Efficient Inland Fisheries Data Collection Made Easy: the DACOFA Way

Abstract

The role of inland capture fisheries in ensuring adequate nutrient supplies and food security could not be surmised, especially that information on the actual contribution of inland fisheries to the socio-economic development of many countries is unfortunately not readily available. Inland fisheries activities are notably small-scale, making it difficult to compile the relevant data, much more their continuous production trend which is necessary for stock assessment. At times when such data is available, the information tends to be scattered, ending up with data that are not useful and scientifically, could not be utilized. As a result, evaluating the importance and value of inland fisheries remains one of the biggest challenges for its development, since the data available is not sufficient enough for any analysis. The SEAFDEC Inland Fishery Resources Development and Management Department (SEAFDEC/IFRDMD) therefore, takes on an important responsibility not only of collecting existing data on inland fisheries production but also in addressing the gaps in information collection and the research needs related to fish stocks in inland waters. Although, an increasing number of databases support the development of indicators for data collection about the inland fisheries sub-sector, choosing the appropriate management option that is applicable for the Southeast Asian region should be taken into consideration. Therefore, alternative approaches on data collection are necessary to improve the situation. As means of promoting an effective system of data collection on inland fisheries, SEAFDEC/IFRDMD introduced the web-based mobile application which is envisioned to be capable of efficiently collecting the data on inland capture fisheries in the Southeast Asian region. This application is known as DACOFA, which is short for “Data Collection for Fishery Activities.”