Improvement of quality insurance of data from fisheries technology experiments: Report to NORAD on a 5 months contract at IDPPE, Maputo Department of Fishing Technology

This reports sums up the experiences obtained during a 5 months engagement at IDPPE (Instituto Nacional de Desenvolvimento da Pesca de Pequena Escala), Mozambique. The purpose of the contract was to support technical assistance and competence building in the field of Fishing Technology at IDPPE, and at the same time contribute to competence building at IMR, Bergen, within the field of artisanal fisheries. After initial consultations with the staff of dTP (Departemento de Tecnología Pesceira), IDPPE, it was decided to concentrate my effort on tasks linked to improvement of quality insurance of data from fisheries technology experiments. This would be evaluating and suggesting improvements of the methods used by IDPPE to collect, store, analyse and report data from fishing gear experiments, as well as to make programs/manuals/ templates for future handling, analyses and reporting of fishing technology data. It was also decided to arrange a Workshop for the fishing gear technicians at IDPPE in order to raise their level of consciousness and knowledge on handling data from fishing gear experiments. Basis for my work was two trips to IDPPE’s delegations in Nampula and Zambezia to get familiarized with IDPPE’s working methods in the rural areas of Mozambique, and also to study the flow of information from the field experiments through data storage, processing, analysing and presentation in reports. I also evaluated the working conditions for the technical staff of the two delegations. Based on these observations it was decided to standardize/improve IDPPE’s handling of fishing technology data by developing simple forms/sheets for data collection in the field as well as to construct simple data bases for handling fisheries technology data. The main purpose was to secure that all delegations collected the same amount of data from parallel experiments and treated the collected information in a standardized manner. In addition a simple manual for handling of fisheries technology data was made. The new system for collecting and handling of data were introduced to the delegations at a Workshop in Beira 19-21 July 2007 with participation from all delegations. This Workshop was aimed at increasing the knowledge and the awareness among the technicians of the importance of using adequate metods for collecting and treating data from fishing gear experiments.