ANNEX P Summary of Demonstration Projects 1. Fisheries
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ANNEX P Summary of Demonstration Projects 1. Fisheries: introduction and maintenance of an assessment and management system to achieve and support the long-term sustainability of the Fish and Fisheries of this ecosystem: regional execution ASSESSMENT AND MANAGEMENT OF FISHERIES RESOURCES FOR SUSTAINABILITY AND BIODIVERISITY CONSERVATION IN THE GCLME REGIONAL PROJECT PROPOSALS BY ANYANWU, A. O.; T. O. AJAYI AND P. O. ABOHWEYERE NIGERIAN INSTITUTE FOR OCEANOGRAPHY AND MARINE RESEARCH VICTORIA ISLAND, LAGOS, NIGERIA. SUMMARY The Guinea Current Large Marine Ecosystem (GCLME) Project involving sixteen countries and these are Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Cote d’ Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Sao Tome and Principe, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Congo Republic, Congo Democratic Republic and Angola is an offshoot and an expansion of the six- country Gulf of Guinea Large Marine Ecosystem (GOGLME) Project.. The Guinea Current which determines the coverage of the GCLME Project is a continuum of coastal waters associated with innumerable and expansive nearshore watersheds and offshore waters, all characterized by a unique blend of physical, chemical and other environmental factors predisposing biological productivity and fisheries. Ranked among the most productive marine waters in the world, GCLME represents a distinct economic and food fish security disposition. The Fisheries Component of the GCLME Project “Assessment and Management Of Fisheries Resources For Sustainability And Biodiversity Conservation proposes to address environmental factors predisposing fisheries resource health, production zone, production decline, shared stocks, transboundary issues, management framework and options, stakeholders participation and implementation arrangements. The major outcome of the regional fisheries demonstration project anticipated is the establishment of Guinea Current Fisheries Management Commission, serviced by appropriate science coupled subsets including Regional Fisheries Data And Network Centre, Regional Fisheries Museum as depository of prototypes and artifacts, the Regional Centre For Pollution Finger Printing And Habitat Protection and Restoration for pollutant source identification and quantification to facilitate mitigation and clean-up remediation. 2 TABLE OF CONTENT Cover Page List of Acronyms / Abbreviations Background and Context Rationale and Objectives Project Activities / Components and Expected Results Risks and Sustainability Stakeholder Participation and Implementation Arrangements Incremental Costs and Project Financing Monitoring, Evaluation and Dissemination 3 LIST OF ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS 1. CECAF Committee for East Central Atlantic Fisheries 2. ECC Equatorial Counter Current 3. EEZ Exclusive Economic Zone 4. E-mail Electronic Mail 5. FAO Food and Agriculture Organization 6. GC Guinea Current 7. GCLME Guinea Current Large Marine Ecosystem 8. GEF Global Environmental Facility 9. GIS Geographical Information System 10. GOGLME Gulf of Guinea Large Marine Ecosystem 11. GTS Guinea Trawl Survey 12. ICAM Integrated Coastal Area Management 13. IOC Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission 14. ITCZ Inter Tropical Convergence Zone 15. IUCN World Conservation Council 16. LME Large Marine Ecosystem 17. LOA Length Over All 18. MSY Maximum Sustainable Yield 19. NECC North Equatorial Counter Current 20. NGO Non Governmental Organization 21. OAU Organization of African Unit 22. STRC Science Technology and Research Commission 23. TED Turtle Excluder Device 24. UK United Kingdom 25. UNIDO United Nations Industrial Development Organization 26. US United States 4 1.0. BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT The Guinea Current (GC) is essentially a warm, superficial and eastward flowing saline water system lying between Bissagos Island, Guinea Bissau (Latitude 11oN, Longitude 16oW) and Cape Lopez, Gabon (Latitude 0o 41’ S, Longitude 8o 45’ E) (Binet and Marchel, 1993) in the east central Atlantic. It derives from the North Equatorial Counter Current (NECC), and overlays the westward flowing Equatorial Counter Current (ECC). The Guinea Current transits or influences coastal waters and EEZ of 16 countries (Figure 1) namely Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Cote d’ Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Sao Tome and Principe, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Congo Republic, Congo Democratic Republic and Angola. A total of 7,600 Km coastline (Table 1) serviced by lagoons, over 100 Km2 in area, innumerable rivers (Table 1) and three sedimentary coastal basins off Cote d’ Ivoire, the Niger, and Gabon to Angola are part of the GC water system. Characterized by a unique blend of physical, chemical and other environmental factors predisposing biological productivity and fisheries, the Guinea Current System represents a Large Marine Ecosystem (LME) ranked among the most productive marine waters in the world. Remarkable for its rich continuum offshore waters and coastal waters, serviced by extensive near shore water sheds the Guinea Current represents a distinct economic and food fish security disposition. 1. 1. FISHERIES PREDISPOSING FACTORS Several environmental factors predispose the Guinea Current Large Marine Ecosystem (GCLME) to fisheries resource abundance and selective species composition and assemblages. These factors include hydrography, especially temperature, salinity and other water quality parameters; tidal ranges; upwelling and thermocline regimes; topography, nature of bottom and trawlability; primary and secondary productivity; benthos; associated wet lands, lagoons and their estuarine products and services especially terrigenous flush; climate change and climate variabilities; Inter Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) oscillations, and wind forcing; as well as rainfall and drought cycles. Marine debris, oil spillage and other sources of marine pollution, nutrient enrichment and eutrophication are major among the anthropogenic factors (Ajayi 2001). The intermix of the warm, surface waters of the Guinea Current with cold fronts create thermocline regimes as well as the upwelling systems in the GCLME area, giving varying nutrient profiles in sections of the water. (Gulland 1971). Koranteng and McGlade (2002) “time blocked” 30-year in the central GCLME area ocean temperature, salinity and thermocline depth fluctuations as productivity variables confirming that the local upwelling system governs the biological capacity off Ghana and Cote d’ Ivoire. Intensification of the December – January minor upwelling in the area, over the years (Koranteng 1988), has been documented, and GOGLME Continuous Plankton Recorder samples confirmed a “new” upwelling location as far east as Benin and Nigeria. Incontrovertible linkages have been established between these environmental parameters and their variabilities, as factors of the upwelling phenomenon and its cyclic interspecifications on one hand, and the natural fluctuations of target fish abundance on the other. Around river mouths, especially off Sierra Leone, Cote d’ Ivoire, Nigeria, Cameroon and the Congo, significant reductions in salinities are seasonally associated with the rains. Folorunsho et 5 al (1998) estimated sediment discharge as 90 million tonnes annually. This terrigenous flush into nursery grounds in the estuaries and mangroves, contributes significantly to the replenishment of blue mud critical to the penaeid shrimp fishery. They determine the fisheries production zones and their productivity levels. 1.2. FISHERIES PRODUCTION ZONE Factored by a combination of environmental variables especially temperature and salinity ranges dictated by the thermocline movements and upwelling regimes and estuarine nourishment in general terms, the Guinea Current Large Marine Ecosystem (GCLME) has several ecological subsets. As such, the main fisheries production zones in the Guinea Current Large Marine Ecosystem area are a) Sherbro zone – Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone; b) Gulf of Guinea West – Ghana, Cote d’ Ivoire, Togo and Benin; c) Gulf of Guinea Central - Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, Sao Tome and Principe and Equatorial Guinea; and d) Gulf of Guinea South – Congo DR, Congo and Angola Each of these production zones has distinct commercial fish species composition and assemblages. 1.3. FISHERIES EXPLOITED AND SPECIES COMPOSITION The main fisheries resources exploited in each of these zones are Small Coastal Pelagics, Large Offshore Pelagics, Demersal Fin Fish Stocks, Shrimp Fishery and Molluscs. The small pelagics consist of a) Clupeidae principally Sardinella aurita,round sardinella ; Sardinella maderensis,flat sardinella ; and Ethmalosa fimbriata, bonga; b) Carangidae including Caranx rhoncus, yellow horse mackerel; and Trachurus trachurus, horse mackerel; c) Scombridae especially Scomber japonicus, Spanish mackerel; and d) Engraulididae represented by Engraulis encrasicolus, anchovy. ii) Large offshore pelagics on the other hand are essentially the tuna fish stocks represented by - Thunnidae mainly Katsuwonus pelamis, skipjack Thunnus albacares, yellowfin tuna, and tuna like fishes. iii) Demersal fin fishes consist of an inshore component dominated by the Sciaenid Community principally (a) Sciaenidae Pseudotolithus elongatus, estuarine croaker; Pseudotolithus senegalensis, short croaker; and Pseudotolithus typus, long croaker; (b) Pomadasyidae Pomadasys jubiline, grunt; 6 Pomadasys suillus, grunt and (c) Polynemidae Polydactylus quadrifilis, shinynose ; and Galeoides decadactylus, thread fin.. The deeper water component of demersal finishes is