What information exists about your fishery and how can you ensure your fishery thrives now and in the future? Local knowledge, science and data collection are needed to make management decisions to support  the responsible, sustainable, and long-term use of fishery resources. Start here to learn about participatory data collection and the introduction to fisheries management and explore the sub-categories below.

Resources

Reserved Parking: Marine Reserves and Small-scale Fishing Communities: A collection of articles from Samudra Report by ICSF, 2008

This dossier puts together a collection of articles from the pages of SAMUDRA Report, the triannual journal of ICSF. The articles show that conservation and livelihoods are closely intertwined, and that top-down, non participatory models of conservation can be counterproductive. Despite being poor and powerless, fishing and coastal communities can be powerful allies in conservation efforts, given their longstanding dependence on natural resources and their traditional ecological knowledge systems. As the examples in the dossier reveal, it is possible for fishing communities to protect and conserve the environment, while continuing with sustainable fishing operations.

Data Collection Guide for Nearshore Fisheries

The goal of this document is to provide both an overview of fishery data collection programs and a data collection manual for priority finfish. By following the simple guidelines in this document, the data collected can be used for stock assessments (i.e., estimates of how the stock is doing), which allow managers to implement good management measures aimed at ensuring good yields for years to come.