Download the report (available only in English): PDF

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The third meeting of the Subregional Committee for the Eastern Mediterranean (SRC-EM) of the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) Scientific Advisory Committee on Fisheries (SAC) was held at FAO headquarters in Rome, Italy, on 18–19 March 2019. The aims of the meeting were to: i) advance on the provision of advice on deep-water red shrimps in the eastern Mediterranean, including on the state of resources, on the provision of advice on precautionary conservation measures and on the determination of fishing grounds, ii) advance on the provision of advice on the state of round sardinella within a data-limited context, iii) compile relevant information on the status of eastern Mediterranean fisheries and provide advice to the SAC, including on urgent actions towards sustainability and following the requests made by the Commission, iv) identify priority topics for the subregion, including in relation to data collection, provision of advice and implementation of management measures, and v) prepare a draft work plan to address priority issues for the consideration of the SAC.

The SRC-EM formulated a draft advice on issues related to fisheries in the subregion, including a summary of the status of the stocks, the assessment and management of deep-water red shrimp in the eastern-central Mediterranean, the assessment of round sardinella, the continuation of work on the characterization of SSF, the creation of a GFCM geodatabase of scientific evidence on the presence and distribution of vulnerable marine ecosystems (VMEs), the implementation of a vulnerability assessment of Mediterranean fisheries to climate change in the eastern Mediterranean subregion and a detailed work plan in the 2019–2020 intersession.