Second Regional Workshop on Caribbean Billfish Management and Conservation of the WECAFC/OSPESCA/CRFM/CFMC Working Group on Recreational Fisheries, Panama City, Panama, 9-11 November 2015.
Abstract
The second regional workshop on Caribbean Billfish Management and Conservation of the WECAFC/OSPESCA/CRFM/CFMC Working Group on Recreational Fisheries was held in Panama City, Panama, from 9 to 11 November 2015. 53 experts attended the workshop from 19 Caribbean countries and territories as well as from different organizations and projects. Preliminary findings of six field and desk studies were presented and discussed on the status of Caribbean billfish stocks and fisheries, the value of billfish recreational and commercial fisheries, on rights based approaches in recreational and commercial fisheries, the national legal frameworks for fisheries in the Caribbean and on the application of the WECAFC Manual on Assessment of the Economic Impact of Recreational Fisheries in The Bahamas and Martinique. Other presentations included in the report comprised the first outline of the table of contents, and of possible regional management measures, to be included in the Caribbean Regional Billfish Management and Conservation Plan. The report describes the selection procedure of the two pilot countries to test and validate co-management arrangements and right based approaches, and participants revised the Terms of Reference of the Working Group on Recreational Fisheries and elected its Convener. The accomplished work was under the guidance and supervision of FAO's Western Central Atlantic Fishery Commission (WECAFC) with the support of the Caribbean Billfish Project GCP/SLC/001/WBK.