Report of the
FIRST WORKING PARTY ON FISHERIES DATA AND STATISTICS
Mombasa, Kenya,
24–27 April 2007

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The designations employed and the presentation of material in this information product 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 or development status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The mention of specific companies or products of manufacturers, whether or not these have been patented, does not imply that these have been endorsed or recommended by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in preference to others of a similar nature that are not mentioned.

The views expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of FAO.

FAO/South West Indian Ocean Fisheries Commission.
Report of the first Working Party on Fisheries Data and Statistics. Mombasa, Kenya, 24–27 April 2007.
FAO Fisheries Report. No. 852. Rome, FAO. 2008. 85p.

ABSTRACT

The first Working Party on Fisheries Data and Statistics was attended by participants from Comoros, France, Kenya, Madagascar, Maldives, Mauritius, Mozambique, Seychelles, South Africa, the United Republic of Tanzania and Yemen.

The Working Party received national reports of each of the countries and examined the status of fisheries catch and effort data and statistics. Several countries do not produce annual fisheries statistical reports. In most cases countries attributed weaknesses in data collection to lack of funds and insufficient numbers of enumerators.

The Working Party discussed minimum data requirements for effective fisheries management in five generic fisheries types: industrial shrimp, artisanal shrimp, trap fisheries, demersal line and beach seine fisheries. Each country provided the existing availability of data for these requirements. Major issues of data collection (structural data, operational data and biological data), data processing, data analyses, data dissemination and other related matters were identified.

A list of metadata fields was presented to assist member countries provide data to the regional data coordinator of the South West Indian Ocean Fisheries Project (SWIOFP) in order to set up a regional metadatabase. The availability of relevant regional and global information systems was discussed. WioFish, a fisheries metadata management system, was initiated to collate available information from small-scale fisheries of the Western Indian Ocean countries. The FishCode-STF (Strategy for improving information on status and Trends of capture Fisheries) project and the Fishery Resources Monitoring System (FIRMS) are two initiatives towards a global strategy to improve information on status and trends of capture fisheries. StatBase software has already been adopted by the SWIOFP project for regional data management and would be available for South West Indian Ocean Fisheries Commission (SWIOFC) member countries for reporting, disseminating, gathering and sharing data. A schematic representation of the relationship between organizations, institutions, projects and information systems was produced. The Working Party was appraised on the development of a SWIOFP Web site and provided with a demonstration on applications of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) in fisheries management.

The Working Party made recommendations on improving the situation of fisheries data and statistics for the consideration of the Scientific Committee of the SWIOFC.