Fisheries

APRI Attended The 2nd Meeting for Swimmer Crab Fishery Improvement Project Managers

by adminapri October 12, 2017 0 comments

The National Fisheries Institute Crab Council and Seafood Watch invited Dr. Hawis Madduppa as APRI Excecutive Director to the 2nd Meeting for Swimmer Crab Fishery Improvement Project Managers. This activity held at the Grande Centre Point Ploenchit in Bangkok, Thailand on 28 September 1 October 2017. The participants coming from Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, Sri Lanka, India, and China.

Fishery Improvement Projects (FIPs) have grown in important over the last decade as a tool for fisheries Stakeholders to address environmental and social challenges. While the definition of FIPs and their importance on global markets has evolved substantially over the last decade, their implementation has met some challenges including how to verify and properly communicate the lev el of improvement to the market. In November 2015, the NFI Crab Council and Seafood Watch hosted a meeting in Thailand that brought Swimmer crab FIP stakeholders together to discuss challenges and success stories in front of a broad audience of interested stakeholders One of the main take aways was that there would be value is hosting a smaller meeting of FIP managers to dive deeper into some of the discussions as well as learn more about improvement tools.

The objectives of the 2nd Blue Swimming Crab FIP Managers Meeting are to:
1. Provide a platform where swimmer crab PIP managers can learn from each other and better work together moving forward
2. Discuss strategies for overcoming challenges and building successful FIP’s
3. Discuss the importance of FIPs in the export marketplace
4. Provide training on FIP progress reporting including introducing a common reporting format on FIP Progress
5. Workshop the use of the Risk Based Framework and the Spawning Potential Ratio tools

Blue Swimming Crab is a key species of importance for the US market and offers the potential to improve livelihood benefits for coastal communities if the fishery can be managed effectively. FIP’s have grown as a tool for fishery stakeholders to address environmental challenges. Their definition and implementation have evolved substantially since the idea was first developed and are now seen as a key requirement for buyers to source seafood products responsibly from fisheries that cannot immediately qualify for international sustainability standards