Fish and fisheries are an essential part of most communities worldwide as they make significant contributions to their protein budget, health, social and economic well-being. For example, fish provided over 4.3 billion people with about 15% of their animal protein intake in 2010. Fisheries products are used in a wide variety of ways, ranging from subsistence use to international trade where highly sought-after and highly-valued items are traded. The value of fish traded internationally is over US $130 billion annually, employing over 58.3 million people in 2010. Employment in the fisheries sector during the past 30 years has grown faster than both the world’s population and employment in agricultural sector. However, capture fisheries in Tanzania and worldwide has stagnated for over a decade, threatening livelihood and jobs for millions of people particularly from poor families. The stagnation is due to a number of factors including overharvesting, declining fisheries resources and biodiversity, climate change and non-climate induced environmental degradation. Continued contribution of the fisheries sector to global and national food security calls for a wider ecosystem stewardship and improved governance. Issues on food insecurity include post-harvest losses. About one-third of the total world food produced (1.3 billion tonnes) for human consumption is lost annually. With regard to fisheries, post-harvest losses are contributed by unutilized captured/harvested fish (bycatch), damages and spoils that affect their nutritional value, and the price that deteriorates due to fluctuating market forces.During 2001-2010, the average annual growth rate of fisheries subsectors in Tanzania was insignificant (around 4.7%) and the Tanzania Development Vision (TDV) 2025 intends to improve to over 10%. Factors behind the limited contribution of fisheries to the overall GDP and food security include minimal fisherfolk participation in the fisheries value addition chain, unsustainable resource management and poor genetic potential of the local stocks for aquaculture development. In addressing the situation, the proposed programme intends to promote and encourage, among others:
(i) livelihood/income/food production diversification into non-fishing activities e.g. mariculture and ecotourism;
(ii) reducing post-harvest losses and promoting proper processing and value-addition to marine and aquatic products for improved food security and income generation;
(iii) participatory multi-sectoral approach to fisheries co-management; and
(iv) ecosystem approach to managing fisheries in a sustainable manner.
Development of the proposed MSc in Sustainable Fisheries Management programme took into consideration the dire need of a new generation of fisheries resource managers and experts with comprehensive interdisciplinary approaches to address the increasingly complex challenges affecting fisheries sector sustainability. The programme intends to facilitate development of entrepreneurs, resource managers and academicians with a multidisciplinary outlook on sustainable fisheries management bottlenecks and measures to address them. The experts will have a multidisciplinary (ecology, biology, oceanography, economics, sociology and law) vision of fisheries resources and environment (people - fisheries stocks - habitat/ecosystem - weather/climate interactions), capable of valuating and assessing them using multiple tools (e.g. mathematical simulations, statistics, surveys) so as to propose relevant management measures for sustained habitat and ecosystem outputs of goods and services. The resource managers will be capable of understanding and accounting for the earlier shown interactions, adopting a comprehensive approach called ecosystem-based fisheries management, crucial in conserving ecosystem healthy essential to the sustainability of our fisheries, and dealing with the increasingly complex challenges facing our oceans. 2. Objectives of the Programme The programme is aimed at: producing competent and skilled entrepreneurs, resources managers and academicians in the field of fisheries resources assessment and management with the view to fast-tracking TDV 2025; and contributing to the UDSM commitment to resolve constraints to result-delivery in growth driver sectors including fisheries. This is in view of the fact that Tanzania workforce is dominated by low skilled workers (84%), followed by medium skilled (13%) and high skilled workers are insufficient (3%). The TDV 2025 vision of Tanzania with middle-income requires improvements such that low skilled workers are reduced to at least 55%, medium skilled are improved to 33% and high skilled ones are increased to at least 12%.
Programme Structure
The programme will be undertaken in 24 months and will comprise two parts namely, coursework and dissertation. All candidates will be required to complete a minimum of 120 credits of coursework part during the first and second semesters; 80 credits from core/compulsory courses and minimum of 40 credits from elective courses. This will be followed by a research and writing a dissertation.
Application procedure
Learning outcomes
The programme is aimed at producing marine scientists with general understanding of marine sciences with specialization in either Marine and Coastal Resources Management or Marine and Coastal Geo-informatics.
Prerequisites
To be eligible for admission to the programme, the applicant should possess undergraduate degree from any TCU-recognized University with background in science subjects relevant to marine sciences such as Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Geology, with an overall GPA of 2.7 (B grade) or higher. Admission may also be based on equivalent qualifications.
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