A year ago, I posted on the ‘MCS Practitioners Introductory Guides’ aimed to support fisheries inspectors I was commissioned to write by Duncan Copeland from Trygg Matt Tracking (TMT) and the International MCS Network (iMCSn).
The first ones were fishing gear-specific guides on Longline Fishing, Pole and Line Fishing, and Purse Seine Fishing, which are all very pertinent to the WCPO.
To further support capacity building for inspectors and non-inspectors, we worked on a fourth guide for Industrial Fishing Vessel Inspections that are complementary to the gear guides and tackles an introductory understanding of the key considerations and needs during vessel inspections.
And there was one more on the pipeline, that was the Carriers one, which finally has been released (like the prior ones) in 3 languages.
You can download the version in English from here.
Podes descargar la versión en castellano de acá
Vous pouvez télécharger la version française ici
The whole set of all gears, in all languages is here
Carriers are unique from the fisheries compliance perspective since they are cargo vessels that operate in the fishing realm, and as such, fall under the fisheries compliance spectrum and are normally part of the definition of fishing vessels or fishing support vessels, and ergo need to be licensed, have a VMS, in some cases carry observers, plus a whole raft of other requirements.
Yet the reality is that they don’t “behave” or move like fishing vessels, i.e. no fishing gear specifications, closed area restrictions, and the 1000 other things fishing boats have. And also, they are crewed by seafarers and not fishermen, so the “culture” on board is different, and they are subject to specific ILO and IMO requirements that fishing boats are not required…
Surprisingly not much was written about them in the fisheries compliance realm… so I was quite happy to work on this guide.
My approach right from the start, I wrote the initial draft from operations and a practical point of view. As I have said many times before… "it is impossible to measure or regulate what you do not understand".
Besides inspectors, I think they are also a good resource for people in the media, non-specialists in NGOS and institutions with an interest in fisheries.
I hope you find them useful.