Seafood Expo North America
During March, I attended the Seafood Expo North America. The NFI Crab Council Meeting at Boston SENA 2017 was an excellent opportunity to meet important members and people related to BSC fisheries and better understand the council companies’ approach and commitment to crab sustainability.
I addressed the council about my work and coordination throughout Crab Council sponsored fisheries. A representative from each of the in-country FIP groups also delivered updates on their respective FIPs. Progress was reported for all BSC FIPs in Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Indonesia.
Timothy O’Reilly (Taprobane Seafoods Group) provides an update on the Sri Lankan FIP
While attending SENA, I met with the Indonesian agencies Ministry of Marine Affair and Fisheries (MMAF) and Threat Finance (C4ADS).
MMAF delegates led by DG Marine and Fisheries Product Competitiveness, Dr Nilanto Perbowo, outlined Indonesia’s three pillars policy for Sustainability, Sovereignty and Prosperity, current government effort in combating IUU fishing practices, and sustainable fisheries policy in general.
Gavin Gibbon of the NFI Crab Council emphasized the Council‘s commitment to sustainability, and collaborative work with APRI, SFP and partners on developing the control document system in Indonesia. The Council pledged support to MMAF in addressing several key issues such as “bambangan” and working toward sustainable fisheries practices.
NFI Crab Council meets with Indonesian MMAF delegates at the Seafood Expo North America
During the meeting, I further emphasized that the Council has been working together with Indonesia on the nationwide blue swimming crab FIP and the implementation of a collaborative BSC fishery in Demak. With other stakeholders, the Council has also been involved in the policy making process of BSC harvest size and BSC fisheries management plan. More recently the Council has been involved in collaboratively assisting the provincial fisheries offices in four provinces (Southeast Sulawesi, Central Java, East Java and Lampung) in implementing their sustainable BSC fisheries management through strengthening legal and institutional capacities.
In addition, John Connelly highlighted NFI’s commitment to properly address IUU issues, inviting both of the C4ADS representatives present, David Lynch and Satori Shimizu to help identify and find ways to move forward together.
David Lynch and Shimizu Satori described their work of tracing illegal practices in fisheries and throughout the supply chain.
Provincial Marine and Fisheries Meeting of Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia
On 11 March 2017, a meeting was held in Grand Clarion Hotel Kendari led by the Head of the provincial Marine and Fisheries, Mr Askabul. Attending were key personnel from the fisheries office, Provincial Secretariat, APRI members, BSC miniplants, academia, APRI’s Executive Director, representatives from the NFI Crab Council and the SFP.
Provincial BSC Fisheries stakeholders meeting in Kendari, March 11th led by Mr Askabul, Head of Provincial Fisheries Administration
The NFI Crab Council emphasized during the meeting the importance of linking national and provincial policies within BSC fisheries management, in particular the Ministerial Decrees on minimum harvest size and the use of trawl-like gears.
APRI delivered a presentation on the progress of previous meetings on BSC fishery management in South East Sulawesi that also detailed the recent Ministerial Decree on BSC fisheries management plan.
Coming out of the meeting, all parties pledged to support sustainability efforts and work towards creating a more collaborative and cohesive management approach across stakeholder groups.