Meeting of the FAO working group in the assessment of Small Pelagic fish off Northwest Africa held in Banjul, The Gambia
From 26 June to 01 July the FAO working group in the assessment of Small Pelagic fish off Northwest Africa was held at Banjul, the Gambia. The working group on the assessment of small pelagic resources, set up in 2001, has as overall objective to assess the state of the small pelagic resources in Northwest Africa and make recommendations on fisheries management and exploitation options aimed at ensuring optimal and sustainable use of demersal resources for the benefit of coastal countries. The working group, among other things, conducted an analysis of the document on the 2017 Nansen data, updating of existing data on catches, fishing effort, sampling intensity and biological data by country as well as surveys, and the review fisheries changes and report on follow up to working group recommendations. Indeed management recommendations and stock assessments were also carried out for selected species. The meeting was preceded by a workshop to review and discuss relevant data from the 2017 survey with the R/V Dr Fridtjof Nansen.