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The Institute of Marine and Coastal Research (INVEMAR) of Colombia and the Costa Rican Institute of Fisheries and Aquaculture (INCOPESCA), signed in December 2020 a Memorandum of Understanding through which they commit to join efforts on technical and scientific cooperation to achieve training on matters related to research and fisheries management required by the Government of Costa Rica. This inter-institutional cooperation will be financed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), through a Letter of Agreement which was formalized on June 4, within the framework of the Sustainable Management of Bycatch in the Trawl Fisheries of Latin America and the Caribbean (REBYC-II LAC).

The proposed training and technology transfer agreement seeks to strengthen INCOPESCA's capacities for the management and sustainable use of fishery resources in Costa Rica, based on technical assistance, training, and the exchange of experiences between the two countries. The idea arises through regional collaboration within the REBYC-II LAC Project, in which both countries have managed to identify very similar practices and challenges in the evaluation and management of shrimp trawl fisheries.

Specifically, the proposed cooperation approach refers primarily to the design, adaptation and technological transfer of INVEMAR's Fisheries Information System (SIPEIN), for a pilot fishing site in Costa Rica. For this purpose, a previous exchange of information and experiences between INVEMAR and INCOPESCA researchers will take place, as well as training of personnel in Costa Rica for the management and adaptation of SIPEIN. Secondly, it is intended, from a training course, to improve the design and execution of assessments of fish and crustacean populations in Costa Rica. The course will be based on analyzes applied throughout the REBYC-II LAC project of independent data from the fishery (fishing prospecting cruises and fishing experiments), addressing topics such as: estimates of abundance, spatial distribution, population structure, relationship with environmental variables, resource status indicators and assessments of reduction of discards and bycatch.

Some of the activities defined within this collaboration agreement include: design and construction of the Fisheries Information System (SIPEIN) for the pilot site in Costa Rica, according to the information needs provided by INCOPESCA, as well as virtual supervision after the system is transferred. Likewise, it is expected that researchers from INCOPESCA and other institutions in Costa Rica will be trained by INVEMAR on assessment of fishery resources based on data obtained through research surveys.

This collaboration agreement between INVEMAR and INCOPESCA constitutes a tangible proof of some of the benefits generated by the REBYC-II LAC Project in the region, allowing participating countries to benefit from the experiences and advances that each has generated in the management of trawl fisheries through the exchange of knowledge and human resource´s formation.