The General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) handed the “Category 1” compliance award to Morocco recently for having complied with and implemented all Commission decisions and having met its data reporting obligations in the fisheries sector, according to the Department of Maritime Fisheries under the Ministry of Agriculture, Maritime Fisheries, Rural Development and Water and Forests.
The Commission issued this recognition to Morocco, the European Union, Albania, and Turkey during the Commission’s 46th session, held Nov. 6 to 10 in Split, Croatia, attended by a Moroccan delegation.
The distinction, given to the kingdom for the third year in a row, recognizes Morocco’s commitments to standards set by international and regional fisheries organizations by adopting their decisions into Morocco’s national law.
During the session, the Commission adopted several Moroccan proposals, including mitigating bottlenose dolphin depredation in small pelagic fisheries in the Alboran Sea by implementing a bottlenose dolphin research program to advance scientific knowledge, as well as researching measures to reduce bottlenose dolphin attacks in Morocco’s Mediterranean small pelagic fisheries.
It passed another Moroccan resolution concerning a regional action plan to monitor and minimize interactions between fisheries and endangered species in the Mediterranean and Black Sea. That plan calls for the design and development of adequate monitoring systems, as well as the testing and development of mitigating strategies to decrease and, if possible, eliminate accidental catches of algae, marine turtles, seabirds, and marine mammals, as well as associated fishing fatalities.