1. On the recommendation of the FAO Committee on Fisheries (COFI) at its twenty-fifth session, the Director-General of FAO, Mr Jacques Diouf, convened the Technical Consultation on Sea Turtles Conservation and Fisheries, Bangkok, Thailand, 29 November-2 December 2004.
2. The Consultation was attended by 28 Members of FAO and by observers from three intergovernmental and four international non-governmental organizations. The list of delegates and observers is given in Appendix B. The documents that were placed before the Consultation are listed in Appendix C.
3. The meeting was called to order by the Secretary of the Consultation, Ms Gabriella Bianchi.
4. Mr Hiroyaki Konuma, Deputy Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Asia and the Pacific, in his opening statement on behalf of the Director-General of FAO, reminded delegates that the Technical Consultation was a direct response to a request from the twenty-fifth session of COFI. At that session, the Committee agreed that "...while taking into consideration existing work on sea turtle interactions and conservation, a Technical Consultation should be held in Bangkok, Thailand, in 2004". The FAO Fisheries Department was asked to organize the Technical Consultation, with the scope of reviewing the current status of sea turtle conservation and management, with special emphasis on mortality due to fisheries, review new developments of fishing gears and techniques and produce, if appropriate, guidelines to reduce sea turtle mortality in fishing operations. Furthermore, the Technical Consultation was requested to consider desirable assistance to members of developing countries for the conservation and management of sea turtles. He also recalled that conservation concerns were not new to fisheries management and referred to the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries, which directly addresses biodiversity issues and conservation of endangered species and calls for the catch of non-target species, both fish and non-fish species, to be minimized. The full text of his statement is attached as Appendix D.
