Other Fishery Sources
In addition to the small-scale commercial or recreational fishers, fisheries officers, large-scale commercial fishers, and fish traders will occasionally have documents, logbooks, maps, or other resources that can provide information about local species' spawning behaviors and aggregation locations. For example, increases in catch during a particular month, season, or lunar period may signify spawning aggregation fishing. Historical records of fish landings obtained from government statistics, fish marketing facilities, and export records can also be helpful in identifying the periodicity and abundance of FSA species. Follow-up questions to these observations may provide valuable insight into spawning aggregation locations and associated species.
Conducting 'desktop' research to gather information about fishery trends and historical practices can provide useful information for management efforts. Photo © S. Wear/TNC
Literature
Scientific reports, popular articles, trade magazines, and other published materials related to fisheries can be additional sources of useful information. Historical novels, newspaper articles, magazine articles, shipping logbooks, old photographs, and other similar sources may provide snapshots of information about an aggregation site or sites that might not be available anywhere else. The greater amount of information available and learned, the better prepared the manager is to make a prediction of spawning times or to find spawning aggregations.
Resources
Traditional Marine Resource Management and Knowledge Information Bulletin and Live Reef Fish Information Bulletin, both produced by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community
Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute conference proceedings