The main aim of this workshop was capacity building of the national observers responsible for collecting data onboard tuna longline vessels operating out of South Africa. Unlike the training provided for Namibia and Indonesia, this group already had a very good understanding of fisheries observing. Capricorn Marine Environmental (Pty) Ltd. (CapMarine) is a South African-based observer agency which has been training fisheries observers for years – both locally and internationally. They are also the only operational observer agency in South Africa. This training session was organized in conjunction with them, with a strong focus on seabird identification skills, but we also provided training in RFMOs, ecosystem considerations, and what the data they collect is useful for.

A capacity building workshop was held in Nadi, Fiji on 20-21 February 2018 with a goal to create a better understanding among Western and Central Pacific Ocean States of the precautionary approach, Harvest Strategies (HSs) and management strategy evaluation (MSE) for sustainable tuna fisheries. Interest in the workshop was underscored by the participation of 23 individuals from 11 countries, representing a diverse range of roles and experience in the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) processes.

The workshop focussed on presenting to the fleet (via industry representatives) and discussing the outcomes of the line weighting demonstrations, as well as getting some feedback from observers who have been working on the vessels since line weighting has been implemented across the fleet.

The IATTC received funds from the FAO-GEF Common Oceans program for a project aimed at improving data collection for shark fisheries in the eastern Pacific Ocean (EPO). The goals of the project include identifying and describing available fishery data sources for shark species in the EPO, as well as incorporating new and existing data on shark fisheries into a database suitable for stock assessments. In addition, as part of the capacity-building aspect of project, aimed at developing IATTC member countries, two workshops were planned, one on Shark Data Collection and the other on Data-Limited Assessment Methods for Shark Species.

La CIAT recibió fondos del programa FAO-FMAM Océanos Comunes para un proyecto dirigido a mejorar la recolección de datos de pesquerías tiburoneras en el Océano Pacífico oriental (OPO). Los objetivos del pro-yecto incluyen la identificación y descripción de las fuentes de datos de pesca disponibles para especies de tiburones en el OPO, así como la incorporación de datos nuevos y existentes de pesquerías tiburoneras en una base de datos adecuada para la evaluación de poblaciones. Además, como parte del aspecto de fomento de capacidad del proyecto, dirigido a los países miembros de la CIAT en desarrollo, se programaron dos ta-lleres, uno sobre la recolección de datos de tiburones y el otro sobre métodos de evaluación de especies de tiburones con datos limitados.