Mid-Term PROCfish Review

The project involved a mid-term evaluation of the Pacific ACP and OCT Regional Oceanic and Coastal Fisheries Development Programme (PROCFish).  Specifically the project set out to:

• Determine the efficiency, effectiveness and impact of  PROCFish in meeting its objectives and the sustainability of the outcomes ; and
• Ascertain the need for an extension in time and other resources in order to affect a smooth transfer of activities to the Western and Central Pacific (WCPFC).

This demanded a thorough review of programme objectives and activities in relation to the requirements laid down in the Financing agreement.  These were laid down in a logical framework which outlined the expected results and activities required towards achieving these results, as detailed below.

• Refined stock assessments and regional multi-species, multi-gear population models of the four main target tuna species, incorporating environmental variables, and with particular emphasis on bigeye tuna;
• Continued development of a regional integrated database incorporating observer, port sampling and biological data from all available sources, and interfaced with the regional catch-effort data base; development of comprehensive monitoring programmes at national level;
• Increased capacity at the national level to monitor tuna fisheries and contribute to the regional management process;
• Packaged scientific inputs to the MHLC/regional management arrangement process; and
• Preliminary assessments of the impact of regional tuna fisheries on the range of associated species taken by them.

The activities towards achieving these specific results were implemented under four broad categories: scientific monitoring, data collection and analysis, biological research and assessment modelling.