Fishery Committee for the Eastern Central Atlantic (CECAF)

Structure

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The Committee, composed of all CECAF member States, conducts the Regular Sessions of the Committee normally every two years. Decisions of the Committee are taken by a majority of the votes casted, unless otherwise provided. Each member has one vote.

The Committee also established a Scientific Sub-Committee in 1998. The main function of the Scientific Sub-Committee is to provide appropriate science-based advice to the Committee for fisheries management decisions.

Legal framework

The Committee was established in 1967, by Resolution 1/48 adopted by the FAO Council at its Forty-eighth Session held in Rome under Article VI (2) of the FAO Constitution.

Its Rules of procedure, particularly the description of the purpose, functions and responsibilities of the Committee, were amended in 2003.

Members

The Committee is composed of Member Nations and Associate Members of the Organization selected by the Director-General of FAO. Such Member Nations and Associate Members of the Organization are selected from among Member Nations and Associate Members of the Organization in Africa whose territory borders the Atlantic Ocean from Cape Spartel to the mouth of the Congo River, and such other Member Nations and Associate Members fishing or carrying out research in the sea area concerned or having some other interest in the fisheries thereof, whose contribution to the work of the Committee the Director-General deems to be essential.

 

Current membership: Angola, Benin, Cameroon, Cabo Verde, Dem. Rep. of the Congo, Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Cuba, Equatorial Guinea, European Union, France, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Greece, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Liberia, Mauritania, Morocco, Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Poland, Romania, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Spain, Togo, United States of America.

Area of competence

The area of the Committee is defined as all the waters of the Atlantic bounded by a line drawn as follows: from a point on the high water mark on the African coast at Cape Spartel (lat. 35°47'N, long. 5°55'W) following the high water mark along the African coast to a point at Ponta de Moita Seca (lat. 6°07'S, long. 12°16'E) along a rhumb line in a northwesterly direction to a point on 6° south latitude and 12° east longitude, thence due west along 6° south latitude to 20° west longitude, thence due north to the Equator, thence due west to 30° west longitude, thence due north to 5° north longitude, thence due west to 40° west longitude, thence due north to 36° north longitude, thence due east to 6° west longitude, thence along a rhumb line in a southeasterly direction to the original point a Cape Spartel.

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