Abstract

Ebango Ngando Narcisse, Mbappe Nsomba Regis Christian, Liming Song*, Njomoue Pandong Achille, Chenhong Li and Tomedi Eyango Minette

Nowadays, the promotion of advanced approaches and techniques for collecting data on the fisheries statistics is a key to sound policy-development, better decision-making and responsible fisheries management. In African devel- oping countries, artisanal marine fisheries remain the highest producers of fishery resources and the largest fleet. In developing countries with coastlines and decentralized management such as Cameroon, the collection and analysis of fishery data are the main challenges at the regional, divisional and sub-divisional or district levels. The marine artisanal fishery which covers about one-third of the 402 km of coastline and the entire southern coastal zone of Cameroon, need credible fishery statistics because it’s published statistics are subject of doubt. To obtain viable statistics which can be utilized to understand the real estimation of catch statistics along the coast, from 1st April to 10th July 2021, we conducted a survey of 1267 fishermen within 32 landing sites in order to reconstruct the fishery statistics and compare them to the statistics published by the 2020 annual report of DDEPIA/MINEPIA. Using stan- dard fishery statistical methods of motorized, non-motorized and beach seine catches, we were able to reconstruct the statistics of the year 2020. The results showed (1) The reconstructed statistics at 10206.9627 tons and a gap of 9786.50273 tons with the 2020 annual report of DDEPIA/MINEPIA; (2) There were three fishing seasons (high, medium and low) with an increasing catch from August to December, and a decreasing catch from January to July; (3) 37 species including 26 families were identified, with Clupeidae and Scianidae as the dominant catch species from April to July in the southern coast of Cameroon.