Compliance Workshop: Collection and reporting of Fisheries data to IOTC Pearle Beach Hotel, Flic en Flac, Mauritius March 2014 Sponsored by BOBLME-IOC-SmartFish-IOTC

Recommendation from the IOTC Scientific Committee (Dec 2013): Why are we here ? Para 104. The SC NOTED the difficulties that some countries have to report data to the IOTC as per the required standards, and that this lack of reporting originates in some cases from an insufficient understanding of the IOTC Requirements. In this regard the IOTC Secretariat will receive financial support from the EU-funded IOC-SmartFish Project for the organisation of a regional workshop to understand the IOTC Data Requirements and REQUESTED that the IOTC Secretariat considers funding scientists and statistical officers/managers from non IOC countries to the Workshop, in particular from Iran, Indonesia and Sri Lanka.

Assess performance of IOTC CPC’s to comply with IOTC Mandatory Statistical Requirements and, where required, identify areas in which IOTC could assist its Members to ensure full compliance with IOTC Requirements for Statistics in the future. Workshop Objective

 Overview of the IOTC process and status of IOTC stocks  Review of IOTC Data Requirements and status of reporting of developing coastal states in the Indian Ocean with regards to those requirements  Identification of the reasons why data are not reported  Assess actions required to address the issues  Assess the type of difficulties that countries may have to implement those actions and, where required, the type of assistance that may be needed What is going to happen

 Understanding the IOTC Requirements: The IOTC Guidelines  What needs to be reported and how ?  Hands on data sessions  Review of data collection: logbook and observer programmes  Review of procedures used at the IOTC Secretariat to review the data reported by IOTC CPCs and preparation of datasets for the assessments of IOTC species What is going to happen (cont.)

 You all understand the IOTC Requirements  You all know what needs to be done to put the data together  You all know what to do to streamline your data collection and processing systems to ensure that good quality data are produced in a timely manner and reported as per the IOTC requirements  We all adopt a set of recommendations from the Workshop and the actions required to undertake to address those  We set up tentative dates for a new Workshop to assess Progress At the end of the Workshop

You all commit to come back to your countries and do your best to ensure that those actions are implemented and levels of reporting improved in the future After the Workshop