Progress report for
Establishment of an acoustic and fishery information system to improve knowledge of marine ecosystems and its resources through the use of data from fishing vessels, incorporating actors from other countries.
Achievement at a glance
During 2018 and 2019, the SNP in coordination with the Peruvian Marine Research Institute IMARPE carried out four small pelagic fish acoustic assessment surveys. These activities permitted to collect oceanographic, acoustic, biological and satellite monitoring data, which have permitted better analysis and management of the national fisheries. During the last four fishing seasons in 2018 and 2019, the following achievements have been obtained: The SNP industrial fleet has 50 vessels that have an acoustic detection system installed to measure the acoustic density of fish and zooplankton per nautical mile, as well as to determine the depth of the upper limit of the minimum oxygen zone and information on the morphological characteristics of schools of fish. Biometric data and satellite location of each fishing set made on anchovy, horse mackerel, mackerel and other species is available. This has allowed dynamically protecting distribution zones of juveniles, besides reducing bycatch. These actions made the industry more sustainable. There is the SALVAMARES program, the first private initiative worldwide, our objective is to take care of the marine ecosystem and take advantage of resources in a sustainable way. This program trains crewmembers to collect information and correctly release species that have accidentally fallen into fishing nets There is a calibration protocol for the digital echo sounders aboard fishing vessels, being the goal to standardize the collected acoustic information, in line with the IMARPE`s own standards.The PESCADATA platform contains all the processed and scientifically analyzed data, and The Humboldt IHMA Institute hosts this platform on its website http://ihma.org.pe/ SNP has managed to actively participate in SPRFMO meetings, contributing data and scientific information by the Peruvian delegation.SNP has recognition by the scientific community, academia and NGOs on the contribution of the fishing industry for better management of fisheriesChallenges faced in implementation
The main challenges that the fishing industry faced in achieving the objectives set out in this initiative were the following:<br>To achieve a dynamic interaction between a large number of stakeholders involved in the project, by overcoming the organizational culture of each fishing company.
<br>To train scientific staff, and to provide logistic and financial support for the data collection aboard fishing vessels.
<br>To sensitize the participants of the SALVAMARES Program regarding the needed care of the marine ecosystem and the sustainable use of marine resources.
<br>To strengthen the strategic alliance with IMARPE, in order to ensure that the information collected by industry vessels is standardized in accordance with the scientific needs of data.
Beneficiaries
o IMARPE, due to the continuous supply of useful information for the monitoring of ecosystem and better fisheries management.
<br>o The national scientific community, since that industry vessels are adequately equipped to carry out scientific studies. This allow the sharing the data collected during fishing operations for different types of research.\\r\\no The international scientific community as they will be able to access to databases for cooperative research of the marine ecosystem through ongoing projects in the frame of SPRFMO.
<br>o The civil society because they can access the research made or supported by SNP, as well as to access the SNP`s Marine Sustainability Conferences being organized since 2014.
Actions
o 42 fishing vessels were assigned to study the biomass and distribution of the anchovy carried out by IMARPE, with no cost for the entity.<br>o The resolution and volume of acoustic and biological sampling has increased to permit IMARPE its access to better information used for its fisheries management advice.
<br>o The fishing industry created its PESCADATA information platform, hosted on the IHMA website http://ihma.org.pe/, which is freely accessible.
<br>o More than 50 SNP Marine Sustainability Conferences were held on the marine ecosystem and management. Many of them included the invitation to international experts, besides the financing of scientific research made by IHMA and in cooperation with the University of Washington and IMARPE.