Technical eXperts Overseeing Third country eXpertise

TXOTX. 3th Newsletter - September 2011

were organized in regional sub-groups to discuss TXOTX recom-mendations. On the second day, participants were organized in groups with regard to their expertise with regard to target species (tuna and non-tuna) and country issues. The aim at this second round of group work was also to discuss the project’s recommendations. Group work on the second day was aimed at the development and application of best practices for research and research coordination. The last segment of the meeting was devoted to obtaining consensus amongst participants on the outcomes and to explain how stakeholder feedback would be applied to the final report.

The outcome of the working group comprised of a set of 23 recommendations that deal with the following issues: Deve-lopment of research plans; Management Strategy Evaluations (MSE) as a means to develop Harvest Control Rules (HCRs); ma-nagement of non-target species; inclusion of targets and limits in fisheries management; communication amongst RFMOs; co-ordination of funding; coverage of observers programs; availabi-lity of observes data; working groups between RFMOs; research for effort controls; regional coordination on research and moni-toring needs; transparency of stock assessments; operationaliza-tion of Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries Management (EAFM); peer review of scientific outcomes; integration and validity of data sources; basis for stock unit definitions; duration of science programs; terms and conditions for provision of data; and ma-nagement and monitoring mechanism for new fisheries.

Table 1. Organization of participants into species and country issues

Expert Non-tuna Tuna Country Total

Invited 9 4 5 18

Partners 4 4 5 13

Total general 13 8 10 31

TXOTX successfulstakeholder

workshop in Bilbao

This last project event was held in Bilbao (Spain) on the 12 and 13 of May 2011. The workshop was attended by 31 participants, with 19 of these people being guest stake-

holders and 12 TXOTX partners. Participants belonged to a lar-ge array of organizations and institutions dealing with fisheries management, science production, research services and advice, fisheries development and industry stakeholders in many large marine areas of the world.

We would like to highlight the involvement of experts from orga-nizations specializing in: Indian Ocean fisheries such as Seychelles Fisheries Authority (SFA), Institute of Marine Sciences (IMS), and South West Indian Ocean Fisheries Commission (SWIOFC); in the Pacific Ocean, the Government of Nauru and Instituto de Fomen-to Pesquero (IFOP) de Chile; in the North Atlantic Fisheries, the International Council for the Explorations of the Seas (ICES), Nor-th Atlantic Salmon Commission (NASCO), North Atlantic Marine Mammal Commission (NAAMCO) and North American Ocean and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA). We also acknowledge the rele-vance of the participation of experts in the West African fisheries such as Sub-regional Fisheries Commission (SRFC), Mauritanian Institute for Oceanographic Research and Fisheries (IMROP), Insti-tut National de Recherche Halieutique (INRH), Committee for the Eastern Central Atlantic Fisheries (CECAF) and The Status of Ben-guela Current Communication (BCC).

There were also representatives of industry stakeholders such as Asociación Nacional de Buques Atuneros Congeladores (ANABAC) and Regional Advisory Councils (RACs) such as Long Distant RAC. On the side of research institutions we would like to highlight the involvement of Instituto Español de Oceanografia (IEO), University of Louisiana, University of Cape Town, Imperial College, Cefas and AZTI Tecnalia. All these research institutions greatly contributed to the many aspects of the workshop due to their wide expertise in fisheries in diverse regions around the world. Table 1 and 2 show the number of participants involved by category.

The workshop relied on breakout group work to achieve its ob-jectives in identifying research gaps and needs, best practice, collaboration and dissemination. On the first day, participants

TXOTX. 3th Newsletter - September 2011

Table 2. List of participants

Participant Institute Region RFMO/Country Role

Narriman Jiddawi IMS Indian Country Partner

Tim Adams PACIFIC Pacific Country Expert

Alioune Badara ACP2 West Africa Country Expert

Andy Payne CEFAS West Africa Country Expert

Hamady Diop SRFC West Africa Country Expert

Mahfoudh Taleb Sidi IMROP West Africa Country Expert

Geoff Tingley CEFAS West Africa Country Partner

Pia Orr IC West Africa Country Partner

Salah Ben Cherifi INRH West Africa Country Partner

Abdelfattah Assabir INRH West Africa Country Partner

Hassan Hussain Rasheed SWIOFC Indian Non-tuna Expert

Gerd Hubold ICES North Atlantic Non-tuna Expert

Malcom Windsor NASCO North Atlantic Non-tuna Expert

Mario Aquarone NAMMCO North Atlantic Non-tuna Expert

Fernando González IEO North Atlantic Non-tuna Expert

Carlos Aldereguía LDRAC North Atlantic Non-tuna Expert

Phil Large CEFAS North Atlantic Non-tuna Partner

Raul Prellezo AZTI-Tecnalia North Atlantic Non-tuna Expert

Tony Beeching CEFAS Pacific Non-tuna Partner

Juan Carlos Quiroz IFOP Pacific Non-tuna Partner

Eduardo Balguerías IEO-CECAF West Africa Non-tuna Expert

Hashali Hamukuaya BCC West Africa Non-tuna Expert

Doug Butterworth UCT West Africa Non-tuna Partner

Rondolph Payet SWIOFP Indian Tuna Expert

Hilario Murua AZTI-Tecnalia Indian Tuna Partner

Paul de Bruyn AZTI-Tecnalia Indian Tuna Partner

Roy Clarisse SFA Indian Tuna Partner

Anertz Muniategi ANABAC Indian Tuna Expert

Gerry Scott NOAA North Atlantic Tuna Expert

Joseph E. Powers Lousiana State Uni. Pacific Tuna Expert

Martín Aranda AZTI-Tecnalia Pacific Tuna Partner

Rafael Duarte DG Mare - UE North Atlantic Tuna Expert

This meeting was held at the Imperial College of London on the 16-18 of November. The objectives of the meeting were to review the outcomes of WP2 and identify and propose ac-

tions for WP3, 4 and 5. Also, a draft GAP and SWOT analysis were drafted, recommendations were discussed, case studies selected and proposed cross cutting issues and recommendations for the last stage of the project were proposed. This meeting was attended by TXOTX partners with important input from ex-perts such as Andy Payne of Cefas, Ale-jandro Anganuzzi of Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC), and Joe Powers of the University of Louisiana. This meeting was especially useful for paving the way for the stakeholder workshop of Bilbao (May 2011).

TXOTX meeting in London

As you are aware the official end of the TXOTX project was scheduled for the 31st of March. We made a request to the EU for a 6-month extension of the project in order to

have more time to finalize the work. This is the reason why the final workshop was delayed until May 2011. In March 2011, we received a letter from EU informing us that the EU had accepted the extension and, therefore, the TXOTX project end date was officially moved to the 30th of September 2011. Thus, we will soon need to justify any cost incurred in the project until the new date of finalization. Please, remind your administrative de-partment in order to speed up expense declarations.

6-month extensionof the project and

administrative issues

TXOTX. 3th Newsletter - September 2011

TXOTX in the news

After the project Final Workshop, several interviews were published and broadcasted in the public media, such as an interview with Dr. Hilario Murua and Dr. Joseph Powers

on Basque Television and the Spanish National Radio. In addition, a full interview with the project coordinator, Dr. Hilario Murua, was published in Europa Azul Journal (nº 123 http://www.europa-azul.es/numeros-antiguos.php) which contains an overview of the project, highlighting its main objec-tives, partners and the importance of the project in terms of network contraction and collaboration with regards to maritime regions whe-re fish stocks resources are shared. Moreover, local newspapers echoed the Final Workshop meeting inclu-ding the description of the objec-tives of the project as well as the expected outputs. The interview and article are downloadable from TXOTX Wiki.

Following the presentation by Dr. Hilario Murua about “En-hanced cooperation between tuna RFMOs” during the Joint Tuna RFMOs, Meeting of experts to share best practices on

the provision of scientific advice of the Kobe II process, various re-commendations were agreed during the course of that meeting. Among them the recommendations for the Tuna RFMOs Scientific Committees chairs to establish an annotated list of common issues that could be addressed jointly by tuna RFMOs and prioritize them for discussion at the Kobe 3 meeting. While formal exchanges between tRFMO SC Chairs have not generally occurred over the intervening time, there have been a few which address common scientific issues across Tuna RFMOs. Among those, the outcomes of the Technical Experts Overseeing Third Country Expertise (TXO-TX) project Final stakeholder workshop can be considered as a positive contribution in support of developing common scientific issues between Tuna-RFMOs. As mentioned above, during the fi-nal TXOTX WS the participants agreed about the importance of the development of research plans and to use of Management Strategy Evaluation (MSE) as a means to develop Harvest Control Rules. This is a tool that allows the evaluation of the performance of harvest control rules in relation to pre-agreed reference points that are translated into management actions. MSE is a participa-tive approach involving all stakeholders, from scientists to mana-gers, the industry and the fishing communities, and can be con-sidered a key process in the implementation of the precautionary approach as well as to identify research priorities.

Dr. Hilario Murua attended the 3rd Joint Meeting of the Tuna RFMOs hold in La Jolla between 11 and 14 of July 2011. He pre-sented the outputs of the TXOTX Final Workshop to the Scientific Chair discussion group and, as the development of the MSE is a global process for tuna fisheries, the creation of a Joint MSE Technical Working Group was agreed between the Tuna-RFMOs during the 3rd Joint Meeting of the Tuna RFMOs.

TXOTX contribution to joint Tuna RFMOs meeting

Txotx dissemination

Time has passed very quickly since the TXOTX project start in San Sebastian on April 2008. Now, it is time to clo-se the door on TXOTX. However, as we were working

to contribute to a coherent coordinated approach towards research directed at assessment and management of marine resources, I hope that we have built basic and fundamental relationships for fruitful collaborations in the near future. The last 3 and a half years has had its ups and downs whilst naviga-ting the path of the project. There have been problems and so-lutions but looking back I must admit that it has been a good lesson to learn and, on top of that, a piece of work that all us can be proud of, at least from the Coordinator point of view.

Without doubt the TXOTX team has worked together to fulfil our tasks and achieve the project goals. I hope that the work carried out as well as the relationships gained will serve us all

well in the future. It was a great plea-sure meeting most of you personally during the project and I am looking forward to working with all of you for a fruitful collabora-tion promptly.

Goodbye!!! See you soon …

Date Event/actions required

30th July WP 4 Deliverables (D 4.1, 4.2, and 4.3)

30th September WP 5 Deliverables (D 5.7, 5.8, and 5.9)

30th September End of the project

30th November 2nd Interim Report (technical and finantial) delivered to the EU

30th November Final PROJECT REPORT delivered to the EU

Projects’ Working Calendar

Goodbye greetings from the coordinator

Stakeholder workshop in Bilbao (Spain)