Management of living marine resources includes:
- Development of policies, legislation and management for capture fisheries and aquaculture
- Coastal area management
- Fisheries and aquaculture economics, bioeconomics, statistical analyses and management advice
- Implementation of political decisions
- Processing applications and appeals
- Monitoring, control and surveillance (MCS, IUU-fishing)
- International cooperation, bilaterally and multilaterally (RFMOs) to improve MCS
- Coexistence of fisheries and aquaculture with oil and gas industry
- Cooperation with trade and industry, the research community and other public services
- Knowledge sharing with various stakeholders and the general public
Management, therefore, requires inputs across a broad range of professional disciplines spanning science and research, legislation, monitoring-control-surveillance (MCS), economics, engineering, communication, administration, etc. It encompasses cooperation with other government agencies and with representative organizations of the private sector, as well as international cooperation.
Historically CDCF and its institutional predecessors mainly focused its cooperation with developing countries on the mapping and assessment of fish stocks and other “hard” marine sciences. Gradually this changed, and CDCF has for many years of cooperation assisted partner nations in developing management systems for capture fisheries and aquaculture. Through this cooperation, the Fisheries Laws of South Africa, Namibia and Vietnam were developed and also resulted in MCS systems and initiatives to contain and combat Illegal, Unregistered and Unreported (IUU) fishing. We also give support to institutional development through technical assistance by professional fishery advisors who are seconded at the institution or department in the partner nation for shorter or longer assignments. We also arrange workshops and training of personnel both nationally and in Norway.
It is evident that management of living marine resources and aquaculture is complex even in its relatively basic form. Much more so when recently, specifically since the Reykjavik Declaration (2001) onwards, the emphasis is being directed towards the Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries (EAF) as a means to implement sustainable development concepts into fisheries by addressing both human and ecological well-being. The concept of sustainability under the EAF then incorporates biological, environmental, ecosystems, economic and social dimensions.
CDCF work to implement the ecosystem approach to fisheries management which should respect the following principles:
- Fisheries should be managed to limit their impact on the ecosystem to the extent possible
- Ecological relationships between harvested, dependent and associated species should be maintained
- Management measures should be compatible across the entire distribution of the resource (across jurisdictions and management plans)
- The precautionary approach should be applied because the knowledge on ecosystems is incomplete
- Governance should ensure both human and ecosystem well-being and equity
The management of aquaculture in Norway has been developed on the basis of the experiences from the expansion of the salmon farming. It is based upon laws, regulations and procedures with the licensing system as a key instrument.
The other central elements of the management system are:
- Coastal zone management
- Environmental monitoring and impact assessment and environmental quality standards
- Fish health management
- Animal welfare principles
- Food safety regulations
- Technical standards
