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Thursday, 30 January 2014 11:48

CRFM and REBYC-II LAC Project Make Efforts to Improve Management of Trawl Fisheries and Bycatch Featured

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Workshop coordinator, Henk Bhagwandin (extreme right) from Suriname Fisheries Department, together with Susan Singh-Renton (second from right) and Trinidad and Tobago’s national consultant for the project, David Ramjohn (second from left) listen carefully as an industry representative, W. Tjitrotaroeno, speaks about the quality control procedures for processing and storing pink-spotted shrimp by his company, Surinam American Industries Limited (SAIL). A trawler (seen in background) had just offloaded its catch of frozen pink-spotted shrimp (Farfantepenaeus brasiliensis), bound for the processing plant just a few metres away. Workshop coordinator, Henk Bhagwandin (extreme right) from Suriname Fisheries Department, together with Susan Singh-Renton (second from right) and Trinidad and Tobago’s national consultant for the project, David Ramjohn (second from left) listen carefully as an industry representative, W. Tjitrotaroeno, speaks about the quality control procedures for processing and storing pink-spotted shrimp by his company, Surinam American Industries Limited (SAIL). A trawler (seen in background) had just offloaded its catch of frozen pink-spotted shrimp (Farfantepenaeus brasiliensis), bound for the processing plant just a few metres away.

 

CRFM, Belize City, Belize January 30, 2014.    Deputy Executive Director of the Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM) Secretariat, Susan Singh-Renton, recently attended the Project Preparation Inception Workshop for a project on sustainable management of bycatch in Latin America and Caribbean trawl fisheries (REBYC-II LAC). The Workshop, held during 19-22 January 2014 in Paramaribo, Suriname, brought together fisheries experts representing six countries from the Caribbean and Latin America. The country experts, facilitated by experts from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), discussed plans for the REBYC-II LAC project, which is being proposed for sponsorship by the GEF to the tune of 5.8 million US dollars, with at least 3 times as much co-financing to be provided also by the beneficiary and participating countries and agencies.

REBYC-II LAC arose from the recommendations of an earlier related project, REBYC-I LAC, which was also funded by the GEF and carried out by the FAO during 2002-2008. While the REBYC-I LAC focused more understanding the impacts of trawl gear on the environments in which these gears are used, and also improving fishing technologies to reduce the associated bycatch and adverse habitat impacts, REBYC-II LAC hopes to focus more on the management aspects - that is to say, understanding the nature and usage of bycatch and working towards sustainable management of the bycatch, and the security of the dependent livelihoods.

Key steps in the management process are therefore being targeted in REBYC-II LAC. In particular, the project is expected to develop options to address gaps in policy, legislation, and management planning instruments for supporting sustainable management of the region’s trawl fisheries, while giving due consideration to use of participatory approaches and the FAO’s International Guidelines on Bycatch Management and Reduction of Discards. In addition, there will be continued work on strengthening the technical information base to support management decisions, and analysing livelihood impacts and how to deal with these. The project is also designed to have a clear monitoring and evaluation plan that can satisfy both donor and beneficiary needs, and facilitate sharing of best practices.

CRFM member countries Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago are participating in REBYC-II LAC, which once approved by the GEF, is expected to run for five years. As Suriname hosted the Workshop, there was a wide cross-section of representation from the Surinamese fisheries industry in attendance. CRFM Secretariat’s Deputy Executive Director noted that ‘the project comes at a time when the region is working towards achieving a coordinated multi-level ocean governance arrangement on a Caribbean-wide scale, and so it would be important for the project’s planned activities to complement this ongoing initiative that began with the Caribbean Large Marine Ecosystem project’.

In helping the project to achieve its goals, the CRFM, in collaboration with 2 other regional fisheries bodies (WECAFC and OSPESCA), has agreed to provide its usual regional coordination support, and to help establish a regional decision support system that can connect, and make fullest use of, the proposed improved national trawl fisheries monitoring systems for better overall regional ocean governance. CRFM will also be involved in technical studies to investigate possible solutions to region-wide problems of piracy/ illegal fishing and livelihood security in respect of these fisheries.

Read 13630 times Last modified on Monday, 03 February 2014 08:22
Olin Myers

Clerk, Information Technology & Accounts

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