Comprehensive Report IOTC-OFCF Project Phase II (June 2007 ~ March 2010)

Since April 2002, in the framework of the IOTC-OFCF Project, the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) and the Overseas Fishery Cooperation Foundation of Japan (OFCF) have been devoting a considerable amount of time and resources to enhancing data collection and processing systems for tuna fisheries in the developing countries of the IOTC region. For this purpose, the Project initiated a broad range of activities involving cooperation with institutions in the recipient countries, including:

• strengthening of data collection through extension of field activities;
• capacity-building activities in the areas of data collection and management, including database support;
• documentation of fisheries in the IOTC region; and
• recovery of historical data on fisheries targeting tuna or tuna-like species.

Phase I of the Project was implemented during five years, from April 2002 to March 2007. The activities initiated during Phase I contributed substantially to improving the quality of the data in the IOTC databases, in particular the quality of nominal catches and size-frequency data for the fleets involved.
Following the success of Phase I of the Project, the OFCF agreed to support the implementation of a new phase which would extend the activities of the Project for a maximum of three years, from 2007 to 2010.
The present report covers the activities of the IOTC-OFCF Project during Phase II, and also includes an overview of the activities implemented through Phase I and the current status of implementation of the recommendations issuing from those activities. The following activities were implemented by the Project during Phase II:

1. Comoros: The Project sent a mission to assess the status of data collection in that country.
2. Indonesia: The Project provided equipment and materials for enhancing effort data collection for the Indonesian fresh tuna longline vessels. A workshop on the Indonesia logbook programme was held in May 2009, with the collaboration of the Indonesian Directorate General of Capture Fisheries and other national and international organizations, including the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) and the Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna (CCSBT), in order to assist in initiating Indonesia’s own programme.
3. Kenya: The Project carried out verification of the data collected from the sport fisheries of Kenya that were compiled during Phase I of the Project.
4. Mauritius: The Project sent a mission to assess the importance of foreign fresh-tuna longline fisheries in the Southwest Indian Ocean region.
5. Oman: Sampling programmes were carried out in Oman for collecting size data for three species caught by the artisanal fisheries in the Arabian Sea from January 2009 to December 2009.
6. Thailand: The Project contributed to the establishment of a data-processing system for industrial tuna purse seiners registered in Thailand.
7. Yemen: The Project sent missions in order to assess the status of data collection in that country and propose further actions to improve the quality of the statistics available from Yemen. The Project agreed to provide support for the compilation and computerization of historical data from the artisanal fisheries in Yemen; unfortunately, the Project was unable to finalize the agreement for these activities to be initiated within Phase II of the Project.

The Project contributed substantially to improving the quality of the statistics available at the IOTC, including better catch, effort and, in particular, size-frequency data.
In addition, the Project addressed recommendations concerning the fisheries under study which, if implemented by the institutions concerned, may lead to significant improvements in the area of data collection, processing and reporting.
On numerous occasions, the IOTC Scientific Committee and other IOTC technical bodies stressed the importance of the activities initiated by the Project, noting that the information collected is of key importance for the assessments of some of the main IOTC stocks.