NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF FISHERIES AND NAUTICAL ENGINEERING

The Role of MCS in Fisheries Management

Assignment for the Management of Fishing Industry

FS/ 2010/ 013 P.D.I.S.Liyanage

Role of MCS in fisheries management

Fisheries management The integrated process of information gathering, analysis, planning, consultation, decisionmaking, allocation of resources and formulation and implementation, with enforcement as necessary, of regulations or rules which govern fisheries activities in order to ensure the continued productivity of the resources and the accomplishment of other fisheries objectives Fisheries management has following components 1. Data collection and analysis This includes the studies and collection data of socio economy, population, catch or production studies etc. 2. Participatory Management Planning Is the planning of management policies and zones 3. Legal Instruments To implement management plans the support of legal instruments is necessary. All input controls, operational and output controls should be included 4. Implementation Established management measures combine with participatory and community based management MCS In 1981, Food and Agricultural Organization defined terms MCS as monitoring, control and surveillance. This is one of the key components for the implementation of fisheries management plants today. It encompasses the development and establishment of supporting legislative instruments and the actual implementation of management plans through participatory techniques and strategies, including preventative MCS and deterrent MCS activities.

Merging of MCS and fisheries management Collecting data and analysis for operational and management planning can be defined as Monitoring (M)

Establishing and improving the required legislative components, controlling ways like licensing, gear control, vessel size evaluation, catchable species and their sizes, limitation of harvest and quota values and other relevant rules and restrictions which support the management plans are referred as Controlling (C) Using the Preventive and Deterrent techniques the implementation of the plan is Surveillance

Preventive approach Preventive approach is useful to encourage the voluntary compliance which is an alternative to the state-imposed regulations on company's behavior. This includes
Community awareness and understanding the management practices (through seminars) Public awareness and Communication campaigns Participatory management practicing Accurate and verifiable data collection regimes etc.

Deterrent approach
Necessary to ensure compliance by fishers who resist the regulatory regime to the detriment of both the fishery and the economic returns to their brother and sister fishers. This includes inspection, investigation, prevention and court activities to enforce the law. Voluntary compliance will fail if stakeholders see non-compliant fishers successfully evading the law and thereby gaining illegal returns to the detriment of the compliant fishers.

The Legal Framework for Effective MCS in Fisheries Management

The legal framework supporting MCS activities can be grouped into three categories (a) International instruments (b) Regional instruments (not legally but politically binding) (c) National legislation.

International instruments MCS-related provisions: The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea FAO Compliance Agreement The UN Fish Stocks Agreement FAO Code of Conduct FAO Plans of Action

Regional instruments A number of regional organizations and institutions (fisheries specific and general) also provide the context and basis for the development and implementation of coordinated MCS measures The role of domestic law Domestic legislation plays an important role in the effective development and implementation of MCS measures. The key roles of domestic law are; Officers can exercise the powers related to coastal, and related fields Can reduce the international and regional based illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and enhance the conservation Improve monitoring programmes and enhance the transparency of fishing activities (e.g. Satellite based vessel monitoring systems-VMS) Identifying enforcement issues relating to maritime boundaries and delimitation Improving the existing sanctions and range of compliance mechanisms Safety procedures

Reference Recent trends in monitoring, control and surveillance systems for capture fisheries, FAO Fisheries technical paper 415 Peter Flewwelling 2001, Fish code MCS fisheries management and MCS in south Asia: comparative analysis, FAO/Norway Government Cooperative Programme Monitoring, Control and Surveillance (MCS) Curriculum and Training Programme, Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security (ANCORS) University of Wollongong, Australia, November 2009. FAO. Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries, Rome, FAO. 1995.