Name of side event:

FISHING VESSELS AS OCEAN SENTINELS

Organized by:

National Fishery Society of Peru – SNP and the Institute of Aquatic Resources -IREA

Supported by:

National Chamber of Fisheries of Ecuador, National Fishing Society of Chile, National

Target Audience:

Official delegations to COP20, Multilateral Organizations, Unions and Associations of Fishing Vessel Owners of major fishing nations whose fishing grounds are in Marine Ecosystems and in the High Seas, and general public.

Objectives of the side event:

Promote the use of fishing vessels as scientific platforms in order to act as sentinels of systemic impacts of climate change on Large marine Ecosystems and the High Seas

Justification:

Why is it important Industrial Fishing Fleet Database?

- Because the scale of information obtained is not accessible to research cruises, or satellite remote viewing.

- Because it is shown that more information more accurate assessments of fish stocks.

- Because only in the case of Jack mackerel fleet in Peru, the amount of data that could be obtained in a fishing season is the equivalent of more than 200 research cruises.

- Because not only provides more data but also a qualitatively different type that informs us about what is happening in the ecosystem just on time.

According to the FAO Technical Paper No. 530 (Rome, 2008), Impacts of climate change on fisheries and aquaculture:

"It is likely that climate change is experienced as a series of extreme events occur more frequently, and not as a steady rise in temperatures"

and judgment further that:

"(...) There may be thresholds or tipping points that cause social and ecological systems are modified and adopt qualitatively different conditions, pose new problems for fisheries sustainability."

Consequently, the last report the warming that has occurred in this fishing season in Peru, notice how fish stocks are the sentinels of change in climate and the convenience of using the information in the

fishing vessels to take cognizance of the evolution of that change and, more importantly, make decisions for prevention and mitigation.

Being uneven impact of climate change on the oceans the Fifth Assessment Report of the IPCC, in Chap. Oceans 3 out clearly mentioned the importance of observation because:

"(...) Often Provide a clearer signal of longer-term change than other components of the climate system. Observations of ocean change THEREFORE Provide A Means to track the evolution of climate change, and to Relevant benchmark for climate models." (IPCC Fifth Assessment Report, The Physical Science Basis, Chapter 3: Observations Oceans 2013, p. 6.)

Agenda:

- Niels Hintsen – Vice President of Scientific Committee of the SPRFMO/IMARES (Holland), member of the Advisory Committee of the Institute of Aquatic Resources - IREA.

Title: Monitoring and understanding the changes in ocean resources together: scientists and industry on a joint mission.

Abstract:

The global oceans present a vast spatial scale that is difficult to cover with traditional scientific monitoring approaches. Fishing vessels are covering substantial areas of the global oceans in search for their target species. At the same time, the abundance and spatial distribution of those target species are affected by changes in climate and environment. Using fishing vessel as sentinels of the oceans could increase the spatial and temporal coverage of monitoring during the year. This could provide information on main fish resources and on other ecosystem components such as primary productivity, predator or prey presence, elasmobranchs, marine mammals, seabirds and the effect of climate changes on these components. Collecting information on such a broad spectrum of ecosystem components will improve the understanding of the role of fish in the ecosystem and could provide further guidance on how to sustainably manage them. Developing this knowledge base as a joint action between scientists and industry is expected to improve the communication on ecosystem functioning as small-scale observations from industries can be combined with large-scale analyses of fishing sectors by scientists. Fishing industry vessels as sentinels of the oceans provides a key opportunity to learn more about the developments in the oceans and at the same time it holds the potential of stimulating dialogue between science and industry.

- Francois Gerlotto – ScientifIc Director of the Institute of Aquatic Resources - IREA (France).

Title: Fishing Vessels as Ocean Sentinels: what essential information do they get that research cannot know?

Abstract:

Research and fishing vessels use the same acoustic techniques for observing the ecosystem, but in very different ways. Therefore the two have their own advantages and limitations. Scientific surveys give an exhaustive image or the distribution of fish, its biology, the population structure and the relationships with the ecosystem including non-exploited areas; but high density areas are usually underestimated, and surveys are limited in duration: usually one survey is performed yearly. It provides also a poor representation of the fishing activity. On the opposite fishers trips give very detailed synchronous ecological and fishery information on the densest spots with a huge number of data over the full fishing season; but they do not cover the distribution area and are statistically complicated to analyze. Both are observing differently the same ecosystem: they compensate each other’s limitation. Therefore, while scientific surveys provide a standard annual image of the ecosystem state, fishing vessel can act as "sentinel" by recording daily the indicators needed for enriching the scientific research as well as for predicting the changes in the ecosystem at different time scale, and especially for producing early warnings in case of regime shift.

- Ricardo Bernales – President of the Scientific Committee of the National Fishery Society of Peru.

Title: The Fishing vessels as ocean sentinels into action: Five years of diagnosis of status of the South Pacific Jack Mackerel in Peru.

Abstract:

During the past years the National Fisheries Society of Peru has been conducting workshops to establish a diagnostic of the population of Jack Mackerel in the stock Far North of the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organisation (SPRFMO) i.e. the stock concentrated in the Peruvian jurisdictional waters, and to link this status with environmental

characteristics; to evaluate a number of indicators that are collected routinely since March, 2011, in order to follow the changes in the environment and in the population; to provide to the SNP Scientific Committee and fishing companies tools for a better management of their own activities in the Jack Mackerel fishery; to understand the relationships between the Jack Mackerel parameters of the ecosystem and the environmental variability by the climate change; to improve the stock assessment methods using new scientific information collected by the fishing vessels; to study the population structure; to build, improve and describe the potential habitat of the population in the Peruvian waters.

- Agreement between the Fishing Ship owners organizations as Sentinels of Climate Change.

The National Fishery Society of Peru, The National Fishery Society of Chile, and the National Chamber of Fishery of the Ecuador, will sign an agreement to collect data on board in order to provide to scientists the early alert of the impact on resources of the regime shifts caused by climate change.