Steve Rocliffe and Alasdair Harris Title: Scaling success in octopus fisheries management in the Western Indian Ocean. Proceedings of the workshop, 3-5 December 2014 Stone Town, Zanzibar Omnibus Business Centre, 39 – 41 North Road, London N7 9DP, UK. [email protected] Tel: +44 (0)20 7697 8598 Fax: +44 (0)800 066 4032 Blue Ventures Conservation Report © Blue Ventures 2014. Copyright in this publication and in all text, data and images contained herein, except as otherwise indicated, rests with Blue Ventures. Acknowledgements: This report would not have been possible without the generous support of the Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association and the Marine Stewardship Council Recommended citation: Rocliffe, S., and Harris, A., 2015. Scaling success in octopus fisheries management in the Western Indian Ocean. Proceedings of the workshop, 3-5 December 2014, Stone Town, Zanzibar. Blue Ventures. London. Front page: An octopus fisher lands his catch, Stone Town, Zanzibar; photo: Steve Rocliffe. ii Blue Ventures Conservation Report Table of Contents List of abbreviations and acronyms ................................................................................................................. iv 1. Summary .................................................................................................................................................. 1 2. Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 2 Short-term closures: fisheries benefits .................................................................................................................. 2 Towards eco-certification ...................................................................................................................................... 3 Information gaps .................................................................................................................................................... 3 3. Workshop Objectives ................................................................................................................................ 4 4. Day Summaries ......................................................................................................................................... 5 Day 1 | Wednesday 03 December 2014 ................................................................................................................. 5 Session I | Status and trends of WIO octopus fisheries and markets ..................................................................... 5 COUNTRY OVERVIEWS ..................................................................................................................................................... 5 Session II | Local and national management approaches ...................................................................................... 7 OCTOPUS FISHERIES CLOSURES IN MADAGASCAR ........................................................................................................... 7 OCTOPUS FISHERIES CLOSURES IN RODRIGUES ............................................................................................................... 8 TEMPORARY CLOSURES IN OTHER (NON-OCTOPUS) FISHERIES........................................................................................ 8 Day 2 | Thursday 04 December 2014 ..................................................................................................................... 9 Session II| Local and national management approaches ....................................................................................... 9 Session III | Overcoming data and capacity gaps for monitoring octopus fisheries ............................................. 10 MONITORING AND ASSESSMENT OF OCTOPUS FISHERIES ............................................................................................. 10 Session IV | Management challenges for attaining the MSC standard............................................................................ 10 MSC AND DEVELOPING WORLD FISHERIES .................................................................................................................... 12 Side Event | Octopus sampling for fisheries assessments and tools for participatory assessment ..................... 12 Day 3 | Friday 05 December 2014........................................................................................................................ 13 Session V | Towards certification – developing and implementing octopus fisheries improvement action plans. .......... 13 5. Conclusions and next steps ..................................................................................................................... 15 Benefits of improved management ..................................................................................................................... 15 Diversity of management approaches leading to sustained gains ....................................................................... 15 Challenges of applying the MSC standard to developing world fisheries ............................................................. 15 Lengthy certification process ............................................................................................................................... 15 Need for regional expertise in stock assessment ................................................................................................. 15 Essential nature of partnerships .......................................................................................................................... 15 Value of community exchanges ........................................................................................................................... 15 Appendix 1: Workshop Agenda ...................................................................................................................... 16 Appendix 2: Workshop Participant List ........................................................................................................... 19 iii Blue Ventures Conservation Report List of abbreviations and acronyms BV Blue Ventures CMT Customary Marine Tenure CPUE Catch Per Unit Effort FAO Food and Aquaculture Organisation FIP Fishery Improvement Plan IUU Illegal, Unregulated and Unreported LMMA Locally Managed Marine Area MSC Marine Stewardship Council NGO Non-governmental organisation ODK Open Data Kit PECCA Pemba Channel Conservation Area REPAO Réseau des Politiques de la Pêche en Afrique de l'Ouest (Fisheries Policy Network in West Africa) WIO Western Indian Ocean WIOMSA Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association WWF World Wide Fund for Nature iv Blue Ventures Conservation Report 1. Summary The past decade has seen a proliferation of management efforts targeting small-scale fisheries in the Western Indian Ocean (WIO). Many measures have focused on building local capacity for management of reef octopus (Octopus cyanea) and several fisheries have undergone pre-assessment against the Marine Stewardship Council's (MSC) environmental standard. Recent years have seen a growing interest in fisheries improvement projects (FIPs) for invertebrate fisheries across the region, including some octopus fisheries moving towards MSC certification. As part of this effort, the Scaling success in octopus fisheries management in the Western Indian Ocean workshop was held from 03-05 December 2014 in Stone Town, Zanzibar. The meeting brought together 66 delegates representing governments, NGOs, fishing communities, regional organisations, academic institutions and the seafood industry to share experiences and lessons learned from efforts undertaken across the Western Indian Ocean to improve fisheries sustainability. The meeting was structured around five sessions over three days: i) Status and trends of WIO octopus fisheries and markets; ii) Local and national management approaches; iii) Overcoming data and capacity gaps for monitoring octopus fisheries; iv) Management challenges for attaining the MSC standard; and v) Towards certification – developing and implementing octopus fisheries improvement action plans. Several key findings emerged from the workshop, including • Improving the management of Africa's small-scale fisheries can deliver sustained benefits throughout the seafood supply chain, benefiting coastal communities while rebuilding dwindling fish stocks and supporting parallel conservation efforts. • Collaborative efforts between NGOs, governments, funding bodies and supply chain stakeholders have been very effective in delivering targeted outcomes in some FIPs. • Successful FIP projects require partnerships with clear allocation of roles, sustained commitment from partners, and strong leadership. • An increasing number of FIPs use MSC pre-assessment to guide the development of action plans. • There is an urgent need to develop regional and national expertise within Africa and the Indian Ocean in fisheries stock assessment in order to reduce the costs of FIPs and the MSC certification process in the WIO. • Approaches to small-scale fisheries management in the region are diverse but largely bottom-up. Given this, there is a need for greater support for local dialogue and community exchanges, and enhanced networking among small-scale fisheries management efforts around the region. • Many small-scale fisheries management efforts are based on informal local governance systems that remain vulnerable to outside influences