Advanced post-graduate training programme launched

Abstract

More than 20% of the European fishing fleets catches are taken from non-European waters. Access to these waters is often based on agreements with coastal states that allow the EU fleet to fish from surplus stocks in return for financial support. These agreements have been subjected to criticism, as these fisheries are sometimes poorly regulated and management decisions are often based on limited knowledge, compliance, and enforcement capabilities. It is also too often the case that trust between stakeholders is lacking. The aim of the FarFish project is to overcome these hurdles. The FarFish project is designed around six case study areas in which the European fleet is actively engaged in fishing activities, including Cape Verde, Mauritania, Senegal and Seychelles, as well as the international high-seas areas in the southeast and southwest Atlantic. In this context of geographic, economic and cultural diversity, the project will gain insights into the sustainability of commercially important species. Significant focus of the FarFish project is placed on education, knowledge transfer, and improving professional skills and competences of stakeholders within the case studies and beyond within the field of fisheries management. This includes education and knowledge transfer to a wide variety of stakeholders within the respective value chains, utilising different means; such as social media, e-learning, Tutor-web, a special university-level certificate program in Marine Management and Innovation and a six-month post-graduate program tailor-made for FarFish. This document reports on the setup and launching of the six-month post-graduate program, which was launched in September 2018 and will graduate at least five students before end of the FarFish project. Two students have already been graduated when this report is published and four more have been invited to join the programme in September 2019.