This is the report of the Pilot Workshop on the Application of Biotelemetry to Fish Studies for the Management of Inland Fisheries in West Africa which took place in Sélingué, Mali, from 29 January to 10 February 2001. Etienne Baras, Research Associate of the Belgian FNRS at the University of Liège, Vincent Bénech, Researcher in ichthyology with IRD in Bamako, and Gerd Marmulla, Fishery Resources Officer in the Fisheries Department of FAO in Rome collaborated in the production of this report.
We wish to thank the Institute of Rural Economy of Mali (IER) and the Office for Rural Development of Sélingué (ODRS) for organizing and hosting this workshop. We also wish to thank ATS Advanced Telemetry Systems Inc., AVM Instrument Company Ltd., and Star-Oddi for their much appreciated support, which included the donation of some equipment.
Distribution:
All members and associated members of FAO
Participants at the Pilot workshop
Other interested countries and national and international organizations
FAO Fisheries Department
Fisheries experts in FAO regional offices
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FAO. Report of the Pilot Workshop on the Application of Biotelemetry to Fish Studies for the Management of Inland Fisheries in West Africa. Sélingué, Mali, 29 January - 10 February 2001. FAO Fisheries Report. No. 654. Rome, FAO. 2002. 33p. ABSTRACT The pilot workshop on the application of biotelemetry to fish studies for the management of inland fisheries in West Africa was held on the premises of the Office for Rural Development of Sélingué (ODRS) in Sélingué, Mali, from 29 January to 10 February 2001. The workshop was organized by the Institute of Research for Development (IRD, France), and particularly by its Bamako-based centre, in cooperation with the Institute of Rural Economy of Mali (IER) and the Office for Rural Development of Sélingué (ODRS), with the support of the University of Liège (Belgium) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The participants came from Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea and Mali. The aim of the workshop was to improve understanding of, and disseminate, biotelemetry, which is a very useful tool for the collection of the more precise information essential for improved sustainable management of aquatic resources. The theoretical aspects studied included the operation of transmitters, antennae and active physical tags (biotelemetry transmitters and data storage tags), fish anaesthesia, tag attachment, effects of tagging on behaviour and physiology, transmitter retention, basic principles of radio and acoustic signal propagation, positioning of transmitters, as well as cartography and related mathematical principles. Practical and group work concentrated on anaesthesia and tagging, operating receiving stations and transmitter search, and using biotelemetry transmitters. A test study was undertaken to familiarise participants with the different methods of positioning, area marking and cartography, as well as using data storage tags. Prior to project definition by participants, a seminar was held to review the various methods that can be used to study the behaviour of fish in their natural environment, emphasizing their particularities and complementarity to biotelemetry. All participants presented and improved the project proposal
that they had prepared before the workshop and which was a vital element in the
process of selecting candidates. |
