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FIRMS is a global information system on
fisheries aimed at providing policy-makers with
timely, reliable strategic information on fishery
status and trends on a global scale. Designed as a
policy-based information system, it will enable
policy makers to make informed decisions about the
key challenges of sustainable development, and will
support their shifting towards
sustainability-centred management by providing them
with a single entry point to strategic data,
information, analyses and reviews of fisheries
issues and trends.
The FIRMS system includes the Species, Fishing
Technology, Resources, Fisheries, Vessels, and
Management systems domains of information. Although
organized in a data base, this information is
presented in the form of fact sheets illustrated by
maps, images, and statistical graphics constructed
from available time series, and published via the
Internet, through CD-ROMs and in publications. As a
satellite of FIGIS (the Fisheries Global
Information System), FIRMS will be connected to
the other specialized subsystems under the FIGIS
umbrella, such as Aquaculture, Trade and Marketing,
and Research.
A key principle of FIRMS is ensuring that
providing information is sustainable and that the
information is quality-controlled and updated.
FIRMS's maintenance will rely upon a network of
partners (initially Regional Fishery Bodies and
National Centres of Excellence) contributing to the
system according to their own mandate. Furthermore,
control is decentralized: contribution and
maintenance rights are assigned to FIRMS partners
who are the data owners and must share certain
standards and adhere to certain rules aimed at
ensuring the best possible quality data and
information. It is worth noting that the new
Internet technologies will facilitate systematic
integration through streamlined flows of
information from national, to regional and to
global levels with no major additional workload,
except during the development phase.
As a distributed information system, FIRMS will
allow states to fulfil their reporting obligations
according to international requirements. In that
respect, FAO has already agreed with SPC, ICCAT,
ICES, and NAFO on the development of case
studies.
For effective fisheries information management,
FIRMS will participate in FIGIS's efforts to
promote and agree on standards: thesauri with
agreed vocabularies and classifications for
indexing, glossaries to ensure definitions of
terms, and shared concepts. Norms for data sets
content management are under development, including
documentation of information quality assurance
processes.
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