AZTI-Tecnalia, the technological centre specialising in marine and food research, is coordinating the international TXOTX (Technical eXperts Overseeing Third country eXpertise) project. The fundamental aim of this project is to collate the greatest information possible on scientific fishery research programs from the different regions in the world's oceans in order to achieve effective coordination and cooperation between countries, regional fisheries organisations and other bodies. This, in turn, will contribute to a coherent approach towards the sustainability of the marine environment and its fisheries resources.
States have the obligation of assuring the sustainability of the fishery resources they exploit, and should be actively involved in encouraging responsible fishing and appropriate and coordinated scientific research. In the case of the EU, the actions taken in this line should be coherent with the main international agreements in these matters (UNCLOS, CCRF, UNIA, CMDS), aimed at contributing to the sustainability of marine resources, and should ensure coherence between the different European policies.
The TXOTX project, thus, seeks to contribute to a coherent approach towards research directed at assessment and management of marine fishery resources, especially in those areas where the European fleet is directly active, whether in international waters or in third countries waters. The TXOTX initiative, which involved 11 institutions from Europe, America and Africa, will last for three years and is due to finish in March 2011.
The specific objectives of TXOTX are, firstly, to gather information from all Regional Fishery Management Organisations (RFMOs), Fisheries Partnership agreements as well as selected additional regions of special interest (with emphasis on Caribean-Pacifci and African zones) on the extent of scientific fisheries research programmes being undertaken by different bodies. Secondly, to analyse available data and methodologies applied in assessment and management procedures regionally, in order to identify gaps in data and research coordination. Likewise, the project will analyse the opportunities for greater coordination of any research promoted by the EU in order to strengthen the scientific basis in support to scientific advise to fisheries management. The third goal is to draw up recommendations on how to improve cooperation with third parties in order to enhance research and the state of resources.
The institutions taking part in this project coordinated by AZTI-Tecnalia are Cefas and Imperial College from England, the Instituto de Fomento Pesquero (IFOP) from Chile, the University of Stockholm in Sweden, the University of Cape Town in South Africa, NFDS-Africa from Botswana, the Fisheries Authority of Seychelles, the INRH Institute in Morocco and, from Tanzania, the Institutes of Marine Research (IMS) and the Tanzanian Fisheries Institute.