IPNLF Research: building evidence for fishery solutions
In order to develop, support and promote one-by-one tuna fisheries, IPNLF works closely with its Scientific & Technical Advisory Committee (STAC), an expert body that helps govern IPNLF’s work providing evidence to verify fishery attributes and support policy and management decisions. As an evidence-based, solutions-focused organisation, the STAC is integral to ensuring that IPNLF remains at the forefront of one-by-one fisheries research and can validate what it means to be sustainable.
Guided and informed by its STAC, IPNLF has engaged in many on-the-water and supply chain research activities. In the Maldives, IPNLF has engaged in on-the-water research activities including a fisheries observer programme and a concept vessel initiative which trials new technology to reduce the fishery’s environmental footprint. In Indonesia, IPNLF installed vessel tracking devices and data collection systems to support transparency and traceability in tuna supply chains. IPNLF has also worked with scientists, managers and fishers in St Helena to establish the world’s first one-by-one only tuna fishing zone in the island’s maritime zone to shield a vast ocean area from harmful fishing activities and provide valuable protection for the local community’s low-impact, socially responsible tuna fishery.
Fisheries research is not only about the marine environment however, and IPNLF and its STAC are working on research to illuminate how one-by-one tuna fisheries contribute to the social and economic wellbeing of coastal communities.
With all this knowledge being generated, IPNLF wants to ensure it reaches as large an audience as possible and with its STAC has produced the “IPNLF Knowledge Sharing Guidelines”, which is a tool for maximising the benefits that come with cross sector information exchange.