European tropical tuna fishery in the Western Indian Ocean

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European tropical tuna fishery in the Western
Indian Ocean

• Laurent Dagorn (IRD, France) Gala Moreno (AZTI,
  Spain)
• ORTHONGEL (France), ANABAC (Spain), OPAGAC (Spain)

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European tropical tuna fishery in the Western
Indian Ocean

• 40-50 purse seiners
• (1/3 French, 2/3 Spanish)
• Catching about 300,000 Tons of
• tropical tunas each year

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Fish Aggregating Devices (FAD)

• About ½ of the catches come from fish associated
  to FADs (Pacific, Atlantic, Indian Oceans)

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European tropical tuna purse seiners and
scientists a long history of collaborationBut

• Scientists usually define the questions and the
  methodologies, and present them to fishers.
  Fishers provide the fisheries data, and
  scientists give the results of their analyses.
• Not really a full participatory approach

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Meetings with representatives of the fleet owners

• 1st meeting identified some research questions.
  They consider that they are sometimes victims of
  the precautionary approach (because of the
  uncertainty of some scientific results).
• 2nd meeting a research project should focus on
  the FAD issue. Stakeholders need to know if they
  are doing the right thing.
• Meetings with fishers to know their research
  questions

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Interviews of 21 skippers

• Imagine that you have to define a research
  project on FADs (biological processes, fishing
  around FADs, etc.), what research questions would
  you ask?

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Interviews of 21 skippers
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Meetings with fishers

• It was obvious that the skippers were pleased to
  be associated with a research project and to
  participate throughout the various stages of the
  project.
• Generally, the skippers felt honoured to be
  involved with research and decision making
  processes aiding in management, but
  simultaneously felt apprehensive about their
  ability to assist.
• In conclusion, a project based on the
  participatory approach would be most appreciated
  by the majority of skippers. This would, however,
  require some effort to train the skippers in the
  most relevant ecological, biological and stock
  assessment issues related to FADs.

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Conservation and management issues related to
FADs utilized by the European Tropical Tuna
Fishery

• Main objective
• To define the best FAD-fishing practices and
• Appropriate management measures that should be
  taken to ensure a sustainable fishery

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Scientific problems hypotheses

• Fishing around FADs has raised several concerns
  due to the fact that
• (1) FADs increase the catchability of tuna, and
  in particular those of juvenile yellowfin and
  bigeye tuna
• (2) FADs contribute to the incidental catch of
  non-target species, such as sharks.
• (3) Some scientists have advanced the ecological
  trap hypothesis stating that FADs could have
  negative impacts on tuna ecology (Marsac et al.
  2000 Hallier Gaertner 2008).
• The scientific community and the stakeholders
  therefore need to understand the exact
  consequences on tuna and non target species of
• fishing around FADs, and
• deploying large numbers of FADs in the ocean.

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Scientific objectives

• Fish ecology and FADs
•  
• Assess the consequences of the use of FADs on the
  ecology of tuna and other species (e.g. sharks).
•  
• Understand why tuna (and other species such as
  sharks) associate to FADs. What role do FADs play
  in the ecology of fish?

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Scientific objectives

• 2. Fishery management
•  
• Assess the effects of fishing tuna under FADs vs
  fishing them in free-swimming schools
• Assess the effects of multispecific fishing vs
  monospecific fishing in the pelagic ecosystem
• Explore new management measures on FADs

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Collaborative process objectives

• Fishers representatives set up
• Training fishers representatives and
  representatives of fleet owners in the most
  relevant ecological, biological and stock
  assessment issues related to FADs.
• Identifying common interests for research
  (scientist, fishers, fleet owners)
• Identify different environmental scenarios and
  indicators (past and present).
• Fishers as observers of the ecosystem monitoring
  the abundance of FADs and the behaviour of fish
  around FADs (including colonization, distribution
  of fish among different FADs, etc.)
• Sharing other ideas.
• Building a comprehensive plan from research
  results (scientists and stakeholders in general)
• Fishers and stakeholders role in fishery
  management
• FAD management and measures

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Expected outcomes

• Improved knowlege on the behaviour of tuna and
  other species around FADs
• Best FAD-fishing practices and management
  measures on FAD fishing

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Methodological approach

• Joint definition of hypotheses to be tested
• Joint design of sampling strategy
• Joint collection of field data biological
  sampling of fish (condition factors), fish
  tagging (acoustic and archival/pop-up tags),
  instrumented buoys, densities of FADs, collection
  of old data or knowledge)
• Scientific analyses of collected data, including
  modelling
• Joint interpretation of results (joint
  discussion)
• Joint proposition of management measures

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Benefits

• Benefits for scientists 
• Access to large amount of empirical knowledge on
  the fish-FAD-fisher system through fishers
  knowledge (including historical knowledge)
• Large-scale field data collection and monitoring
  of the open ocean (e.g. FAD densities) fishers
  as observers of the open ocean
• Greater compliance of fishers with management
  decisions
• Benefits for stakeholders
• Recognition of the role of fishers as observers
  of the ocean (e.g. monitoring the abundance of
  FADs and behaviour/biology of fish)
• Recognition of the role of fishers to understand
  the dynamics of the system (empirical knowledge,
  including first years of exploitation pre-FAD
  period)
• Objective study (with no negative a priori by
  some scientists) to find out what practices
  contribute to a sustainable fishery
• Active contribution in FAD assessment issues

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Risks or barriers

• Vessel, company or national confidentiality of
  some data (e.g. FAD densities)
• Do not need to collect real time data,
  stakeholders and scientists of the same country
  work together on detailed data, and countries
  work together on aggregated data
• Poor participation of fishers
• Define an appropriate plan of actions to maintain
  a high frequency of interactions between
  scientists and fishers, and interest of fishers
  to be part of the project

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Work plan
Links with FP7 project MADE (Mitigating Adverse
Ecological impacts of open ocean
fisheries) 2008-2012
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WP4 Collaborative process

• Fishers representatives set up
• Training stakeholders on FAD issues
• Develop methods to collect fishers data and
  knowledge (historical knowledge, current
  knowledge, fishers as observers of the ocean)
• Develop methods to associate stakeholders in the
  interpretation of results, and the definition of
  management measures

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WP5 Fish ecology and FADs

• Increase field data through participation of
  fishers in the collection of some scientific data
  (biology, behaviour) (Linked to EU project MADE)
• Historical knowledge of fishers
• Joint interpretation of results (see WP4)

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WP6 Fishing impacts on tuna populations and
ecosystems

• Scientific modelling
• Historical knowledge of fishers
• Joint interpretation of results (see WP4)

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WP7 Best fishing practices and management measures

• Study of management measures related to FADs
  (including economic efficiency), by scientists
  and stakeholders (linked to EU project MADE)