ASFA Advisory Board Meeting (3-6 October 2023, Bangkok, Thailand)

The ASFA Advisory Board Meeting (ABM) was held in October 3-6, 2023 and was kindly hosted by the SEAFDEC Secretariat in Bangkok, Thailand. This event has become the first in-person meeting of the ASFA Partners since 2019, and it was a great opportunity to greet all the colleagues from different parts of the world after the four-year “online mode”.

This year, there were representatives from a number of the international organizations: FAO (Italy), ICCAT (Spain), SEAFDEC (Philippines, Thailand), as well as about 20 National Partners from all the geographical regions: Argentina, China, Colombia, Ireland, Italy, Malaysia, Peru, Philippines, Russia, Türkiye, Uganda, Uruguay, Vietnam.

The ASFA Advisory Board Meeting was opened by Marc Taconet, Team Leader, Information and knowledge management (NFISI), Fisheries and Aquaculture Division, FAO, Rome, Italy). After that the floor was given to Dr. Tomoko Nakazato (Head of the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center (SEAFDEC), Bangkok, Thailand). In his welcoming word, Marc Taconet encouraged the participants to consolidate their efforts in order to disseminate marine research information through the ASFA Database, which possibilities and future prospects have grown a lot since the Open-ASFA launch in 2021. So far, the ASFA inputters have managed to submit a much greater amount of both regular journal articles and “grey literature” (monographs, conference materials, expeditions reports, reviews, rare books etc.), which did not seem possible about a couple of years ago. He also emphasized the issue of the ASFA sustainability as a unique information product and its competitiveness on the global arena of the aquatic sciences from 1971 onwards. Using the metaphor of “letting the ASFA boat sail safely across the white-water river of modern technologies”, Marc Taconet expressed his hope that the ASFA Database has all the chances to be alive and kicking for another 50 years ahead.

The outcomes of the discussions were the following:

1. Identification of the ASFA goals, strategies and relevant activities for the year of 2024 within the regional networks (Africa, Asia, Europe, North and South America);Approval of the new Publishing Agreement between FAO and ProQuest (Clarivate) after the review of the amendments made;

2. The Working Groups action plan:

   • Implementation and subsequent introduction to the ASFA community of the new promotion materials for the ASFA database based on the strategies proposed by Florin Lim (FAO Secretariat);

   • Expansion of the Working Group for the AGROVOC Controlled Vocabulary with new members, in particular those in command of the languages which are underrepresented in the AGROVOC;

3. Renaming the Communication Working Group to the Working Group on Communication and Outreach (WGCO);

4. Considering a potential merge of the Open-ASFA and the AquaDocs e-Repository (initiated by IOC/IODE) as well as providing a smooth algorithm of harvesting from AquaDocs onto the Open-ASFA platform after a testing period.

A number of the important Action Items that have been accepted by the participants and will be implemented in the coming year are as follows:

1. Consider indicators for the ASFA promotion, i.e., national and regional meetings and conferences that disseminate the understanding of the ASFA mission and strategy.

2. Organise the Training of Trainers with an intention to provide necessary skills to allow the National Partners to deliver proper training on the OpenASFA platform usage, promotion and participation in any ASFA related activities. All the demonstration materials (presentations and other resources) used in the training sessions will be shared with all new and existing partners.

3. Create an ASFA repository to cater for external and internal audiences (for promotional, communication and training resources). The collection should deliver enhanced transparency and inclusivity of communications materials for effective internal and external partner engagement.

4. When the new Terms of References are approved, follow up with institutions that the ASFA Partners have connections with and/or were previously active in ASFA.

5. Discuss and agree on the new Terms of References for the Working Group on Communication and Outreach (WGCO).

6. Review the Working Group memberships to consider inviting relevant participants, thought leaders or experts as sounding board members to join selected or those Working Group(s) that have been identified as critical.

One of the most significant issues at the ASFA Advisory Board Meeting 2023 was provisional approval of the Terms of Reference and Bangkok Statement which will replace and supersede the Partnership Agreement. Those two documents came as a result of discussions, which led to understanding the need for further improvements in response to the changing goals and challenges that ASFA Secretariat faces. Final approval by the legal authority of FAO is required before the Terms of Reference can be accepted.