Information about fishers, catch, effort, fish stocks, processing and trade form the basis for policy choices, management plans and evaluation. When not the sector, but the whole aquatic ecosystem is the object to be managed, also information about the impacts of fishing on other, non-target components of the aquatic ecosystem needs to be collected and analysed.

In this course participants will learn to appraise what information is essential (both socio-economic and fisheries science information). Techniques to collect socio-economic information will be taught, and participants are guided to develop a more analytical attitude towards fisheries data and catch/effort information.