Asia-Pacific Fishery Commission

[b]GUIDELINES TO REDUCE SEA TURTLE MORTALITY IN FISHING OPERATIONS[b]
FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS
Rome, 2009

Sea turtles are affected by a range of different factors, some natural and others caused by human activities, including fishing operations. As a result, all sea turtle species whose conservation status has been assessed are considered to be threatened or endangered. These guidelines provide assistance for the preparation of national or multilateral fisheries management measures and industry initiatives that may help to conserve sea turtles by reducing the negative impacts that fisheries may have on them. The guidelines are voluntary and nonbinding.

Their scope is global, but when they are implemented, national and regional diversity, including cultural and socio-economic differences, should be taken into account. These guidelines present our best understanding of how to reduce interactions between sea turtles and fishing gear and reduce the proportion of caught turtles that are killed as a result of interactions with marine capture fisheries. They include information about how to change fishing gear and fishing methods and how the fishing industry can adopt voluntary approaches to reduce sea turtle mortality.

The guidelines make suggestions about implementing management actions, such as input and output controls and bycatch fees and they cover subjects such as bycatch hotspot avoidance, best practices for the handling and release of caught turtles and reducing derelict fishing gear and other marine debris. They also identify fisheries and areas where fishing may be a relatively important cause of sea turtle deaths. Research, monitoring, information exchange, capacity-building, financial support, socio-economic, cultural and legal aspects are also discussed.

This document contains the text of the Guidelines for the Ecolabelling of Fish and Fishery Products from Marine Capture Fisheries which were adopted by the twenty-sixth session of the Committee on Fisheries (COFI), Rome, 7 - 11 March 2005. Some observations and reservations were made at the time of adoption of the guidelines which can be found in paragraphs 64 to 67 of the COFI report (FAO Fisheries Report No. 780).These guidelines are applicable to ecolabelling schemes that are designed to certify and promote labels for products from well-managed marine capture fisheries and focus on issues related to the sustainable use of fisheries resources.

Guide to simple repairs of FRP boats in a tropical climate
by Thomas Anmarkrud, Per Danielsson & Ari Gudmundsson

This guide to simple repairs of FRP boats was developed to address simple repairs that can be carried out by fishing boat owners or others who do not have the necessary expertise. A great deal of repair work is done by boat owners, including work that should have been carried out by FRP experts, because the owners might have difficulties in finding a skilled FRP boatbuilder or taking the boat to a boatyard for proper repair work. This booklet gives simple guidance to owners or laminators on how to carry out good simple FRP repair on the beach, the pitfalls and the do’s and don’ts. It also advises when a skilled FRP expert should be contacted because of the complexity of the repair work.

Global Gateway to Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Remote Sensing and Mapping for Aquaculture and Inland Fisheries

The gender and socio-economic roles of men and women in different forms of Lao aquaculture (pond, rice-cum-fish, mini-hatchery) have so far not been studied in-depth. This socio-economic and gender analysis of Lao aquaculture was conducted in five Lao provinces within the scope of the UNDP/FAO project LAO/97/007 in mid-1998.
There are several traditional fish farming practices. There is a potential for increasing the scale and efficiency of aquaculture activities in Lao PDR. However, aquaculture needs to be integrated into existing agricultural livelihood systems. There are high levels of interest among women and men farmers towards aquaculture. Easy
access to fish for the family is one of the main reasons for both women