The EIFAC/ICES Working Group on Eels met to finish the work initiated at its 1999 meeting on defining biological reference points for European eel management use. The review of available information revealed that the European eel stock is in decline and that fisheries are outside safe biological limits.

The fourteenth session of the European Inland Fisheries Advisory Commission (EIFAC)was held in Bordeaux from 27 May to 3 June 1986. The session reviewed EIFAC activities since 1984 in the fields of fishery biology and management, fish culture and diseases and water pollution control. EIFAC decided its future programme of work and in particular the activities which should be carried out until the session scheduled to take place in Sweden in 1988.

The report of the thirteenth session of the Coordinating Working Party on Atlantic Fishery Statistics (CWP) held in Rome, Italy, 11-18 February 1987, is presented. The EC Commission, FAO, ICCAT, ICES, ICSEAF, NAFO, OECD were the participating agencies. Major topics considered were: review of recommendations and proposals from CWP-12 and progress; agency programmes and publications presenting Atlantic fishery statistics; statistics on discards; review of the operation of the STATLANT system; procedures for handling discrepancies in databases; Ad-Hoc Global Consultation on Tuna Statistics; integration of value data into databases; STATLANT B data; handbook of fishery statistics; aquaculture enquiries; fishing fleet statistics; nationality issues; food balance sheets.

The session reviewed EIFAC activities since 1988 in the fields of fishery biology and management, fish culture and diseases and water pollution control. EIFAC decided its future programme of work, and in particular the activities which should be carried out until the session scheduled to take place in Switzerland in 1992.

The twentieth session of the European Inland Fisheries Advisory Commission (EIFAC) was held in Praia do Carvoeiro, Portugal, from June 23 to July 1, 1998, in concomitance with a symposium on water for sustainable inland fisheries and aquaculture. The session reviewed EIFAC's activities since 1996 in the fields of fishery biology and management, aquaculture, protection of the aquatic resource, and social and economic issues. EIFAC revised its rules of procedure and decided its future program of work, and in particular the activities which should be carried out until the next session of the Commission in 2000, planned to be held in Hungary and preceded by a symposium on fisheries and society.--Publisher's description.