Regional cooperation for fishery statistics program

Abstract

Fishery statistics have been successfully used to highlight increasing fishery production and contribution of fisheries to national economy. They are generally collected and compiled into national and regional yearbooks to demonstrate changes in fishery production from the previous year, or over a given period of time. An examination is made of regional cooperation for a fishery statistics programme, considering the Southeast Asia region and various issues and constraints in the compilation and utilization of fishery statistics. It has been shown that the basic functions of fishery statistics programmes are to provide data and information services for the sector management. Thus, regional cooperation in fishery statistics programmes must begin with identification of the sector management needs and determination of data requirements to address the needs identified. It is concluded that the region has made considerable progress in developing and establishing common data handling methodologies and tools. The existing regional standards include standard definitions and classifications of fish species, fishing gears and fish products used for compilation of statistics for the South China Sea Areas and FAO. Regional cooperation and collaboration ensure benefits of shared expertise and resources, and availability of comparable data for management and development of regional fisheries resources and industries.