Fishery Management Unit¶
Given the GRSF working definitions for Fishery and fishing Unit,
Fishery: A Fishery is an activity leading to the harvesting of fish, within the boundaries of a defined area and possibly under a specific management. “Fishery” in GRSF is intended as a broad category comprising fishing units and other fisheries.
Fishing Unit (for traceability): “A fishing unit is a fishery targeting a single species (or group of species) conducted by a single flag state using a single fishing gear operating in a water area, which is possibly managed by a single empowered management authority or treaty under a unique set of management measures".
Note: in the latest case, the “water area” associated to the fishing unit equates the management unit area, which ideally can be connected with one single assessment unit.
a Fishery Management Unit is identified as such by an Authority for a purpose of management of specific target resource.
For defining a management unit it is needed to identify the management authority, the fishing/management area, the harvested resource (target species or group of species).
The GRSF Fishery semantic identifier is made of the following fields:
- Species + Fishing Area(s)/Management area(s) + Management Authority(ies) + Gear type + Flag State
The available global/regional standards for fishing areas and management authorities are not adequate to represent all the existing jurisdictional frameworks at national and sub-national level.
Management Authority - The coverage of the existing GRSF repository of Management Authorities (i.e. a registry of local/national/international organizations/institutions with mandate on fisheries monitoring/management) is limited and “GRSF owned”. National authorities change across time and it may require huge efforts to maintain the information. So far, for the GRSF standard, it is enough to indicate the “national management" (with iso3 country code)” (and under which EEZ jurisdiction (ISO3/mrgid).
Fishing areas/management areas: the available global and regional standards (FAO areas, RFBs area of competences, EEZs) do not have the proper resolutions to describe national and sub-national areas.
A fishery management unit database that includes sub-national and species-specific (where relevant) areas/authorities, linked to relevant FAO areas, is what’s needed to fill the gap.
Such registry of national "Management units" (species, area, management authority, shape file) developed by FishSource (starting April 2018), will be integrated in the semantic identifier refining the fisheries identification with specific area classification systems and specific management authorities at national/sub-national level. MarineRegions.org can also be involved in the development.
Once the fishery management unit database is developed FAO could be the master repository for such information to which countries and local authorities can refer to and communicate any updates.
The amount of information gathered in the GRSF Fishery identifier is expected to support the following business needs:
Support to dissemination and monitoring of the Sustainable Development Goal Indicator 14.4.1 “Proportion of fish stocks within biologically sustainable levels”;
Support to traceability needs including catch documentation schemes, ecolabelling schemes, food safety, sustainable fisheries.
Resources¶
