General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean - GFCM

The GFCM adopts binding recommendations for fisheries management and aquaculture development in the Mediterranean and Black Sea, which must then be transposed into national legislation by all GFCM Contracting Parties and cooperating non-Contracting Parties. These recommendations cover all of the following areas:

  • The assessment and management of key fisheries
  • Spatio-temporal measures
  • Socio-economic impacts and livelihood diversification
  • The protection of vulnerable ecosystems and species
  • The collection and use of data and information
  • Issues related to fleet capacity
  • Gear technology
  • Small-scale and recreational fisheries
  • Fishing effort control
  • The sustainable growth of the aquaculture sector.

The GFCM takes a multifaceted approach to ensuring effective compliance with fisheries management and conservation measures:

Compliance with GFCM decisions
Oversee the transposition and implementation of GFCM recommendations at the national level:

Monitoring, control and surveillance
Ensure there are strong monitoring and control systems in place for the effective enforcement of the GFCM management framework:

GFCM 2030 Strategy for sustainable fisheries and aquaculture in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea

The GFCM 2030 strategy aims to preserve the heritage of fisheries and aquaculture as pillars of Mediterranean and Black Sea coastal communities, ensuring their transformation into sustainable food production systems that contribute to thriving economies and healthy ecosystems.

Target 2 aims to end illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing by improving monitoring, control and surveillance systems while strengthening compliance and enforcement actions.