources
• Invertebrates
• Demersal fish
• Nearshore pelagic
Management Tools
• Resource management is mainly
about managing people
• Often it involves preventing people
from using damaging fishing methods
and harming the environment
• National legislation/fisheries laws to
Community rules
• Includes little to wide range of
measures
Closures (area/time)
• Prohibits fishing in a particular area or season
• Or combination of both (e.g. spawning
aggregation site closed during spawning
season)
• Permanent, rotational, net works of several
closed areas
• Protects resources/habitat
Limits on fishing gear/effort
• Banning certain fishing methods
– Poisons / explosives/ torches or night fishing
• Certain types of gear allowed to be used in fishery as a whole
or in particular areas
– Boats of certain size restricted to fish in certain areas
(Kiribati- certain islands)
• Certain people/tribes permitted to fish for particular species
or in particular area.
Gear limits (cont)
• UBA (UBA national/community levels)
• Plastic/wire traps versus coral traps
• Nets
– Types of nets (cast, beach seine, gillnet)
– Length of net and mesh size
Limits on species
• Minimum size
– Allow fish to grow to reach maturity
• Maximum size
– Larger females produce more eggs
• Protecting berried females
Bag limits; Ban on exports
• Coconut crabs, clams, lobster
Rotate harvest species
• Trochus ‘even years’, sea cucumber ‘odd years’
Traditional Taboos
• Totem, iconic, sacred species
• Areas linked with superstition
• Lagoon/fishing closed when death
in village or during mourning
Traditional practices, culture or beliefs
• Stock piling anadara/clams for communal use
• Shucking giant clams while in water
• Religious reasons [e.g. fish without scales,
invertebrates]
A mixture of management measures may be
needed to achieve goals of Resource
Management
Data, collection, processing,
measuring progress
• Biological studies (life cycles, diversity)
• In water assessment, (density/biomass)
• Catch and landing information (production,
CPUE)
• Demographic studies (size/age/maturity)
• Determining spawning seasons/site [when
local knowledge is around for many species]
• Tagging, to determine connectivity/home
range
Data (cont)
• Socioeconomic studies
– Household, creel, market, census surveys
• Physical (substrate/water)
– Habitats, Satellite imagery, mapping changes
– Temperature, nitrates, phosphates (Chemistry)
• Challenges
– Translating results to management actions
– Cost, lag time in processing and producing results
Challenges
• Growing population or coping with growing
population
• Pressures on resources
• Politics (village, provincial, state, national)
• Levels of governance
• Political will to act or devolve authority to
manage resources
• Lower priority for coastal fisheries
• Legal framework
Challenges (cont)
• Cultural/Traditional values and practices
• Non-collaborations amongst practioners
• Limited resources/opportunities at
community level
• Effects of climate change, what are the
effects?
Measuring progress of management
• Before during and after studies
• Comparative (within and outside managed
areas)
• Perception surveys
• Socio-economic surveys eg . Samoa
• Adaptive management
Conclusion
Coastal Fisheries Management is about
MANAGING PEOPLE therefore COMMUNITIES
should be involved