Mandate 

The Working Group on the Black Sea (WGBS) was created by the GFCM in 2010 as an ad hoc mechanism for scientific work and decision-making for Black Sea riparian states: the issues in the region necessitated a regionally influential, widely recognized institutional arrangement. WGBS objectives are to provide scientific advice to the GFCM on matters linked to fisheries management and conservation, including biological, social and economic aspects.

 
Structure 

The WGBS operates on the basis of the technical work of established working groups (stock assessment, small-scale fisheries, etc.) and ad hoc workshops.    

The implementation of WGBS activities benefits from the support of the BlackSea4Fish project and a team based in the GFCM subregional technical unit for the Black Sea (BSU) in Burgas, Bulgaria.  

The GFCM Data Collection Reference Framework (DCRF) is the instrument of the WGBS to support contracting parties and cooperating non-contracting parties (CPCs) in complying with existing recommendations for the collection and submission of all fisheries data to the GFCM. The DCRF is regularly reviewed by the SAC in light of possible requirements emanating from the Commission, including through new recommendations, and upon WGBS advice for Black Sea matters. 

Bureau

The WGBS is coordinated by a Bureau:

  Galin NIKOLOV (Bulgaria) - COORDINATOR
  Ilhan AYDIN (Turkey) - FIRST VICE-COORDINATOR
  George Tiganov (Romania) - SECOND VICE-COORDINATOR

Election date: September 2019

Reports

You can access the reports from all GFCM statutory meetings here.