REPORT OF THE STANDING COMMITTEE ON RESEARCH ... - Iccat

ICCAT REPORT 2008-2009 (I)Program managementManagement of the IERPB budget is assumed by the Program Coordinators, with the support of the Secretariat.Reporting is also the responsibility of the coordinators. Countries that are allocated budget lines for programactivities need to check with the respective Program Coordinators (East or West) for approval of expendituresbefore the work is carried out, and need to invoice ICCAT to obtain allocated funds after completion of work.2008 Budget and ExpendituresThis section presents a summary of the contributions and expenditures for the ICCAT Enhanced ResearchProgram for Billfish during 2008. The 2008 budget recommended by the Billfish Species Group for IERPB was€47,650. The only new contribution made to the IERPB during 2008 was an allocation of €20,000.00 from theregular ICCAT budget. Carryover funds remaining from previous years were €3,232.28, thus total fundsavailable for 2008 were €23,232.28 (Table 1). As a consequence some of the activities of the program were notcarried out. To date, expenditures during 2008 were €12.430.55, but estimated expenses at the end of 2008 are€23,030.55. The estimated balance of the program at the end of 2008 is €201.73 (Table 2).In-kind contributions to the Program continued to be made during 2008. Since 1996, the FONAIAP (Venezuela)and since 1997, the Instituto Oceanográfico (University of Oriente) has provided personnel and other resourcesas in-kind contributions to the at-sea sampling program, thereby reducing the amount of funds needed for thisactivity from the ICCAT billfish funds. Also, the Program Coordinator traveled to the Dominican Republic tooversea IERPB work. Travel expenditures for this last trip were absorbed by the U.S. National Marine FisheriesService, the University of Miami and, as such, represented in-kind contributions to IERPB for 2008. Ghana andSenegal provided in-kind contributions by support labor provided by Mr. P. Bannerman and Mr. T. Diouf(Senegal), the Co-coordinators for the East Atlantic.2009 Budget and requested contributionsThe summary of the 2009 proposed budget, totaling €42,350 is attached as Table 3. The Species Group requeststhat the Commission increase its contribution to €30,000 for 2009 to cover the most critical parts of the 2009IERPB (see Table 4). This includes funding to monitor catches of longliners in Venezuela, Brazil, Uruguay, andthe artisanal fleets of the Caribbean and West Africa. This increase will allow for covering high priority programactivities as detailed in Table 4. Some high priority program activities were curtailed in 2008 because of budgetlimitations. The requested contribution from ICCAT and voluntary contributions of €12,500 from other sourcesare necessary to fully implement the IERPB 2009 Program Plan.The consequence of the Commission failing to provide the requested contribution of €30,000 will be to stop orreduce program activities for 2009 including: (1) important at-sea observer trips in Venezuela, Uruguay andBrazil; (2) coordination travel for the eastern coordinators; (3) sampling of artisanal fleets in the western andeastern Atlantic (4) sampling necessary for age and growth and genetic analyses; (6) conventional taggingactivities, including the distribution of tag recovery incentive rewards.ConclusionThe IERPB has been credited for major improvements in the data supporting the last two ICCAT billfishassessments, and has already supported improvements in data in preparation for next year’s sailfish assessment.If the IERPB program were to be terminated due to lack of funds, essential research and monitoring activitiesthat are now supported by the Program will suffer and the Species Group will be in a difficult position to addressthe needs of the Commission. Although considerable benefits will accrue from various outputs of the ICCATdata improvement program, the IERPB is the only Program that exclusively focuses on billfish. By having thisfocus it is in the best position to ensure that the research and monitoring activities not covered by the ICCATdata improvement program are given some minimal resources. The IERPB is an important mechanism towardscompleting the goal of having the highest quality information to assess billfish stocks.202