Millions of people around the world rely on small-scale fisheries for livelihoods and food, especially in developing countries. Managing these fisheries effectively has historically been difficult due to the expense and expertise required to collect and model complex fisheries data—but a new approach named FISHE, developed by Environmental Defense Fund, addresses this challenge by providing a straight-forward framework to manage “data-limited” fisheries.
In a recent blog post, researchers Kendra Karr and Rod Fujita explain how the FISHE framework is already helping inform small-scale fisheries management in Mexico, Belize, Cuba, and elsewhere.
By: Kendra Karr and Rod Fujita
More than 90% of the world’s 36 million fishers operate in small-scale fisheries—many of which are in developing countries. From sea to plate, these small-scale fisheries support more than 100 million jobs across the supply chain and produce half of the world’s seafood for local and global markets.
But as the world’s population increases and the demand for seafood rises, the supply for wild caught fish is plummeting. As a result, many small-scale fishing communities face job and food security threats and unfortunately lack access to the tools they need to sustainably manage their fisheries.
Developed by Environmental Defense Fund, a Framework for Integrated Stock and Habitat Evaluation (FISHE) equips fishermen and marine scientists with a swift, low-cost and highly effective method with which to assess and manage fisheries that lack sufficient fishing data.
Read full post on OpenChannels.
To learn more about FISHE, visit http://fishe.edf.org/