Report on Prioritization of Key Commercial Species for Stock Assessment.

Abstract

The general status of Kenya’s inshore marine and coastal fish stocks remains uncertain due to inadequate information to form a reliable assessment of status. Understanding the current status and exploitation of key commercial fish stocks (target and bycatch species) and their vulnerability to overfishing is an important step in generating the baseline data and information needed to guide the development of appropriate management strategies. In line with the KCDP Project Development Objective (PDO) of improving management effectiveness and enhancing revenue generation of Kenya’s coastal and marine resources and the Global Environmental Objective (GEO) of strengthening conservation and sustainable use of marine and coastal biodiversity, the Research Subcomponent plans to conduct stock assessments of selected key commercial fisheries to contribute to intermediate result indicator four: number of key exploited species with stock status established. Towards this, the need to undertake a risk assessment of the key commercial species based on a framework adapted from Hobday et al (2007) was identified to guide the prioritization of key species for stock assessment. This document provides a summary of the process that was undertaken to identify and prioritize species under high risk of overfishing