Country strategy paper: Philippines

The Philippines rank 85 out of 175 countries in terms of Human Development Index. Poverty is most acute and widespread in rural areas, including many coastal municipalities, where 54% of people are living below the poverty line. Dependence on coastal and inland aquatic resources is high among rural poor people, who tend to be self-employed, primarily in agriculture, fisheries and casual labor. They are almost all landless. (PDF contains 21 pages)

STREAM Country Strategy Paper: Vietnam

Vietnam is a coastal country in Southeast Asia with a population of over 80 million. Although Vietnam has long been listed among the poorest countries of the world, it has recently made large strides in reducing poverty and improving food security. However, the dramatic gains in poverty reduction in Vietnam still remain quite fragile. There is growing evidence to indicate that dependence on aquatic resources is correlated to poverty, and that aquatic resources constitute an important component of wider livelihoods strategies (largely from the Mekong Delta, Central Coast and the Northern Mountains). (PDF contains 19 pages)

Investigating opportunities to support indigenous aquaculture in Australia : Visit to Kimberley, Western Australia, May 2003

The STREAM Initiative has been working with issues relating to livelihoods, policy and institutional development and communications throughout Asia-Pacific. Recently this has included work in India with indigenous communities supporting people to have a voice in policy making processes. There appear to be some parallels between this work and the objectives of Kimberley Aquaculture Aboriginal Corporation (KAAC) and also the Agriculture Fisheries and Forestry Australia (AFFA) Indigenous Aquaculture Unit (IAU), National Aquaculture Development Strategy for Indigenous Communities in Australia. (PDF contains 13 pages)

Some features of the autecology and distribution of chaetognatha in the Eastern Tropical Pacific

ENGLISH: The Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission, in cooperation with the Tuna Oceanography Research program of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, is studying in the Eastern Tropical Pacific Ocean methods of identifying waters of different characteristics that may influence the distribution and behavior of the tropical tunas. One method of attacking the problem has been to attempt to use zooplankton species as biological indicators of water masses. It has been demonstrated that certain zooplankters have ecological affinities that make them useful for identifying and tracing the movements of water masses. In the Eastern Pacific Ocean, Bieri (1957), Lea (1955), Le Brasseur (1959), Sund (1959), and Sund and Renner (1959) have presented evidence that certain species of Chaetognatha possibly can serve as indicators. The present work reports on a study of the distributions of species of Chaetognatha, obtained from various depths by means of horizontal closing-net hauls, in relation to concurrent measurements of temperature, salinity, and dissolved oxygen. Analyses of these data have provided a basis for determining which species are of potential use as biological indicators within the area of the Eastern Pacific considered in this study. SPANISH: La Comisión Interamericana del Atún Tropical, en cooperación con el programa de la "Tuna Oceanography Research" de la Institución Scripps de Oceanografía, viene estudiando en el Océano Pacífico Oriental Tropical métodos para identificar aguas de características diferentes que podrían influir en la distribución y en el comportamiento de los atunes tropicales. Uno de los métodos para abordar el problema ha sido el de intentar la utilización de especies zooplanctónicas como índices biológicos de masas de agua. Se ha demostrado que ciertos organismos del zooplancton tienen afinidades ecológicas, merced a las cuales son útiles para identificar y trazar los movimientos de las masas de agua. Bieri (1957), Lea (1955), Le Brasseur (1959), Sund (1959) y Sund y Renner (1959) presentaron evidencia de que ciertas especies de quetognatos pueden servir, posiblemente, como tales índices en el Océano Pacífico Oriental. El presente trabajo informa sobre un estudio de la distribución de las especies de quetognatos obtenidos de distintas profundidades por medio de la red de plancton que se cierra en lanzamientos horizontales y en relación con mediciones concomitantes de la temperatura, la salinidad y el oxígeno disuelto. El análisis de estos datos ofreció una base para la determinación de las especies que son potencialmente aptas para ser usadas como índices biológicos dentro del área del Pacífico Oriental a la cual se refiere este estudio.

Interpreting spotted dolphin age distributions

Previous work has determined the age distribution from a sample of spotted dolphins (Stenella attenuata) killed in the eastern Pacific tuna purse-seine fishery. In this paper we examine the usefulness of this age distribution for estimating natural mortality rates. The observed age distribution has a deficiency of individuals from 5-15 years and cannot represent a stable age distribution. Sampling bias and errors in age interpretation are examined as possible causes of the "dip" in the observed age structure. Natural mortality rates are estimated for the 15+ age classes based on the assumption that these are sampled representatively. The resulting annual survival rate

Symposium on participatory approaches to reservoir fisheries management: issues, challenges and policies. Dambulla, Sri Lanka, 04-06 Oct. 2004. Session I: Community-based fisheries management: experience in other countries

This paper advocates strategies, processes and practices that enable: livelihoods approaches rather than resource-based approaches, ‘direct’ institutional and policy development, rather than ‘project demonstrations’, and support for regional, national and local communications. (Pdf contains 12 pages).

Assistance in poverty alleviation through improved aquatic resources management in Asia-Pacific: GVT/NACA-STREAM/FAO International Workshop on livelihoods approaches and analysis. Ranchi, Jharkhand, India, 2-6 Feb. 2004

This is the report of the “GVT/NACA-STREAM/FAO International Workshop on Livelihoods Approaches and Analysis” that was conducted in Ranchi, India from 2-6 February 2004. The purpose of the workshop was to develop and document mechanisms for training in livelihoods approaches and analysis, and to build national capacity to conduct livelihoods analysis. The workshop in Ranchi was a joint India-Nepal event, with colleagues coming to participate from Kathmandu and other areas of Nepal. The workshop in Ranchi was the second in a series, the first of which was held in Iloilo City, Philippines, in November 2003. Subsequent workshops will take place in other countries in the region, including Lao PDR, Myanmar and Yunnan, China. (Pdf contains 48 pages).

Assistance in poverty alleviation through improved aquatic resources management in Asia-Pacific: Yunnan DOA/NACA-STREAM/FAO Workshop on livelihoods approaches and analysis. Mengzi, Yunnan, China, 6-10 Sep. 2004

This is the report of the “Yunnan DOA/NACA-STREAM/FAO Workshop on Livelihoods Approaches and Analysis” that was conducted in Mengzi, Yunnan from 6-10 September 2004. The purpose of the workshop was to develop and document mechanisms for training in livelihoods approaches and analysis, and to build national capacity to conduct livelihoods analysis. The workshop in Yunnan was the first STREAM event in China, with colleagues coming to participate from throughout the province. It was the fifth workshop in a series, the first of which was held in Iloilo City, Philippines, in November 2003, the second in Ranchi, India, in February 2004, third in Vientiane, Lao PDR, in March 2004 and the fourth in Yangon, Myanmar, in May 2004. (Pdf contains 44 pages).

EcoGIS – GIS tools for ecosystem approaches to fisheries management

Executive Summary: The EcoGIS project was launched in September 2004 to investigate how Geographic Information Systems (GIS), marine data, and custom analysis tools can better enable fisheries scientists and managers to adopt Ecosystem Approaches to Fisheries Management (EAFM). EcoGIS is a collaborative effort between NOAA’s National Ocean Service (NOS) and National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), and four regional Fishery Management Councils. The project has focused on four priority areas: Fishing Catch and Effort Analysis, Area Characterization, Bycatch Analysis, and Habitat Interactions. Of these four functional areas, the project team first focused on developing a working prototype for catch and effort analysis: the Fishery Mapper Tool. This ArcGIS extension creates time-and-area summarized maps of fishing catch and effort from logbook, observer, or fishery-independent survey data sets. Source data may come from Oracle, Microsoft Access, or other file formats. Feedback from beta-testers of the Fishery Mapper was used to debug the prototype, enhance performance, and add features. This report describes the four priority functional areas, the development of the Fishery Mapper tool, and several themes that emerged through the parallel evolution of the EcoGIS project, the concept and implementation of the broader field of Ecosystem Approaches to Management (EAM), data management practices, and other EAM toolsets. In addition, a set of six succinct recommendations are proposed on page 29. One major conclusion from this work is that there is no single “super-tool” to enable Ecosystem Approaches to Management; as such, tools should be developed for specific purposes with attention given to interoperability and automation. Future work should be coordinated with other GIS development projects in order to provide “value added” and minimize duplication of efforts. In addition to custom tools, the development of cross-cutting Regional Ecosystem Spatial Databases will enable access to quality data to support the analyses required by EAM. GIS tools will be useful in developing Integrated Ecosystem Assessments (IEAs) and providing pre- and post-processing capabilities for spatially-explicit ecosystem models. Continued funding will enable the EcoGIS project to develop GIS tools that are immediately applicable to today’s needs. These tools will enable simplified and efficient data query, the ability to visualize data over time, and ways to synthesize multidimensional data from diverse sources. These capabilities will provide new information for analyzing issues from an ecosystem perspective, which will ultimately result in better understanding of fisheries and better support for decision-making. (PDF file contains 45 pages.)

Emerging technologies for reef fisheries research and management [held during the 56th annual Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute meeting in Tortola, British Virgin Islands, November 2003]

This publication of the NOAA Professional Paper NMFS Series is the product of a special symposium on “Emerging Technologies for Reef Fisheries Research and Management” held during the 56th annual Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute meeting in Tortola, British Virgin Islands, November 2003. The purpose of this collection is to highlight the diversity of questions and issues in reef fisheries management that are benefiting from applications of technology. Topics cover a wide variety of questions and issues from the study of individual behavior, distribution and abundance of groups and populations, and associations between habitats and fish and shellfish species.(PDF files contains 124 pages.)

Emerging technologies for reef fisheries research and management

This publication of the NOAA Professional Paper NMFS Series is the product of a special symposium on “Emerging Technologies for Reef Fisheries Research and Management” held during the 56th annual Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute meeting in Tortola, British Virgin Islands, November 2003. The purpose of this collection is to highlight the diversity of questions and issues in reef fisheries management that are benefiting from applications of technology. Topics cover a wide variety of questions and issues from the study of individual behavior, distribution and abundance of groups and populations, and associations between habitats and fish and shellfish species.

The economic importance of marine angler expenditures in the United States.

In 1998, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) began a series of marine angler expenditure surveys in the coastal regions of the United States (U.S.) to evaluate marine recreational fishing expenditures and the financial impacts of these expenditures in each region and the U.S. as a whole. In this report, we use the previously estimated expenditure estimates to assess the total financial impact of anglers’ saltwater expenditures. Estimates are provided for sales, income, employment, and tax impacts for each coastal state in the U.S. Aggregate estimates are also provided for the entire U.S., excluding Alaska, Hawaii, and Texas. Direct, indirect, and induced effects associated with resident and non-resident angler expenditures were estimated using a regional input-output modeling system called IMPLAN Pro. Nationwide, recreational saltwater fishing generated over $30.5 billion in sales in 2000, nearly $12.0 billion in income, and supported nearly 350,000 jobs. Approximately 89 cents of every dollar spent by saltwater anglers was estimated to remain within the U.S. economy. At the state level, many of the goods anglers purchased were imports, and, as such, as little as 44 cents of every dollar stayed in Rhode Island and as much as 80 cents of every dollar stayed in Georgia. In the Northeast, the highest impacts were generated in New Jersey, even though recreational fishing expenditures in Massachusetts and Maryland were considerably higher. In the Southeast, the highest impacts were generated in Florida, and on the Pacific Coast, the highest impacts were generated in California. Expenditures on boat maintenance/expenses generated more impacts than any other expenditure category in the U.S. Expenditures on rods and reels was the single most important expense category in terms of generating impacts in most of the Northeast states. Expenditures on boat expenses generated the highest in most Southeast states, and expenditures for boat accessories produced the highest impacts in most Pacific Coast states.(PDF file contains 184 pages.)

National policy framework and strategy for fisheries and aquaculture development in Pakistan: final national workshop Islamabad, 30-31 Oct. 2006

The Final National Workshop was held from 30-31 October 2006 in Islamabad, Pakistan, with the objectives to:

System requirement report for Level 2 – national management institutions, for the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources in the Philippines

This report presents the findings from a thorough literature review, workshops, and group and individual interviews conducted by STREAM in the Philippines in November and December 2003. The ambitious scope of the report combined with the limited time frame and funding available to compile it necessitated the extensive use of secondary data, including both published and unpublished material written by staff of the agencies / organisations involved, with very limited editing of material used. All possible efforts were made to generate information in participation with the government institutions responsible for managing the fisheries, and all contributors (as well as many other stakeholders) were provided with multiple opportunities to comment on the report content. The contributors are listed on the front page of the report. (Pdf contains 56 pages).

Community Fisheries Development Office (CFDO) strategic plan, January 2004

In October 2000 the government of Cambodia announced a major change in fisheries management policy. The core elements of the new policy are the reduction of fishing lot concession areas by 56%, the broader participation of fishing communities in the management of fisheries and a focus on the efficient, sustainable and equitable use of the living aquatic resources. To facilitate the establishment and development of the Community Fisheries, support and monitor their activities, the Department of Fisheries was authorized1 to establish a Community Fisheries Development Office (CFDO). (Pdf contains 19 pages).