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Rapfish, a rapid appraisal technique for fisheries, and its application to the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries.

Year of publication 1999

Place of publication Rome, Italy ;

Pages 50

Author Pitcher, T.J.

Product type Book (series)

Series title FAO Fisheries Circular

Series number 0429-9329 - C947

Edition 1

Synopsis (short abstract) The paper describes the basis and implementation of Rapfish, a non-parametric and multi-disciplinary ordination technique for comparing the status of fisheries. Ordinations using multidimensional scaling of a set of scored attributes are framed using a number of fixed reference points, including constructed best (=‘good’) and worst (=‘bad’) possible fisheries from sets of scored attributes. Ordination scores are rotated and scaled to provide a rating for each fishery from 0% (‘bad’) to 100% (‘good’). The document describes implementation of the method and how simulated data can be used to validate it. Previous work is briefly reviewed, and examples of ecological, technological, economic and social evaluations are presented, where status is evaluated in terms of sustainability. An ethical evaluation from a recent project is also described. The document describes the development of an additional Rapfish field that expresses compliance with the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries, gives a preliminary worked example, and discusses how Rapfish can provide detailed evaluations sorted by a hierarchy of sectors, gear types, species and geographical areas. The technique, which is still under development, can make explicit a range of evaluations that underpin policy decisions in fisheries.

Cite this content as:

Pitcher, T.J.Rapfish, a rapid appraisal technique for fisheries, and its application to the Codeof Conduct for Responsible Fisheries.FAO Fisheries Circular. No. 947. Rome, FAO. 1999. 47p.

Language English

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