Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Collaborative Research on Aquaculture & Fisheries

The World Wildlife Fund-US (WWF-Inc.) serves as the executing agency for a project under the World Bank’s Global Environment Facility’s Areas beyond National Jurisdiction Ocean Partnerships for Sustainable Fisheries and Biodiversity Conservation Program (OPP). OPP is structured around four regional projects, each developing a business plan based on innovative incentive based tools for improving management of fisheries that intersect with areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ). WWF-Inc. is the executing agency for a regional project in the Eastern Pacific Ocean (EPO). One component of the EPO OPP regional project provides resources to carry out technical analyses on methods to reduce/manage purse seine fleet capacity in the EPO, the subject of this consultant assignment. 

Work under this consultancy will be closely coordinated with the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC), as it is the intergovernmental body in the Eastern Pacific (EP) with the responsibility for conservation and management of tunas and other marine resources. It is comprised of 21 member nations as well as cooperating parties whose fleets are engaged in the EP tuna fisheries. The substantial growth of fishing capacity of the tuna purse-seine fleet operating in the EPO in the last two decades has led to a current fleet capacity that is considerably in excess of the target level of 135,000 metric tons (equivalent to 158,000 cubic meters (m³) of well volume) adopted by the IATTC in August 2000. In 2016 the total operative capacity in the EPO was 264,859 m³ and potential total capacity was 296,415 m³.  

The continual increase in fleet capacity led to a system of seasonal and areal closures to reduce mortality on bigeye and yellowfin tunas. Recently, the IATTC scientific staff strongly recommended an increase of 25 days to the 62 day current closure period due to the “activation” of an additional 25,000 m³ of capacity during 2015, an increase of 10% in just one year. Furthermore, there is 27,000 m³ of available capacity that can become operational. New applications, claims and disputes continue to rise and in 2016 collectively amounted to 54,573m³. Apart from the effects of increasing the seasonal closure, further increases in capacity will have other substantial negative socioeconomic effects, especially impacting EPO coastal countries that have developed and invested in the complete operation of the tuna chain of production and marketing. Thus, it is critical to design and develop strategies that seek to significantly reduce this fishing pressure on tuna catches in the EPO, a focus of this consultancy.

The main objective of this consultancy is to carry out analyses on a few key options to address fleet capacity. The work will be closely coordinated with the IATTC staff, as outputs from the analyses and experts meeting(s) will be tailored to further develop the IATTC capacity management plan as required under resolution C02-03. Proposed activities include experts meetings and associated analytical work on innovative tools to reduce fleet overcapacity that will be captured in a technical document. Analytical outputs in this technical document will accelerate and inform actions in a proposed EP fleet capacity management plan.

Responsibilities:

• Convening a technical advisory committee comprised of relevant internal and external audiences to help guide the development of this technical work program:
  • This advisory committee could be comprised of the firm’s consultants and external experts. The group of external experts will likely include one or two key IATTC members and staff, representatives from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other affiliated organizations.
  • Appointment of the external experts to the advisory committee will be carried out in conjunction with the IATTC staff and WWF staff.
  • Participants in their capacity as technical experts should recommend analytical methods to reduce fleet capacity, appropriate potential actions to ensure that such a reduction is achieved and potential actions to avoid further growth in fleet capacity. 
  • Deliberations of the technical advisory group will consider the results of an IATTC Cartagena experts meeting on EPO fleet capacity management and evaluate capacity reduction and other relevant proposals submitted to the IATTC.  
• Carrying out the analyses defined by the advisory committee, IATTC and WWF experts.
• Engaging a few members of the IATTC and other stakeholders during the analytical process to advise on assumptions, to vet preliminary results and provide information. 
• Preparing a technical document that analyzes the benefits and costs of relevant capacity reduction measures for the industrial tuna fleets in the EPO. This could be based on direct and indirect actions to reduce vessel capacity such as vessel buybacks and transferable catch and effort quotas.

Submission: Please submit letters of interest to Vishwanie Maharaj (Lead Economist, Oceans. World Wildlife Fund-US) via email at [email protected]. Please include curriculum vitae for all relevant team members.

Expressions of interest should address the following:

• Methodological approach: Based on the description provided, please provide a short discussion on how you would approach the consultancy and describe relevant experience with similar assignments.  
• The consulting team is expected to be comprised of members with various expertise and skill sets. Desirable qualifications and experience include the following:
  • At least five years of experience working on leading financial models for improving the performance of natural resources and the ability to apply these tools to fisheries reform. This can include impact investing and business administration.    
  • Experience in analyses of rights based and other innovative tools applied to fisheries in at least one important developing country member of the IATTC.  
  • At least five years of experience analyzing the economic/social impact of policies on natural resources. 
  • At least five years of experience on management of tuna fisheries, preferably in the Pacific.
  • Knowledge about the IATTC managed fisheries and at least one year of working with catch and effort databases of the main Eastern Pacific tuna fisheries.
  • Some experience on economic development policies applied to oceans issues.
  • At least two years of experience managing large databases, and experience with SAS or other statistical software programs typically used by economists.