2nd - 6th October 2017

This week several Tonga fisheries staff participated in a training workshop run by Lucy Joy and Andrew Hunt from the Pacific Community (SPC) to learn how to use tablets for electronic collection of catch information from small-scale fisheries. The application 'Tails' which was built by Bruno Deprez from SPC's fisheries data management program allows fisheries officers to collect and upload data from remote locations around Tonga, providing timely fisheries data to inform policy and fisheries management decisions.

Ms. Lavinia Vaipuna from Tonga Fisheries was the key contact for the training, she is excited to see the progress of the new application over the coming months. "Obtaining catch data from outer island locations has always been a challenge for us. 'Tails' allows us to receive data from places like Vava'u and 'Eua everyday as soon as the fishing happnes" said Ms. Vaipuna. The data from 'Tails' will be used for both national and regional reporting obligations.