Assessment and Mitigation of Impact of the Artisanal Fishery on Species of Local Concern

There is a chronic lack of species-specific data available to identify fishery impacts on species of concern. This prevents the identification and development of priority targeted management measures.

This project addressed this knowledge gap through a 12-month intensive targeted catch monitoring of i) species of concern to local fishers, ii) the artisanal ray fishery, a priority under the NPOA, and iii) threatened species. This provided insight into the population demography, seasonality and catch methodology and enabled fishers to identify pragmatic and targeted management measures.

 Data was collected on sixteen species of local concern and eight species of rays. Subsequently, meetings were organized to present the analyzed data to fishers to develop mitigation measures for the species of local concern.