Under the EU-funded programme PESCAO, the European Fisheries Control Agency has supported the training of Fisheries Monitoring Centres operators organised by the Subregional Fisheries Commission (SRFC), based in Dakar and which brings together Cabo Verde, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania, Senegal, and Sierra Leone to enhance the sustainable management of fisheries resources in the region.
The training provided theoretical and practical knowledge in fisheries monitoring systems, aiming to promote capacity building and competencies in fisheries monitoring data analysis technics based on the EFCA manual Course for Fisheries Monitoring Centres operators for non-EU countries.
Three days of training took place in Bissau, in Guinea-Bissau, and offered the opportunity for national FMC operators to develop and consolidate abilities in remote control systems, international fisheries agreements, types of monitoring data, and methodologies for surveillance procedures.
The training also had a strong practical component focused on the analysis of vessel monitoring systems data that included exercises where the trainees were able to challenge themselves with the different skills learned in real situations.
This national training for FMC operators is carried out under the framework of the EU-funded PESCAO programme, in which EFCA participates providing training, legal and technical assistance to the SRFC and the Fisheries Committee of the West and Central Gulf of Guinea (FCWC), as well as their Member States.
The PESCAO programme aims, among other objectives, at improving regional fisheries governance in Western Africa to fight illegal fishing, and to maintain healthy fish stocks in a region of the world where fishing remains one of the main sources of protein and livelihoods.
