Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
The MSC is the keeper of the standard, but an accredited certifier retained by
the client does the actual assessment of the fishery to determine if the fishery is in
compliance with the MSC standard. This third-party process exposes the fishery and
the management system to external and independent analysis and review. The result
is that the local community, fishers, scientists and managers are able to potentially
gain direct exposure to leading science expertise, and may even become involved
with the international science community during the process of assessment and
filling of knowledge gaps.
15.3.2
Filling knowledge gaps in practice
While knowledge gaps are most commonly identified during the pre-assessment,
they can also be identified during the earlier scoping work. The following examples
highlight how fisheries are filling gaps in knowledge at various steps in the MSC
assessment process.
The CFP is working with WWF Vietnam to identify potential candidates for MSC
certification along the Vietnamese coast (Plate 15.1). Over the last few years there
have been a few government and funder-driven initiatives to catalogue information
about these small-scale fisheries (Nguyen Thi DieuThuy, WWF-Vietnam Marine
Officer, personal communication, March, 2007). WWF is using the information
from these initiatives and the pre-analysis model (Figure 15.1) to provide guidance
and insight to our marine programme and those of other NGOs. Using the resulting
database, NGOs will be able to apply a number of conservation tools to deal with
complicated issues facing the coasts of Vietnam. In addition, this catalogue will
also provide guidance to WWF Vietnam, the CFP and the MSC about where to best
apply limited resources.
The CFP is also working with the Seri Indians along the central-eastern desert
coast of the Gulf of California. They are one of the last remaining indigenous com-
munities in Mexico, and they depend on the Gulf's marine resources for survival.
The Seris' most important resource is jaiba ( Callinectes bellicosus ), a local variety
of blue crab, which they fish in the Infiernillo Channel. This project is a partnership
between WWF and Comunidad y Biodiversidad (COBI) in coordination with the
National Fisheries Institute (INP) through their Centro Regional de Investigacion
Pesquera (CRIP) in Guaymas, Mexico. An MSC pre-assessment of this fishery
showed that there were some unanswered questions and lack of data on the range
and health of the stock (SCS 2005). To address this gap in knowledge, a fishery
biologist was hired to analyse all the existing information from Sonora and Sinaloa,
two neighbouring states in the Gulf of California. This work resulted in the first
stock assessment for this fishery in 2000 (Marquez-Farias 2001), and the first spe-
cific management tool for this fishery, the Jaiba Mexican Official Norm. The hope
is that this work will lead to a better understanding of the jaiba population, its range
and dynamics, and that one day this work might lead the fishery to proceed with
full assessment.
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