Delivering technical information and advice on best practices and resources for fisheries monitoring to national fisheries agencies
The Fisheries Monitoring section provides technical support to national fisheries agencies. As many Pacific Islands’ national fisheries agencies are quite small, their collective capacity and resources can be limited. SPC can utilise its technical expertise or access funding to provide technical support. We offer advice on monitoring standards and data collection protocols, as well as national training for monitoring programmes and training materials.
Fisheries monitoring is supported through funding under the Regional Observer Cost Recovery (ROCR) fund, a levy applied to fishing vessels when renewing their regional registration annually. The ROCR funds two Fisheries Monitoring staff positions and most of their national support activities under four categories:
- Observer training quality assurance and certification
- Debriefer training quality assurance and certification
- Regional Coordination of observer programme activities and capacity development
- National Infrastructure Support
The observer and debriefer training quality assurance work includes the development of Pacific Islands Regional Observer (PIRFO) qualifications to meet regional observer standards, developing training materials, as well as the delivery of the training and oversight of training delivered by national or consultant PIRFO accredited trainers.
Regional coordination includes support of the Data Collection Committee, Regional Observer Coordinators Workshop, and the PIRFO Certification Management Committee, as well as hosting and coordinating regional monitoring workshops to promote harmonisation among monitoring programmes.
National support involves providing monitoring technical information and advice on best practices as well as developing appropriate documentation, providing on-request programme review, and capacity needs analysis or sustainable financial support models.