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A workshop focused on the Weight-of-Evidence approach in determining stock status was organised by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), through the South West Indian Ocean Fisheries Commission (SWIOFC) and the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC),in Mombasa, Kenya for the coastal countries of the South West Indian Ocean (Comoros, Kenya, Madagascar, Maldives, Mauritius, Mozambique, Seychelles, Somalia, and Tanzania).
The workshop, attended by 26 fisheries scientists and managers, was hosted by the Kenya Marine Fisheries Research Institute (KMFRI), and ran from the 24th to the 28th of March 2014. It focused on the Weight-of-Evidence approach in determining stock status, a systematic process that allows fisheries management agencies to take decisions on the status of fish stocks by combining information and data available from many sources, including local knowledge from fishers and expert knowledge. The use of the Weight-of-Evidence Framework in fisheries was developed by Australian scientists and managers.
Traditionally, national fisheries administrations in the Western Indian Ocean region have been limited in their capacity to make fisheries management decisions due to insufficient information on fisheries and the fish stocks they target. In fact, the usual approach to fisheries management consists of the use of complicated models requiring extensive and detailed data sets, which has led to many stocks not being managed due to the lack of this information. The systematic use of the Weight-of-Evidence Framework should allow the countries in the region to improve their capacity for managing their fisheries by using a broader base of available knowledge and will be one of the main tools used by the South West Indian Ocean Commission in its fisheries management advice to member countries, and the Indian Ocean Tuna commission for its data poor stocks. Zambia and Zimbabwe also attended the workshop and, in due course, it is intended that the Weight-of-Evidence Framework may also be used in the fisheries of inland lakes and rivers of southern Africa.
Kenya Marine Fisheries Research Institute (KMFRI), the host of this important initiative, is in the forefront of regional cooperation in fisheries research, and is a major player in regional initiatives to improve the status of the fisheries in the West Indian Ocean region.