For the past decade Blue Ventures has been supporting coastal communities in southern Madagascar to manage inshore fishery resources. This support has included leading an ambitious fisheries management programme throughout the southwest region, which has demonstrated that short term closures of octopus fishing sites nearly double fisher catch and result in significant increases in individual fisher income. In addition to fisheries research, Blue Ventures provides technical support to community-based associations in the implementation of seasonal closures of fishing grounds, a management model which has since been replicated throughout Madagascar and internationally in mainland Africa, island states in the Western Indian Ocean and Mexico. These fisheries closures have also inspired broader