Total catch of small pelagic fish in northwestern Africa increased from around 2.4 million tonnes in 2015 to 2.7 million tonnes in 2016 while, for the period 1990–2016, it has been fluctuating with an average of around 1.9 million tonnes per year.
This paper guides countries on how to report and measure progress on indicator 5.a.2, including collecting relevant information on the legal and policy framework, conducting the assessment for each of the proxies, and reporting under the indicator.
The issues discussed during the session included methods for reporting aquaculture data and information and a regional plan of action to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing in the GFCM area of application.
The meeting discussed the need to boost the standardization of tools for overexploited fish stocks assessment in order to improve the comparability of Member countries’ results, and called for improved capacity development in fisheries management.