Appraisal, assessment and monitoring of small-scale coastal fisheries in the South Pacific region

Abstract

All fisheries should, ideally, pass through a four stage process of appraisal, assessment, management and monitoring. Fisheries assessment methods are reviewed, as are methods for parameter estimation. A cost effective system for assessing and monitoring small scale multispecies, multi-gear fisheries is described, based on sample surveys of the fishery, routine fishing with standardized gear for data acquisition, assessment of the status of individual fish stocks and establishing a permanent monitoring system.