The Session was attended by delegates from seven Members of the Commission and by observers from international, regional and national fishery bodies and institutions. The meeting was organized to evaluate the progress of intercessional activities relating to recommendations of earlier sessions, address regional fisheries and aquaculture issues of concern and review plans for short and medium-term activities.

This report summarizes the discussions held during the forty-fourth session of the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean and the eleventh session of the Committee on Administration and Finance. During the session, progress in activities related to fisheries, aquaculture, compliance and other strategic activities was reviewed. The Commission adopted 21 binding recommendations and 14 resolutions dealing with fisheries management and conservation, aquaculture, compliance, vessel monitoring and the fight against illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing as well as the GFCM 2030 Strategy for sustainable fisheries and aquaculture in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. Moreover, the Commission reviewed issues related to its functioning and to the mandate of the GFCM Executive Secretary. Finally, the Commission adopted its programme of work for the next intersession and approved its autonomous budget for 2022 as well as a number of strategic actions to be funded through extrabudgetary resources. The Commission also renewed the GFCM Bureau as well as the mandates of the Bureaus of the Scientific Advisory Committee on Fisheries, the Scientific Advisory Committee on Aquaculture and the Working Group on the Black Sea, and endorsed the new Bureaus of the Compliance Committee and the Committee on Administration and Finance.

This report presents the outcomes of the twenty-fourth session of the GFCM Scientific Advisory Committee on Fisheries. The Committee reviewed the work carried out during the 2022–2023 intersession, including in the context of the MedSea4Fish programme, and provided advice on the status of priority stocks and ecosystems and on potential management measures addressing key fisheries and vulnerable species in the Mediterranean. At the regional level, the Committee provided advice on: i) European eel, red coral and common dolphinfish fisheries in the Mediterranean; ii) minimum conservation reference size for GFCM priority species, including deep-water red shrimp and European hake at the regional level as well as small pelagics in the Adriatic sea and round sardinella in the eastern Mediterranean; and iii) the socioeconomic impacts of a potential extension of bottom trawling limits. With regard to small-scale fisheries, the Committee supported the need to revise the monitoring framework of the Regional Plan of Action for small-scale fisheries in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. It discussed additional work in support of the GFCM, endorsing dedicated research programmes, including on recreational fisheries and on jellyfish in the Alboran Sea, as well as a draft regional plan of action to monitor and mitigate interactions between fisheries and vulnerable species in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea and identified further actions towards the implementation of standardized monitoring plans for fisheries restricted areas (FRAs) and the development of pilot studies to identify boundaries of known vulnerable marine ecosystems. It also discussed issues related to decarbonization and climate change, estimation of discards and fishing capacity. In line with the subregional approach, the Committee formulated advice on i) blackspot seabream in the western Mediterranean; ii) small pelagics in the Alboran Sea; iii) a FRA in the Cabliers Coral Mound Province; iv) Norway lobster, red mullet and striped red mullet in the central Mediterranean; v) round sardinella, small-scale fisheries and non-indigenous species in the eastern Mediterranean; and vi) small pelagics and key demersal stocks in the Adriatic Sea. Finally, the Committee agreed upon its workplan for 2023–2025.

Thirty-one regional fishery bodies (RFBs) participated in the Eighth Meeting of the Regional Fishery Body Secretariats’ Network (RSN-8). The meeting brought together RFBs with diverse mandates from all geographic regions, including FAO and non-FAO regional fishery bodies, marine and inland fishery advisory and management bodies, the UNDOALOS and other invited organizations. The meeting allowed participants to exchange views and discuss both global fisheries management and development issues in aquaculture, as these related to regional and global processes of particular relevance to RFBs. In addition, RSN-8 provided the opportunity to discuss the development and strengthening of the RSN, as well as a space for reflection on the outcomes of COFI 34 and their implications for regional fishery bodies. The meeting had a high level of participation, which underlined the role of the network as a unique forum in which to foster cooperation, facilitate discussion and share experiences.

The twenty-fourth session of the European Inland Fisheries Advisory Commission (EIFAC) was held in Mondsee, Austria, from 14 to 21 June 2006, in concomitance with a Symposium on Hydropower, Flood Control and Water Abstraction: Implications for Fish and Fisheries. The session reviewed EIFAC's activities since 2004 in the fields of fishery biology and management, aquaculture, protection of the aquatic environment, and social and economic issues. EIFAC revised and decided its future programme of work, in particular the activities which should be carried out until the next session of the Commission in 2008. The twenty-fifth session will be preceded by a Symposium that will focus on interactions between socio-economic and ecological objectives of inland fisheries, commercial and recreational, and aquaculture.

This document contains the report of the fifth meeting of the Regional Commission for Fisheries (RECOFI) Working Group on Fisheries Management (WGFM), which was held in Tehran, Iran (Islamic Republic of), from 9 to 12 October 2011. The WGFM addressed and made decisions on matters concerning relevant follow-up to the sixth session of RECOFI and the fourth session of the RECOFI WGFM. An update on the programme of work and budget for the biennium for 2011-12 in relation to the WGFM was considered and arrangements for a number of activities finalized in terms of dates, locations and funding. A proposal by the Sultanate of Oman on illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing in the RECOFI region was addressed again and Members undertook to follow up on assessing IUU fishing in their respective countries through the completion of a questionnaire that would be circulated prior to the sixth meeting of the WGFM in Qatar in October 2012. The WGFM considered in detail progress towards the implementation of the RECOFI Recommendation on Minimum Data Reporting (Recommendation RECOFI/6/2011/1). A preliminary review of stock and fisheries status indicators to be produced from the RECOFI fishery management database, building on past work, was reviewed and progressed. The meeting considered a RECOFI scientific working group to provide scientific advice to the Commission on aquaculture and fishery management. This matter will be addressed further at the seventh session of RECOFI in May 2013. The final substantive item addressed on the agenda was RECOFI cooperation with the Fishery Resources Monitoring System (FIRMS). The next meeting of the WGFM will be held in Qatar from 21 to 23 October 2012--