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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The meeting of the Working Group on Small-Scale Fisheries (WGSSF) was held online on 10 March 2022. The WGSSF was attended by 132 participants, including scientific experts and representatives from the administrations of Mediterranean and Black Sea riparian states (i.e. Albania, Algeria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Egypt, France, Greece, Italy, Lebanon, Montenegro, Morocco, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Tunisia and Turkey) as well as representatives of the Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (DG MARE), the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Low Impact Fishers of Europe (LIFE), the Mediterranean Advisory Council (MEDAC), the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Bari (CIHEAM-Bari), the Mediterranean Protected Areas Network (MedPAN), the World Wild Fund for Nature (WWF), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the GFCM Secretariat. The main objectives of the meeting were: i) improve the information and data collection on small-scale fisheries (SSF); ii) continue working on the characterization of this sector, including through the identification of main commercial species per GFCM subregion, and iii) steer and coordinate an in-depth monitoring of the Regional Plan of Action for Small-Scale Fisheries in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea (RPOA-SSF) implementation. The experts thus reviewed different approaches to SSF data collection and discussed main coastal commercial species in the SSF sector, including interactions between SSF and recreational fisheries. Experts also worked towards endorsing a method to assess the implementation of the RPOA-SSF in the GFCM area of application. The WGSSF also agreed on a work plan for 2022/2023.