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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The third meeting of the Subregional Committee for the Adriatic Sea (SRC-AS) of the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) was held at the Croatian Ministry of Agriculture in Zagreb (Croatia) from 12 to 13 April 2018. The aims of the meeting were to: i) integrate, as appropriate, the assessments of the status of Adriatic stocks emanating from the Working Group on Stock Assessment of Demersal Species (WGSAD) and the Working Group on Stock Assessment of Small Pelagic Species (WGSASP); ii) review, integrate and provide comments on the outcomes of the Workshop on the assessment of management measures (WKMSE) for small pelagic species; iii) provide advice in relation to the management of small pelagic fisheries in the Adriatic Sea, in accordance with the provisions of Recommendation GFCM/38/2014/1, Recommendation GFCM/39/2015/1 and Recommendation GFCM/40/2016/3; iv) address specific issues related to the implementation of Recommendation GFCM/41/2017/3 on the establishment of a fisheries restricted area in the Jabuka/Pomo Pit in the Adriatic Sea, Resolution GFCM/41/2017/5 on a network of essential fish habitats in the GFCM area of application, and Recommendation GFCM/41/2017/6 on the submission of data on fishing activities in the GFCM area of application; v) propose a list of activities of relevance to the subregion to be considered for the 2018–2019 SAC work plan; and vi) provide technical advice on the contents of two fisheries restricted area (FRA) proposals in the southern Adriatic Sea (Bari Canyon and South Adriatic).

The SRC-AS formulated a draft advice to update the technical contents of the management plan for small pelagic fisheries in the Adriatic Sea (Recommendation GFCM/40/2016/3), including the establishment of a benchmark session for sardine and anchovy in 2019, the adoption of precautionary management measures for stocks with no analytical assessment available, as well as indications on the need to adopt new stronger management measures in order to reverse the declining trend of the most important small pelagic stocks as emerged in the WKMSE 2018. The SRC-AS recommended to carry out further work on the assessment of management measures, including socio-economic analysis, and recommended the WKMSE become a permanent working group. The SRC-AS examined and made technical comments to FRA proposals in the South Adriatic and in the Bari Canyon and agreed to present the latter proposal to the SAC for final validation and potential submission to the Commission. Finally the SRC-AS revised priority actions for the region and agreed on a proposed work plan for the subregion, to be revised by the SAC.