Review of the management of 26 different small-scale inshore fisheries, using the MSC assessment methodology as an audit tool, to identify strengths and weaknesses, draw up a suitable R&D programme and demonstrate how to bring overall and specific fisheries management within the scope of MSC certification.  This pilot was subsequently used as the model for the roll-out of management improvement programmes in each of the ten new Inshore Fisheries Conservation Authorities (IFCAs), estab

Working alongside private sector partners in Suriname and Belgium, and with the government of Suriname, provision of advice and mentoring over a five year period in developing and implementing a practical programme of improvements in fishery management, fishing practice, data collection, scientific research and new decision-making structures and protocols, leading to successful MSC certification of this semi-industrial scale developing country fishery.  The speed and extent of the changes

Review of the management tools available for the management of the inshore and offshore brown crab fisheries of Western Europe, their impact and effectiveness, and how they might be deployed to improve stock condition, reduce effort and improve operating economics.

Further to our work on the special position of fishing and fisheries in the long-standing and continuing sustainability of Ireland's gaelic speaking offshore islands, we were asked to put forward the case representing the fragility of these community / natural resources linkages and the need for a degree of formal recognition of this special status and its heritage implications.  Ireland's offshore island communities are not alone in this situation, with many other peripheral island communities dotted around the coastline of the European C

Examining the options for measuring changes in the scale of illegal fishing where direct measurement of illegal activity is not possible - for example through different approaches to stock modeling, probability analysis and monitoring of trade throughputs; part of the process of moving towards MSC assessment. 

As part of work to broaden application of the Marine Stewardship Council standard - notably to small-scale and data-poor fisheries - input to the pre-assessment of the Gambia canoe gill-net fishery for tropical sole.

Responding to a controversial and damaging incident of illegal fishing in Sierra Leone inshore waters, an investor group with interests in the managing company sought independent assessment of the incident and advice on how to ensure no repetition of such fishing behaviour, and how to strengthen corporate operating standards and compliance. 

Terminal evaluation of the Oceanic Fishery Management Project - as large (US$200M) regional programme of assistance to Pacific Island states focused on strengthening their capacity to improve monitoring and management of oceanic tuna stocks and fisheries against a backdrop of rising exploitation, and dominance of the fishery by the fleets of metropolitan countries. 

Examination of how the raft of proposed CFP policy changes might be expected to support or hinder the adoption of practices that reduce overall impact on the marine and wider environment, and more specifically the adoption of low impact and low carbon fishing.

As part of the Marine Stewardship Council's (MSC) work to strengthen its assessment methodology, participation in an exercise to interpret how changes and improvements in the assessment methodology and scoring instructions for Principle 3 might have resulted in different scoring outcomes for sample fisheries that had already achieved certification as well managed.