More information on the SPC Coastal Fisheries Programme

SPC is a technical assistance agency, not a funding agency, which tends to contract staff to carry out programme activities rather than employ short-term consultants. Assistance from SPC is activated by requests received from designated "contact points" within SPC island member governments (usually the department of Foreign Affairs), but we also respond to informal requests for advice and information if they do not need us to spend significant time or money. The Secretariat of the Pacific Community Marine Resources Division (formerly Fisheries Programme) work area covers all the marine spaces of the Pacific Islands region, excluding Hawaii, Galapagos and Easter Island. The Oceanic Fisheries Programme (OFP) assesses fisheries within 200 mile Exclusive Economic Zones and surrounding waters whilst the Coastal Fisheries Programme (CFP) concentrates its development and advisory activities within the territorial and archipelagic waters of these islands (an area which contain a large proportion of the world's coral reefs).

The Coastal Fisheries Programme is based at the SPC headquarters in Noumea, New Caledonia, but has occasional staff placements at the SPC office in Suva, Fiji.

A recent overview of the work of the Coastal Fisheries Programme is included in documents presented at the SPC Committee of Representatives of Governments and Administrations (CRGA). More detailed information can be found on the SPC MRD Organisational Documents page of this site.

The Coastal Fisheries Programme has a strong historical basis. Its last review, by external consultants, took place in 2003. The response from CFP to the review was presented at the 3rd Heads of Fisheries Meeting in Noumea. The Programme's sectional structure is organised into operational and "cross-cutting" units working towards a set of harmonised objectives within the overall mission statement:

"To provide a regional support service that assists Pacific Islanders in identifying the status, and optimising the long-term social and economic value, of small-scale fisheries and aquatic resource use in Pacific Island waters."

This navel-gazing process led to a Strategic Plan for the Coastal Fisheries Programme. The structural details of the Programme will change yet again.

Thanks for checking this out. I hope you find this information useful, informative and fun. Well, useful and informative anyway.

Dr Tim Adams
Director of Marine Resources