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The Indian Ocean Tuna Fisheries of Indonesia Albacore Catch Estimation Workshop was held in Bogor and Jakarta from 21 to 25 June 2013. The workshop was held in response to a request from the DGCF of Indonesia for the IOTC Secretariat to assist the DGCF with a review of catches of albacore in the Indian Ocean, following recommendations by the IOTC Scientific Committee and the Commission to assess the quality of the catches of albacore, in particular those reported by Indonesia. The main objective of the workshop was to review the catches of albacore derived from data collected from the tuna fisheries of Indonesia, and other alternative sources and, where required, produce a new catch series for albacore. During the workshop, invited experts discussed the data collection and data management systems currently in place in Indonesia, the catches derived from the data collected, and agreed to recommend further actions to improve the estimates of albacore, and other species, in the future. Their discussions were informed and stimulated by one document and four presentations that covered a wide range of topics (Page 2). These included: DGCF’s sampling design, implementation, and official estimates of catches of albacore for the period 2002-12; status of implementation of Indonesia’s Vessel Monitoring System and summary of results (2012); status of implementation of Indonesia’s Logbook System and summary of results (2012- 13); exports of tuna and tuna-like species recorded by the Dinas Perikanan Provincial Office in Bali (2002-12); catches of albacore by the fisheries of Indonesia in the IOTC Area (2002-12); catches of albacore by the fisheries of Indonesia in the WCPFC Area (2002-12); and imports of albacore recorded by canning factories cooperating with the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (2009-12).
The Workshop concentrated its efforts in reviewing estimates of catch of albacore by vessels flagged in Indonesia, with a view to improve estimates of total catch, and catches by gear, focusing on the period 2002-11. The new catch series of albacore, as adopted by the Workshop, is presented in Table 5 (Page 9).
The Workshop identified various issues concerning the estimation of catches of albacore (page 12), in particular: incomplete reports from the fishing sector; insufficient monitoring of albacore in port, in particular frozen albacore; insufficient logbook coverage and poor quality of data reported on logbooks; insufficient monitoring of activities of Indonesia’s foreign based fleet; poor species identification and insufficient training and supervision of enumerators; insufficient data management and validation, in particular due to the fact that data from the districts are processed by hand, not using Indonesia’s centralized database system; and inordinate changes in the catches of albacore, and other species, and breakdown by gear, between consecutive years.
The Workshop noted that the above issues compromise the quality of estimates of catch of albacore, and other species, for the fisheries of Indonesia, and limit Indonesia’s capacity to comply with international data requirements, in particular those agreed by the IOTC. In this regard, the Workshop proposed implementation of a range of actions (page 13) to address the issues identified and recommended that the DGCF make every possible effort to implement those actions, as required. The Workshop noted that the DGCF may require assistance in the implementation of some of the recommendations, and encouraged the continuation of coordinated advice and support from the IOTC, the OFCF, WCPFC, SPC, and other governmental and non-governmental organizations, in the strengthening of data collection and processing activities in Indonesia.
