Review of Global Fishery Monitoring Policy Development

Review currently underway on behalf of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) to determine current global best practices in the development of fisheries catch monitoring program objectives and requirements. 

The report is based on interviews conducted with government (and Maori, in the case of New Zealand) fisheries management and policy development representatives in the US, Australia, NZ, UK, and the EU as well as scientific institutions such as the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES; headquartered in Denmark), the Thünen Institute (in Germany), the US  Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission (PSMFC) and the UK's Institute of Marine Sciences.  

A wide range of fisheries are being evaluated, including: subsistence and small scale remote fisheries, simple single-species fisheries (such as invertebrate trap fisheries), complex multi-species commercial fisheries, large pelagic long-line fisheries, small pelagic net fisheries, effort based fisheries and recreational fisheries. 

The review will support the anticipated roll-out of two fisheries assessment tools recently developed by DFO which will be implemented Canada-wide as part of Canada’s Fisheries Monitoring Policy; the Quality Assessment Tool and the Risk Screening Tool.