 |
ACP-EU Training |
|---|
Newsletter: ACP-EU Project News 99/01
ACP-EU Fisheries and Biodiversity Project
Greetings from the FishBase team at ICLARM Headquarters in Manila, Philippines!
This electronic note addresses issues related to the EC-funded Project "Strengthening Fisheries and Biodiversity Management in ACP Countries", which are thought to be of general interest to Members of the Steering Committee and Participants from the training courses.
You can expect news from the regional nodes, as well as an account of important activities of the FishBase team.
1) News from the regional nodes 1.1 Pacific Node
In order to make up for some of the time lost at the start-up of the project's Pacific node, we have agreed to extend the period of our present collaboration with SPC until the end of November 2000.
1.2 Caribbean Node
It is with much regret that we have to announce the resignation of Nerissa Nagassar from her position as assistant regional training coordinator for the Caribbean. After the very successful training course she helped organizing in Trinidad together with Dwight Neal, she transferred to the regional node set-up in Belize. However, for understandable personal reasons she decided in February this year to relocate to Trinidad, where she is now working at the fisheries department. The FishBase team takes this opportunity to thank her for the excellent work she did for the project and wishes her all the best for her future career. (By the way, Nerissa is still very much interested in working with the colleagues from the region. Her e-mail address is: mfau2fd@tstt.net.tt , attn. Nerissa Nagassar).
The regional coordinator for the Caribbean, Dwight Neal, was busy traveling in the region as a follow-up to the training course in Trinidad. He visited the Department of Fisheries in the Bahamas to look into possibilities for a compilation of historic fisheries data. He spent two weeks in October 1998 at ICLARM headquarters in Manila to familiarize himself with the essentials of data recording in FishBase. He also had some initial introduction into WEB page design (which, unfortunately, was not completed as planned, as Manila came to a stand-still for a whole day because of the thread of a Typhoon.) On his way back from the Philippines, he made a stop in Jamaica to attend the Caribbean Workshop on Marine Biodiversity in Montego Bay, where he noticed the general interest in the region in issues related to biodiversity and the perceived need to embark on ecosystem-based approaches to resource management. After Jamaica Dwight proceeded to Barbados where he visited the Marine Resources & Environmental Management Program (MAREMP) to instruct lecturers in the use and features of FishBase.
1.3 Southern Africa Node
The project's training course for the southern African region took place in Swakopmund, Namibia, from November 30 to December 11, 1998. It has been organized in cooperation with the regional partner for Southern Africa, the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources, Namibia (MFMR). The course was attended by 14 participants from 8 ACP countries in the region, namely Angola, Botswana Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The project's regional coordinator Nico Willemse has to be commended for the great assistance he has provided before and during the course. A big "thank you" also goes to the host institute and its Director Dr. Ben van Zyl for the support given to this course.
The course followed the curriculum developed for and successfully applied in earlier courses conducted in New Caledonia and Trinidad: (1) Traditional methods and concepts in fisheries; (2) biodiversity and its assessment; (3) library research and scientific writing, (4) the use of modern communication technology, and (5) regional concerns with respect to species biodiversity and conservation measures were among the topics presented.
Resource persons included Dr. Michael Vakily, Dr. Rainer Froese, Dr. Deng Palomares, scientific advisor Dr. Daniel Pauly, Dr. Guy Teugels (Museé Royal de l’Afrique Centrale) and Mr. Boris Fabres (Fisheries Division, Trinidad and Tobago). Other staff who provided organizational support include FishBase Programmer Josephine Rius, Research Assistant Nina Garilao and Research Associate Rudy Reyes.
Since the end of the course Nico has been busy contacting participants of the course in the region especially in the context of an effort to assist their respective institutions to develop a strategy for showing presence on the Internet.
1.4 West African Node
In late October1998 the project signed an Memorandum of Agreement with the Centre de Recherches Océanographiques, Dakar Thiaroye (CRODT) in Dakar, Senegal for it to become the regional node of the project for the francophone countries in West and Central Africa. We are very pleased to welcome among our midst two new coordinators, who in November took up their assignment as principal and assistant regional coordinator respectively. These are: Mr. Taib Diouf, (tdiouf@crodt.isra.sn) and Mr. Birane Samb (bsamb@crodt.isra.sn). Both are fisheries scientists who have worked for many years at the CRODT. They both can communicate in French and English, their contact address is: B.P. 2241; Dakar; Sénégal, Tel.: +221 834 8041; Fax: +221 834 2792.
During the past months they have been very busy preparing the training course for West Africa, which will take place in Dakar from 12 to 23 April 1999. They have visited a number of countries in the region to present the project and initiate the selection of participants. We are expecting some 30 participants from 15 African countries.
1.5 East African Node
News from the East African node are rather sad. We had signed a Memorandum of Agreement with the University of Addis Ababa to establish the node in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. However, the military conflict that has emerged between Ethiopia and Eritrea since the beginning of this year has forced us to look for an alternative to Ethiopia, as at present we can not justify to establish a regional node in Addis Ababa. I feel very sorry for the colleagues from the university, as they have to suffer from events that are completely beyond their control.
2) News from the FishBase Team
The training program has now its own web page at http://www.fishbase.org/training/. You can find information about the training program as well as the people who participated in the courses. So come and visit us, you might even find your photo on the Internet!
Rainer Froese attended the Species 2000 Project Management Team meeting at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis in Santa Barbara, California, 19-21 Oct. 1998. He also presented the annual checklist on CD-ROM. The latest version has active Internet connection allowing the linkage of the list of names to the latest versions of the databases on the web, with all the additional information such as references, pictures and maps.
FishBase has a new collaborator from the Institute of Hydrobiology, Ukraine. Dr. Victor Arkhipchuk has agreed to share with ICLARM his database on fish chromosomes consisting of:
When this information is incorporated into FishBase as well as data from the Database of Fish Chromosomes of M. Klinkhardt, M. Tesche and H. Greven, FishBase would be the largest repository of fish chromosome data in the world.
Since the start of this year, we initiated a program, whereby we invite our regional coordinators to ICLARM's headquarters in Manila. The two-week program aims to make the coordinators better aware of the way information for inclusion in FishBase is processed and entered into the database. The trainee joins each scientist of the FishBase team in her/his daily work and learns about how information is extracted from the literature and what steps need to be followed to enter the information into FishBase. A separate workstation has been set up for the trainees where they perform actual data entry. It is envisaged that this hands-on experience will adequately prepare the coordinators to enter specific information directly into FishBase from their local offices once FishBase is made accessible to selected persons through the Internet. The trainees also spend two days with the project’s webmaster to familiarize themselves with setting up and maintaining web pages on the Internet. They are, of course, also given the opportunity to visit ICLARM programs that are relevant to their work. Thus far, this two weeks program was offered to Dwight Neal and Nerissa Nagassar (Caribbean node), Nico Willemse (Southern African Node) and Birane Samb (West Africa)
Another important event is coming up: The mid-term project review of the FishBase project is imminent. There we will have a chance to demonstrate what we have achieved so far and where we still can do better.
Sometime ago, a questionnaire was send around to ask you about your experience with FishBase since you left the training course. Our sincere thank goes to all those who replied (and those who did not reply might be reminded that there is still a chance to do so!)
Back to Top