The Regional Commission for Fisheries (RECOFI), which is based in Cairo at the Regional Office for the Near East of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), will organize A Workshop on Combating Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing at Muscat, Sultanate of Oman during the period from 30 March to 2 April 2009. 

The workshop will be attended by representatives from the eight RECOFI member countries who have policy/technical responsibilities for fisheries management (Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates), in addition to the FAO Secretariat of the Commission. 

The workshop aims to develop national capacity and promote regional coordination so that countries will be better placed to combat Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated fishing activities, including by development and implementation of relevant international fisheries instruments, taking appropriate measures at regional level and elaborating the National Plan of Action To Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated fishing. 

This workshop is a follow-up to one of the recommendations of the Fourth Session of RECOFI in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, which took place in May 2007, during which the Commission stressed the importance of developing and implementing national plans of action to combat Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated fishing.