A workshop aimed at creating informative online databases for fisheries management in selected Pacific island countries was launched yesterday morning in Nabua.
Hosting 12 participants from 12 of the 15 African, Caribbean, Pacific (ACP) countries, the workshop educated them on the creation and sustainability of a fisheries management website for their respective countries.
Fisheries information specialist Aymeric Desurmont said the workshop was important because of the lack of accessible information relating to fisheries management in the Pacific region.
“In the Pacific, the distribution of information has been traditionally made with paper and it has become extremely costly and we know now that even in very remote places, they have developed their internet access because they have understood that it is the easiest way to get information,” Mr Desurmont said.
He explained that in some of the participating countries, their fisheries departments lacked an online resource centre.
“All fisheries departments have clients that need information and usually have to pop into the fisheries office to ask for regulations etcetera. All this information is available, but is hard to get because there is not one place where you can access it.”
Fiji’s participant at the workshop, Pranishma Kumar from the Ministry of Fisheries, said it was an excellent way of providing information.
“Information is so important, without it, we cannot make any informed decisions or any policy changes … we want Fijians to have access to information and one of the key ways to do so is to create a user-friendly website,” Ms Kumar said.
The workshop began yesterday and will continue throughout the week before wrapping-up on Friday September 6.
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