Report of the FAO/CECAF Working Group on the Assessment of Small Pelagic Fish, Subgroup South Accra, Ghana, 19-28 October 2009/ Rapport du Groupe de travail FAO/COPACE sur l’évaluation des petits poissons pélagiques, Sous-groupe Sud Accra, Ghana, 19-28 octobre 2009

Abstract

The second meeting of the FAO/CECAF Working Group on the Assessment of Small Pelagic Fish – Subgroup South met in Accra, Ghana, from 19 to 28 October 2009. The overall objective of the Working Group is to contribute to the improved management of small pelagic resources in West Africa through the assessment of the state of the stocks and fisheries to ensure sustainable use of these resources for the benefit of coastal countries. The Working Group focused on data quality and on the analysis of tre nds in the basic data (catch, effort, abundance indices and length distribution) and trends in the fishery independent survey data. The species assessed by the Working Group were: sardinella (Sardinella aurita and Sardinella maderensis), bonga (Ethmalosa fimbriata), anchovy (Engraulis encrasicolus) and horse mackerel (Trachurus trecae and Decapterus rhonchus) and other Carangidae, in the region between the northern border of Guinea-Bissau and the southern border of Angola.