- 18 July 2023

Collecting Data to share with Fishermen - Ouvea Lagoon Festival in New Caledonia

From June 23 to June 25, 2023, the ADECAL Technopole team responsible for the Coastal Fisheries Observatory (OPC) of New Caledonia was present at the Ouvea Lagoon Festival alongside the Island's Fishermen's Union.

Continuing their project to monitor local festivals, fairs, events, and fishing competitions in New Caledonia, the OPC attended the Ouvea Lagoon Festival to set up a booth and present ongoing results from Ouvea, as well as other projects conducted across the country.

In collaboration with the Ouvea Fishermen's Union, a participatory monitoring program was initiated in April 2023 involving 10 sentinel crews and the UCPM of Ouvéa (4 crews in the North and 7 in the South).

This monitoring aimed to collect data on the catches made by fishermen, analyze them, and then share the results with the fishermen, stakeholders in the sector, and the general population.

As a result, 20 samplings were conducted at landing sites from April to May, yielding the following results:

Total number of captures: 766
Main fishing techniques observed: diving, trolling, and line fishing
Main species caught: "bec de cane" (n=183), "loche uitoé" (n=86), "bleue" (n=81), and "bossu doré" (n=81), with the latter showing a similar size distribution to the monitoring at Port Moselle Market in Noumea.

Additionally, this monitoring provided unprecedented data on "mékoua" and "anglais" catches.

Finally, this participation allowed the presentation of the use of the mat developed by the Pacific Community (CPS) while measuring the catches made by the Ouvea Fishermen's Union during the night and trolling fishing competition. In total, over half a ton of fish was measured!

Congratulations on this initiative carried out with the support of the Ouvea Fishermen's Union and the Coastal Fisheries Observatory of New Caledonia, for the benefit of New Caledonian fishing.