The Shark Fin Bay Marine Association
Improving fisheries management for food security through collaborative social-ecological monitoring
Who are we?
The Shark Fin Bay Marine Association (or SHAMA) is a collaborative project dedicated to i) better understand and measure fishing activities and the fishery resources of the Shark Fin Bay of Taytay, Palawan in the Philippines, ii) document how they contribute to human well-being in particular to food and nutrition security, and iii) propose policy interventions based on propositions formulated by local resource users dedicated to secure and improve this contribution.
SHAMA is a collaboration between an NGO, the Sulubaai Environmental Foundation (SEF), the Western Philippines University (WPU) and the Fisherfolk Associations of Barangay Depla, Sandoval and Silanga in Taytay, Palawan.
The first objective of SHAMA is to create a structure for our project: a house in Sandoval, and a team composed of scientists, local and NGO representatives. The second objective is to monitor marine ecosystems, fisheries and food security in collaboration with local fishers. With our partners from Plongeurs du Monde, we are training a group of fishers to become certified scuba divers and conduct ecological monitoring.Third, we will produce a report to synthesize our findings. And fourth, we will explore and propose options for change where and how it is needed most; not only according to our findings, but based on the ideas of local fishers and policy-makers.
