IFOP held an algae workshop to standardize sampling
October 23rd, 2017
IFOP held a workshop in Valparaiso, where IFOP, Subpesca experts and consultants dedicated to this subject participated. The objective was to define a standardization protocol for brown algae sampling in management areas.
Luis Figueroa, IFOP researcher explained: “management areas are productive areas, therefore, one studies how much there is and how much can be extracted to achieve sustainability of the benthic resource; under that concept we need to know how it is.
The workshop focused on defining a protocol for the direct evaluation of brown algae in management areas, taking into account that, after 15 years of development of management areas, there was no uniformity in the sampling criteria associated with populations of brown algae. Sampling is carried out by consultancies that advise artisanal fishermen, occupying different methods, affecting the results in estimates of interest.
Protocol definition is being developed for a number of resources in management areas, starting with this workshop with algae. Subsequently, benthic resources of soft substrates (eg, clams and males) will be continued; then with resources of hard substrates (example, locust and limpets). This work is carried out by IFOP, in a process that began approximately four years ago, in which expert researchers, consultants and university academics have been consulted, and then sampling methods have been field tested. ”
For Luis Ariz, Chief of Management Areas, “from a biological-fishing perspective, the need to standardize sampling methods is an imperative to have comparable results and that help to pronounce, based on the state of benthic resources. The State of Chile, in its sustainability and conservation of hydrobiological resources objectives, has been fundamental in AMERB regime implementation and maintenance; it is in this context that IFOP is advised to counsel fisheries management, so we see it as something very important that samples data, are taken caring for its quality, for which the definition of protocols is a substantive step foward.