Asia-Pacific Fishery Commission

The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is advertising three positions: Standards & Licensing Director; Fishery Director; Asia Pacific Regional Director.

For further information please visit their website http://www.msc.org/about-us/jobs.

To apply, please sent a CV with a cover letter to Mountbarrow House | 6-20 Elizabeth Street | London | SW1W 9RB or by email to recruitment@msc.org. For more information please visit http://www.msc.org/about-us/jobs.

FAO have announced a vacancy for a Fishery & Aquaculture Officer (P-4) to be based in its Sub-regional Office, Latin America. details can be found here: http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/user_upload/VA/pdf/2501-SLMe.pdf

Thailand/Phuket, 30 Jan 2011 --

Government officials, scientists and representatives of non-governmental organizations from Thailand and Myanmar met late last month to discuss the joint management of the Mergui Archipelago, also known as the Myeik Archipelago in Myanmar.

The Mergui Archipelago is a unique area about one hundred times the size of Phuket that transcends the western borders of Myanmar and Thailand, from the Similan Islands in Thailand north to beyond the coastal town of Mergui in Myanmar. It contains some of the most highly productive fishing grounds in the Bay of Bengal, and world class reserves of coral reefs, sea grass beds, and old-growth mangrove habitats. In addition to these critical habitats, the area is characterized by a large number of rare and endangered species, such as marine turtles, sharks and rays, and marine mammals.

FAO has released a vacancy announcement for a Fishery Resources Officer (P-3) Inland Fisheries, to be based at FAO headquarters. applicaiotn detials please follow this link:
http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/user_upload/VA/pdf/2494FIR_en.pdf

Problem may involve over 20 million tonnes of fish and other animals annually. The first global guidelines for bycatch management and reduction of fishing discards were released today by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization. They now go to the Committee on Fisheries for endorsement when it meets in Rome at the end of the month. The guidelines were agreed by fisheries experts from 35 countries who met at FAO last month.
View the guidelines: http://www.fao.org/cofi/24783-0b3ae86 ... c503b379325282dcd80b1.pdf

Fish and fishery products make an enormous contribution to the nutrition and wellbeing of the peoples of Asia and the Pacific region, possibly exceeding their contribution in any other region of the world. The quantities produced and the sheer diversity of species and products from inland and marine waters that exist in the region is clear testimony to a deep-rooted tradition of fish consumption. For its biennial review for 2010, APFIC went beyond an analysis of aggregated official statistics and worked closely with fishery professionals in the region to provide more disaggregated information on local trends that underlie some of the “big picture” statistics. This is part of a major shift towards ecosystem level reporting requested by the APFIC members at its thirtieth session. In this regard, APFIC has modified the analysis of marine capture fisheries to focus on two marine areas: the Bay of Bengal and the South China Sea.

Download Status and potential of fisheries & aquaculture in the Asia-Pacific 2010 here.

The Asia-Pacific Fishery Commission (APFIC) has published the Final report of the Thirty-first Session of the Asia-Pacific Fishery Commission (APFIC), held in Jeju Island, Republic of Korea from 6 to 8 September 2010. Major topics discussed were: the status and potential of fisheries and aquaculture in Asia and the Pacific; overview report of the outcomes of the Third APFIC Regional Consultative Forum Meeting, member country reports on developments and responses to APFIC recommendations; ecosystems approaches to management, regional initiatives in promoting resilient livelihoods; inland fisheries resources enhancement and conservation in Asia, emerging issues in fisheries and aquaculture and major issues for APFIC focus of work in biennium 2011–2012.

The 29th Session of COFI will take place between 31 January and 4 February 2011 (http://www.fao.org/cofi/cofi2011/en/).
The Committee on Fisheries (COFI), a subsidiary body of the FAO Council, was established by the FAO Conference at its Thirteenth Session in 1965. The Committee presently constitutes the only global inter-governmental forum where major international fisheries and aquaculture problems and issues are examined and recommendations addressed to governments, regional fishery bodies, NGOs, fishworkers, FAO and international community, periodically on a world-wide basis. COFI has also been used as a forum in which global agreements and non-binding instruments were negotiated.

Workshop examines underlying causes, makes recommendations

Rome, 10 May 2010 � More attention should be paid to the plight of child workers in the fisheries sector, according to a group of experts convened by FAO and the International Labour Organization (ILO) in order to shine light on this often-overlooked problem.

"Worldwide, 132 million girls and boys aged 5 to 14 years old work in agriculture � this figure includes children working in fisheries and aquaculture," says Rolf Willmann, of FAO's Fisheries and Aquaculture Department. �But because child labor in fisheries is so widely dispersed in small-scale and family enterprises � or is actively hidden by employers � it is difficult to obtain hard data on the true extent of the problem," he added. "This makes it difficult for many policy-makers to tackle it.�

To start plugging information gaps, FAO, in cooperation with the ILO, recently convened a workshop of international experts to share information and come up with policy recommendations specific to child labor in fisheries. Core recommendations will be presented by FAO at a major international conference on child labor set to occur in The Hague May 10-11.

The workshop marks the first time the problem of child labor in fisheries has been dealt with in a coordinated way at the global level.

For full information: http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/42133/icode/

Fishing ports are a strategic bottleneck in the fight against illegal fishing
29 April 2010 � Five more States have signed a United Nations treaty that aims to curb illegal fishing by denying port docking rights to ships involved in the illicit practice.
The five new signatories to the agreement � Australia, Gabon, Peru, New Zealand and Russia � bring to 16 the number of States that have ratified the treaty, which requires signature by 25 countries to enter into force.