Following a meeting from 24-26 May 2004 in Dakar, Senegal, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization’s Fishery Committee for the Eastern Central Atlantic (CECAF), a FAO subsidiary body charged with promoting sustainable development of marine resources, responsible fisheries management, and regional cooperation on fishing policy issues, decided that its 33 members should begin reporting on catch levels of non-tuna species in high-seas waters off the western coast of Africa.

Following reports showing a growing commercial interest in several non-tuna species, all waters under CECAF’s jurisdiction – extending west from the African coast to the mid-Atlantic, starting from the northern tip of Morocco and ending at the border between Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo – will be monitored on a year-to-year basis. For more information visit: http://www.fao.org/fi/body/rfb/CECAF/cecaf_home.htm