Title: Overview of fisheries data collection and management in Grenada.

There is a consistent upward trend in the total landing of fish in Grenada since the 1980s which may be as a result of improvement in fleet capacity (i.e. size and efficiency). The increase in fishing capacity is at its highest point in the history of Grenada; therefore, the risk to marine resources from the negative impacts of overharvesting is also at its highest. Consequently, it is critically important that the management of fisheries is based on empirical data on the status of the harvested resources to effectively manage against unsustainable harvest levels. This paper evaluates the current data collection and management system of the Grenada Fisheries Division in an effort to identify gaps that exist. It also provides practical recommendations which could be implemented in the short term (i.e. 1-3 years). Landing data are currently collected at every primary landing site, but with some inconsistencies in data entry. There has been a lack of biological and environmental data in the recent decade. With the implementation of the MPAs in Grenada, systematic visual reef surveys have been conducted. Given the unique differences of life history traits that can occur within and between a family or genus of fish, it is important not to implement a one size fits all approach to stock assessment; consequently, a suite of assessment methods appropriate for the available data must be employed. Given the data that is currently available and the suggested additions to the collection system, a combination of landing statistics, length-frequency and surplus production models would be the most appropriate assessment methods to determine the status of both demersal and pelagic stocks. In addition, visual surveys could be utilised to augment fisheries dependent assessment for shallow reef species especially for those un/underreported within the landing data.