Objectives: To develop and deliver a "Fisheries Guide" designed to improve the awareness of NMS staff:

1. As to the impact of meteorological and oceanographic conditions on resource availability and fishing effort;
2. As to inform staff how to better access relevant supporting data and information and
3. How to present it to interested stakeholders¹.

These stakeholders might include groups as diverse as Fisheries Departmental personnel, commercial fishermen in both the offshore pelagic and coastal/reef fisheries, subsistence fishers, recreational fishers and the aquaculture industry. Marine tourism operators indirectly linked to the fishing industry, such as dive boat operators may also benefit from the outputs that are available, for example, in demonstrating the best season for tourist visits.

Outcomes: The project output was a "Fisheries Guide" for NMS staff which provides details and examples of issues related to meteorological and oceanographic forecasts, sources of information, basic interpretation and then presentation and time imperatives in delivery of material to users. Information about both public and private sector interests who would benefit from improved weather and climate-related forecasting services are also included in the Guide.

The Guide has been provided to all nine participating Pacific Island Countries (PICs), and a ½ day workshop Climate and Fisheries - Guide to Managing Risks and Taking Opportunities was included with the media workshop in Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu and the Cook Islands. The aims of this workshop were to: announce new climate prediction service; raise awareness and understanding and potential applications of the new climate prediction service and other services; increase understanding of the fisheries industry by meteorological services staff; strengthen links between media staff and fisheries staff; and seek advice on communicating climate predictions.

This pilot project was conducted in Phase 1.

¹ The "Fisheries Guide" will be used as a specific example of NMS/Stakeholder interaction during training workshops proposed to be conducted as part of implementation of the "Improving NMS Capacities in Media, Public Awareness and Communications" Pilot Project.