Category: Contact

New app to simplify fisheries data collection

Dr. Box presents the Fish Landing app to a workshop at the FishBase symposium in the Philippines. The workshop was co-sponsored by Oceana Philippines, the Philippine (), and Sea Around Us.

Dr. Box from the Smithsonian Institution presents the Fish Landing app during a workshop at the FishBase symposium in the Philippines associated with the 25th and 10th year anniversaries of FishBase and SeaLifeBase (Sea Around Us partners). The workshop was co-sponsored by the FishBase Information and Research Group (FIN), Oceana-Philippines, the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) of the Philippine Department of Agriculture, and the Sea Around Us.

On the northern coast of Honduras local fishers noticed the amount of fish they caught was decreasing year after year. What’s more, it was becoming increasingly difficult to catch the amount of fish they needed to make a living.

Compounding their plight was the fact that because their catch went to local buyers and then on to domestic markets—no real catch data were available. Without these data, it is incredibly difficult to manage a sustainable fishery.

A new app could help change this. The Fish Landing app helps local buyers track the species and size of fish caught, fishing spots frequently used, and the profiles of local fishers.

The app was developed by a team of researchers from the Center of Marine Studies (CEM), and the Smithsonian Institution, led by Dr. Stephen Box from the Smithsonian.

“The wealth of data which will be collected using these tools will greatly contribute to data analysis, and can be a primary basis for any plans related to fisheries management and sustainability,” said Dr. Box at the workshop, which was organized and moderated by Dr. Deng Palomares.

The researchers initially used a paper-based system to try and track catch data, where fishers, upon returning from the ocean, would fill out forms detailing the number and species of fish they caught. At the end of each month these papers were given to researches who then laboriously digitized and analyzed the data. While relatively effective for some small communities, on a larger scale it was highly inefficient.

The Fish Landing app helps to streamline this process. Local buyers—who receive the majority of fish from the fishers—use an Android phone or iPad to keep track of the data. Through its picture-based operation system the app is easy to use.

But why would buyers want to participate? The app is a one-stop shop for business purposes, where buyers can track fish caught, money earned and paid, and who their clients are. Fishers also get more precise information about what and how much they catch and earn, and governments are given data that can be used for fisheries statistics. Data packages to be shared with governments or management agencies can be customized and adjusted to local needs and sensitivities.

Furthermore, governments will finally be able to understand the large role that small-scale fishers play in contributing to the economy and food security.

At the workshop where Dr. Box presented the Fish Landing app, two other closely-associated tools were also presented. These included a decentralized registration system that easily and rapidly creates “fisher identity cards.” Often, these are the only pieces of ID that the fishers possess.

The other tool is an onboard, cheap, self-contained, and solar powered GPS system that will help in understanding the amount of time fishers spend in certain waters, the competition for fishing grounds among fishers, and the seasonal patterns in seascape use, among a suite of other factors.

Daniel Pauly, Principal Investigator of the Sea Around Us, believes these tools together could transform the accumulation of fisheries data.

“These three items could revolutionize data acquisition for and by artisanal fishers in developing countries, including the Philippines where the presentation by Dr. Stephen Box generated considerable interest,” he said.

Dirk Zeller, Senior Scientist of the Sea Around Us, thinks these tools are a state of the art approach that not only improve data collection but also the management of small-scale fisheries, which recently received clear recognition through an endorsement by the Committee on Fisheries and Aquaculture (COFI), of the FAO’s Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication.

“These tools and their associated direct and easy access to the data generated, will also empower local communities in their engagement in small-scale fisheries management,” he said.

The app and related tools are also being tested in Myanmar. Interest from the Philippine government and some NGOs expressed at the workshop may lead to the use of the fisheries app package, at least in some pilot areas. Dr. Mary Ann Bimbao (Executive Director of FIN) and Dr. Deng Palomares (Senior Scientist of the Sea Around Us) are in follow-up discussions with some members of the BFAR and Oceana-Philippines for future work.

13th Annual FishBase Symposium in Philippines to take place this fall

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A group shot from the 2014 FishBase Symposium that took place at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.

The 13th annual FishBase Symposium will take place September 1, 2015, hosted by the FishBase Information and Research Group, Inc. (FIN) in Los Baños, Philippines to mark the 25th and 10th year anniversaries of FishBase and SealifeBase, respectively.

Convened by Drs Mary Ann Bimbao (FIN) and Deng Palomares, Sea Around Us Senior Scientist, the theme for the Symposium is FishBase and SeaLifeBase for Teaching and Research in Aquatic Science. It aims to promote a deeper understanding of why and how FishBase and SeaLifeBase can be used for teaching and research in the Philippines.

Invited speakers come from local universities and research institutions, FishBase Consortium members who themselves use FishBase in teaching ichthyology courses and offer FishBase workshops regularly, and students from universities and secondary schools in the Philippines.

Dr Daniel Pauly, Principal Investigator of the Sea Around Us and co-maker of FishBase will give the keynote address. Dr Dirk Zeller, Sea Around Us Project Manager, will also attend the Symposium.

Other anniversary celebration activities include a poster exhibit of FishBase and SeaLifeBase, a book-giving activity to local libraries, students’ hands-on orientation on FishBase and SeaLifeBase and an art competition expressing underwater relationships and connections.

Schedule of Events:

1 Sept. 2015 (Tuesday): 13th Annual FishBase Symposium
1-4 Sept. 2015 (Tuesday-Friday):  Poster exhibit, Book-giving to libraries, Art competition, Students’ hands-on orientation on FishBase and SeaLifeBase, Media splash
2-4 Sept. 2015 (Wednesday-Friday): FishBase Consortium Annual Meeting

Events Coordinators:

  • Dr. Maria Lourdes D. Palomares, FIN Associate Scientific Director and Chair of the FishBase Consortium
  • Dr. Mary Ann P. Bimbao, FIN Executive Director

Gordon Tsui – Research Assistant

Gordon-TsuiGordon Tsui has joined the Sea Around Us as a Research Assistant. Gordon grew up in the historical fishing village of Steveston in Richmond. Being surrounded by the local fishermen and fish markets, he became fascinated by fisheries and the environment. He completed his undergraduate degree with a B.Sc. in Environmental Science at UBC in 2014. Having volunteered for the Sea Around Us during his degree, he is happy to continue his time at the Sea Around Us after his graduation. He hopes to continue to learn about fisheries and their impacts for countries around the world. In his spare time, Gordon enjoys traveling and outdoor activities such as hiking and scuba diving.

New research reveals population trends for world seabirds

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A Rhinoceros Auklet (seabird) eating sandlance (Photo: Daniel Donnecke)

New Sea Around Us research has found drastic decline in the monitored portion of the global seabird population.

The paper, published in PLoS ONE, reports that the monitored portion of the global seabird population decreased overall by 69.7 per cent between 1950 and 2010.

According to Michelle Paleczny, a lead author of the paper, and recent graduate of the zoology program at UBC, these findings likely reflect a global trend because of the large and representative sample. A decline this drastic can cause changes in island and marine ecosystems in which seabirds play a variety of vital roles.

“Decline in seabird abundance stands to disrupt natural processes in island and marine ecosystems in which seabirds play an important role — by acting as predators, scavengers, cross-ecosystem nutrient subsidizers, and ecosystem engineers,” Paleczny says.

In order to investigate global patterns of seabird population data, the researchers assembled a global database of seabird population size records and applied multivariate autoregressive state-space (MARSS) modeling to estimate the global path of all seabird populations with sufficient data. They obtained data from primary sources including journal articles, books, and unpublished reports.

Several human activities are known to threaten seabird populations, including entanglement in fishing gear, overfishing of food sources, climate change, pollution, disturbance, direct exploitation, development, energy production, and introduced species. Seabird populations are strongly affected by threats to marine and coastal ecosystems, and can indicate  the status of marine ecosystem health.

“Knowing this information helps us to measure and assess the overall effect that human activities and threats have had on seabirds and marine ecosystems over time,” Paleczny explains.

You can read the full report here

Recreational fishing accounts for half of all fish caught in The Bahamas

By: The PEW Charitable Trusts

Tourist fishing is big business in The Bahamas, but exactly how big was not known until now.

Scientists with the Sea Around Us— a scientific initiative at the University of British Columbia supported by The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation and The Pew Charitable Trusts—conducted a catch reconstruction, reviewing a range of data sources to estimate unreported catch. They found that recreational anglers landed about 8,000 metric tons a year over the past 60 years—approximately half of all fish caught in the country. This more accurate estimate may allow the government to better protect the local food supply.

“We depend heavily on tourism, but it can be a double-edged sword,” says Nicola Smith, a marine ecologist from Nassau and a doctoral candidate at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia. “You could get into serious ethical issues if the majority of the natural resource needed for sustenance is diverted for tourism and not being closely monitored.”

In The Bahamas, no one is keeping regular count of all the fish that tourists catch at sea or eat in restaurants. The government tracks only large-scale commercial catch, a common practice in many countries because commercial fishing is often considered more important to the local and national economies and because small-scale operations can be difficult to monitor. This limitation largely excludes categories such as artisanal, recreational, subsistence, and illegal fishing, as well as discards—fish that are caught and thrown away—and masks the true extent of fishing worldwide.

“The government is not systematically counting any of it, despite its importance for tourism,” Smith says. “The legislation to monitor and regulate recreational fishing has lagged behind the advertising.”

As the lead author of the Sea Around Us study, co-authored by Dirk Zeller of UBC, Smith is looking at the bigger picture. Her analysis worked to “reconstruct” the catch by all fisheries sectors in The Bahamas from 1950 through 2010 as part of a global project focused on identifying total fish catch, including previously uncounted data from many countries and spanning several decades.

Catch reconstruction is based on the idea that some catch information exists outside official fishery statistics and that it can be pulled together to produce a more complete picture of the catch. In the case of The Bahamas, Smith estimated catch by subsistence fishers using population data and a conservative assumption of per-capita consumption. She estimated how much fish the tourists were landing by combining catch limits with data from government tourism surveys.

Another category of catch proved especially difficult to estimate: small-scale commercial fishing. Fishermen in this sector sell much of their catch directly to restaurants rather than to processing plants, which are monitored by the government. Smith interviewed fishers and hotel purchasing managers and found that it was common for artisanal fishers to moor at a dock to sell fish directly to a hotel restaurant. It remains unclear what proportion of the country’s entire catch can be attributed to this practice. For this study, the researchers conducted a survey to estimate per-visitor fish consumption, then calculated total catch using hotel room occupancy data.

What’s the catch?

The reconstruction showed that the total catch in the past six decades was about 885,000 metric tons, more than double the official estimate of 321,000 metric tons. The research also produced more detailed estimates of catch for artisanal, recreational, and subsistence fishing (see details in this PDF) .

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This information could be useful for managers as they monitor the country’s fisheries and try to ensure that tourists and residents have fish to eat. More results from catch reconstruction, including global catch estimates, will be available later in 2015.