Author : Wilfredo Licuanan

Summary : Fisheries Information for Sustaining Harvests Bio-Economic (FISH-BE) is a communications tool and decision-support program. It is designed to facilitate interactive examination of major decision options for coastal managers, especially those concerning municipal and commercial fishing effort and fish sanctuaries. With FISH-BE, managers can estimate the minimum size of the marine protected area (MPA) needed to support municipal fisheries with or without commercial fishers in a town’s coastal waters (i.e., within a user definable distance of 10.1 to 15 km from shore where such may be allowed). Managers can also determine the effects of the number of fishers, catch per fisher, and number of fishing days on the total catch. FISH-BE also provides estimates on costs and returns of management, both to fishers and to the local government. The FISH-BE Model 1 is implemented using a modeling program called Stella®. FISH-BE is graphical, easy to use, and only requires data that are readily available. It also allows users to gain important insights on the ecology and economics of fisheries in the Philippines and determine how these may be managed in a sustainable manner. As a communications tool, FISH-BE can be a useful basis for providing various stakeholders a perspective on the intricacies of coastal resource management. As a decision support tool, it provides the technical foundation for adaptive management by facilitating transparent and accountable environmental governance with participatory decision making.