16 August 2017

July 16-20 2017 | Victoria, Canada. 400 attendees from 21 countries came together for four days of presentations, workshops and social activities at the 8th World Recreational Fishing Conference (WRFC8) in Victoria, British Columbia.

© Roy Bealey

Among the attendees were representatives from the International Game Fish Association (IGFA), partners of the Caribbean Billfish project, one of the subprojects under the Common Oceans ABNJ Ocean Partnerships Project of the Food and Agriculture Organization. The WRFC is held every three years with the purpose of sharing information between academics, fishery managers, and industry leaders while fostering new collaborations to ensure the future of recreational fishing is healthy and sustainable.

During the conference, IGFA in conjunction with Western Central Atlantic Fishery Commission (WECAFC) sponsored a session for the World Bank financed the Caribbean Billfish Project. The purpose of this session was to provide updates on the Project, which aims to test innovative fishery management tools that recognize and leverage differences in billfish values between commercial and recreational fisheries to support sustainable management interventions. Resultant business plans will pursue the sustainable management and conservation of billfish species in the Caribbean and broader Western Central Atlantic Ocean region.

Follow this link for a full summary of the event, and the presentation on the Caribbean Billfish Project given by Mr. Roy Bealey.

For more information, please contact:

• Mr Roy Bealey, FAO, Coordinator - Caribbean Billfish Project | [email protected]
• Ms Leah Baumwell, IGFA, Conservation Coordinator (954) 924-4317 [email protected]