Timor-Leste’s National Directorate of Fisheries and Aquaculture (NDFA) has established an online national fisheries statistical system which provides public access to a wide range of information relating to fisheries in the country for the first time.
The system, www.peskador.org, established with support from the Regional Fisheries Livelihoods Programme (RFLP), is expected to become an important tool contributing to enhanced fisheries management and sustainability of marine resources in Timor-Leste.
Publicly available information gathered through a series of initiatives supported by RFLP includes:
- Boat census data
- Daily information on the price of fish landed by species and location
- Maps of fishing grounds and dangerous areas (crocodile attacks)
- Data on accidents at sea or in coastal areas
The site is also home to useful information for fishers including daily data on weather, tides, cyclone warnings and sea surface temperatures. In addition, the site brings together in one place information on other fisheries related projects and legislation.
Lourenco Borges, RFLP national project director and director general of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries said, “We now have data that was never available before.
This provides a unique opportunity in Timor-Leste with regards to fisheries resource management.”
