SEAFDEC Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center
The Policy and Program Coordinator, Dr. Worawit Wanchana, Information and Program Coordinator, Ms. Nualanong Tongdee, and concerned officers from SEAFDEC Secretariat and Training Department attended the “e-Technical Working Group (e-TWG) on the Global Record of Stocks and Fisheries (GRSF)” on 30 September and 1 October 2021 hosted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). During the e-TWG session, the progress made by FAO in collaboration with partners in developing the GRSF was reported including the consolidation of information system, pilot validation and testing of the Universally Unique Identifier (UUIDs), and development of GRSF database. It was noted that the information on the status of fisheries and resources for the GRSF could come from various sources, e.g. the current FAO/Fisheries and Resources Monitoring System (FIRMS), inputs from countries to SDG 14.4.1 questionnaire, traceability systems that connected to stocks and fisheries records, among others. At the end, the TWG provided recommendations for consideration in further development of GRSF in the perspective of the IT, fishery stock and resources, and traceability. Other ongoing work undertaken by FIRMS is the online consultation on terminology relevant to the Marine Resource and Fishery information domains, and the results of which including recommendations from the e-TWG session would be reported to the 12th Session of the FIRMS Steering Committee scheduled on 18–21 October 2021.
SEAFDEC had been a Partner to FIRMS and contributed to FIRMS database based on its project-based data collection. During the session, FAO noted the recent study undertaken by SEAFDEC entitled “Stock and Risk Assessment of Kawaka and Longtail Tuna Resources in the Southeast Asian Waters.” In this connection, SEAFDEC and FIRMS would further consider if the results from this study could potentially be contributed to FIRMS for better understanding of the resources in waters of the Southeast Asian countries.