Building Awareness in Aspects of Fishery Statistics, Stock Assessment and Management. Proceedings of the FAO/SEAFDEC Regional Training Workshop on the Use of Statistics and Other Information for Stock Assessment

The designations employed and the presentation of materials in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.

FAO/RAP, 2002. Building Awareness in Aspects of Fishery Statistics, Stock Assessment and Management: Proceedings of the "Regional Training Workshop on the Use of Statistics and Other Information for Stock Assessment". FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, Bangkok, Thailand. RAP Publication 2002/27, 96 pp.

ABSTRACT

The document includes a brief account of the fishery statistics programme undertaken by the FAO Fishery Information, Data and Statistics Unit (FIDI). Catch statistics from the FAO database are provided for each country along with comments relevant to the quality of the statistics. Fish stock assessment initiatives in the region are briefly reviewed. This is followed by an introduction to spreadsheet applications of the Thompson and Bell's approach to assessing fishery performance. This methodology was demonstrated and used by the participants during the workshop. There is also an introduction to the use of trophic models such as Ecopath, Ecosim and Ecospace as applied in the aquatic ecosystem of the southwest coast of India. Issues concerning fishery management were also discussed. These include a brief review on marine fisheries management in the region, and suggested approaches to achieving better linkages between research and management. The latter include formalising the linkages through legally empowered fisheries management plans, and fishing community/industry/government co-financing of fisheries research and management.