Forum of the WorldFish center - Using ICT in Fisheries & Aquaculture programmes

Looking at fishery data from the past few decades, scientists found that increased mortality due to overfishing had favoured fish that matured smaller and earlier, yet also carried far fewer eggs at their first reproduction. Older data showed that a typical cod caught in Norway might have taken ten years to mature, while the same fish now would only take six years or even less, said Dieckmann.

"The question is not whether such evolution will occur, but how fast fishing practices bring about evolutionary changes and what the consequences will be," scientists wrote in their comment in Science, warning that such evolution may even be irreversible. Read more on Reuters.

From 24th November to 7th December 2007, the WorldFish center is holding an e-consultation on “Using ICT in Fisheries & Aquaculture programmes” at http://www.e-agriculture.org/.

All e-Agriculture Community members are invited to participate. The WorldFish Center is a non-profit organization that focuses on alleviating poverty and hunger by improving fisheries and aquaculture. WorldFish is one of 15 international research centres supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR).

In 2006 the FAO commissioned a study into the application of information and communication technology (ICT) in small-scale fisheries. The research found that the full range of ICT tools, from specialist fishing technologies to media technologies and general purpose ICTs, are being used across the different fisheries value chains (marine, inland and aquaculture). A database of 54 Case Studies was developed for the research and a summary of the findings is presented on the http://www.e-agriculture.org/ site to support this discussion.

The Policy Brief provides more detailed case studies and recommendations.

The discussion is also intended to inform the upcoming Global Knowledge II (GK3) conference in Kuala Lumpur (11-13/12/2007). Organised by the Global Knowledge Partnership, GK3 focuses on the uses of ICT in Development (ICT4D).

“GK3 will bring together over 2,000 visionaries, international leaders, practitioners and policy-makers to engage on the theme: Emerging People, Emerging Markets, Emerging Technologies.”

FAO is organising a key workshop on e-agriculture where WorldFish will be raising questions from the discussion, as well as the findings from the FAO research.