Monitoring the vulnerability and adaptation of coastal fisheries to climate change project Funded through the Australian “International Climate Change Adaptation Initiative (ICCAI)”

Outline Objective of the project Workshop on monitoring protocols Site selection for pilot projects Monitoring approaches Proposed additional sites and collaborations Current status of the project Work plan for next 12 months

Project objective Assist PICTs to design and field-test monitoring protocols to determine whether changes are occurring to the productivity of coastal fisheries, and if changes are found, to identify what is attributed to the effects of climate change as opposed to other causes (e.g. overfishing, pollution, habitat degradation etc)

Workshop on monitoring approaches Workshop held in Noumea 19–22 April 2010 with 20 experts from around the region Objective 1: identify data currently collected in the Pacific, their purpose and whether they will allow separation of climate change effects Objective 2: Identify optimum monitoring design, including practical indicators, survey designs and methods. Outcomes used to develop monitoring protocols to be trialed at pilot sites

Site selection Assessment made of what data was available from the different research projects in region Focus was mainly on atolls; most vulnerable to climate change effects Need for a geographical spread of pilot sites Sites need to be accessible for regular monitoring Agreement reached between SPC and government to establish the pilot site and commitment to future monitoring

Selected sites

Monitoring approach Most large-scale oceanographic data already being collected. Purchase satellite imagery for each site for mapping and ground-truthing habitat

Monitoring approach Monitor local water temperature at pilot sites with a logger

Monitoring approach Conduct baseline resource surveys including habitat, plus build local capacity to undertake future monitoring

Monitoring approach Conduct specific photo quadrat surveys for coral cover and type

Proposed additional sites: FPF loggers only

Overall coverage (SPC and GOPS)

Current status of project Sites selected, 1 established and loggers deployed Finalising agreements for other 4 pilot sites Equipment purchased for the 5 pilot sites Database established for resource data Ms Maria Sapatu joined the project in Feb 2011 Recruitment underway for 2 Pacific Islander attachment positions, 1 covering information management and 1 reef fisheries scientist

Work plan for next 12 months Finalise recruitment for 2 positions Trial photo quadrat process and establish database for photo storage and coral identification Baseline surveys and local capacity building scheduled for Majuro in March/April, and other locations later in the year Additional sites will be established with loggers if the FPF proposal is successful If additional funding is located, will undertake baseline surveys in some of the additional sites

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