Knowledge for Development

Fisheries

Livestock and fisheries make vital contributions to meeting the food and nutrition needs of ACP countries. In these countries, the fisheries sector is becoming a leading export sector for many countries but concerns exist about depletion of fish stocks due to over-exploitation of the resources and dame to the ecosystem. The dossier provides a wealth of selected background information on the fisheries sector that is essential for supporting ACP policy making for sustainable development.

This guide was designed to give a very basic knowledge of remote sensing to offshore tuna fishermen. 12/07/2012
Read more...

Demanding Innovation in African Fisheries and Aquaculture

by Dr. Sloans Chimatiro, NEPAD Fisheries Advisor, South Africa
In Africa, the fish sector makes a vital contribution to meeting the food and nutrition security needs of 200 million Africans and provides income for over 10 million engaged in the production, processing and trade in this industry (see tables 1 and 2). Moreover, fish has become a leading export commodity, with an annual export value of US$ 2.7bn (1). 25/05/2007
Read more...

Approaches and frameworks for management and research in small-scale fisheries in the developing world

by N. Andrew and L. Evans, the WorldFish Center working paper, 2009
Commonly adopted approaches to managing small-scale fisheries (SSFs) in developing countries do not ensure sustainability. Progress is impeded by a gap between innovative SSF research and slower-moving SSF management. The paper aims to bridge the gap by showing that the three primary bases of SSF management—ecosystem, stakeholders’ rights and resilience—are mutually consistent and complementary. It nominates the ecosystem approach as an appropriate starting point because it is established in national and international law and policy. Within this approach, the emerging resilience perspective and associated concepts of adaptive management and institutional learning can move management beyond traditional control and resource-use optimization, which largely ignore the different expectations of stakeholders; the complexity of ecosystem dynamics; and how ecological, social, political and economic subsystems are linked. Integrating a rightsbased perspective helps balance the ecological bias of ecosystem-based and resilience approaches. The paper introduces three management implementation frameworks that can lend structure and order to research and management regardless of the management approach chosen. Finally, it outlines possible research approaches to overcome the heretofore limited capacity of fishery research to integrate across ecological, social and economic dimensions and so better serve the management objective of avoiding fishery failure by nurturing and preserving the ecological, social and institutional attributes that enable it to renew and reorganize itself.Read the online pdf. 20/10/2009
Read more...
Media attention to mislabelled seafood is helping bring the scale of illegal and unregulated fishing to consumers' attention. Bangor University and University of Salford scientists explain how genetic tools can promote sustainability and make sure the fish we buy is what it says on the label. The author also look at so-called IUU fishing (illegal, unreported and unregulated), which is not included in stock assessment and examine the consequence of unidentifiable marketed fish (that leads to fraud or mislabelling). The illegal substitution of one species for another is best tackled by a method known as 'COI barcoding', a process that works by analysing the 600 base-pair sequence of the mitochondrial DNA cytochrome c oxidase I gene. DNA results from fish samples can be matched against the Barcode of Life Data system (www.boldsystems.org) which currently contains the DNA sequences of nearly a third of known fish species. The method is cost-effective and reliable. Virtually any product advertised or sold as a particular species, anywhere in the world, can be verified unequivocally using a COI barcoding test. (NERC Planet Earth Online, 1/6/2012) 11/07/2012
Read more...
The ECOWAS Commissioner for Agriculture, Environment and Water Resources, Dr Marc Atouga, called on Member States to harmonize their policies and efforts in the fisheries sector to boost intra-regional trade in fish products. Addressing the opening of a five-day inaugural meeting of the Regional Fisheries Committee on the Coherence of Policies in the Fishery Industry in the ECOWAS Region, on 27 August 2012 in Cotonou, Benin, Dr Atouga noted that constraints in the sector included inadequate transport infrastructure and challenges posed by antiquated customs rules.(AfricaBrains, 29/8/20112) 14/09/2012
Read more...
This paper from the WorldFish Centre examines the potential of small fish in fighting hidden hunger. Small fish are a common food and an integral part of the everyday diets of many population groups in poor countries. These populations also suffer from undernutrition, including micronutrient deficiencies (the hidden hunger). Studies in rural Bangladesh and Cambodia showed that small fish made up 50–80% of total fish intake in the peak fish production season. Small fish are a preferred food, supplying multiple essential nutrients and with positive perceptions for nutrition, health and well-being. As many small fish species are eaten whole, they are particularly rich in calcium, and some are also rich in vitamin A, iron and zinc. In areas with fisheries resources and habitual fish intake, there is good scope to include micronutrient-rich small fish in agricultural policy and programmes, thereby increasing intakes which can lead to improved nutrition and health. (WorldFish Centre, 05/2012) 11/07/2012
Read more...
‘Too Big to Ignore’ is a new research network and knowledge mobilization partnership to promote and revitalize small-scale fisheries in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, and around the world. The first goal of the network is to enhance the understanding of the real contribution of small-scale fisheries to food security, nutrition, sustaining livelihoods, poverty alleviation, wealth generation and trade, as well as the impacts and implications of global change processes such as urbanization, globalization, migration, climate change, aquaculture, and communication technology on small-scale fisheries. The second goal is to create an innovative and interactive web platform, a Small-scale Fisheries Information System (SFIS), for global and local analysis of small-scale fisheries and their contributions to the broader society. Currently, the characteristics of small-scale fisheries are difficult to capture because of the lack of official statistics, even though small-scale fisheries account for about 90% of the 560 million people who depend on fisheries. 16/08/2012
Read more...