This Caribbean Billfish Management and Conservation Plan was created to reverse the trend of declining stocks of billfish species within the Western Central Atlantic Ocean and its adjacent seas, and address unsustainable fishing practices. Its objective is to outline and guide the implementation of a suite of billfish management measures over a five-year period at regional and sub-regional scales to help secure the potential future benefits that can accrue from billfish stocks in the Caribbean. The overarching goal is to improve the management and conservation of billfish stocks. Among other objectives, the plan seeks to improve billfish catch, data collection and reporting; reduce bycatch, discards and overall fishing mortality; improve regional governance and coordination; and enhance the sustainable socio-economic performance of fisheries capturing billfishes in the area. The Members of the Western Central Atlantic Fishery Commission (WECAFC), Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM), Central America Organization for Fishery and Aquaculture (OSPESCA) and the Caribbean Fisheries Management Council (CFMC) developed this plan together during the period 2015-2018, through the Recreational Fisheries Working Group, and in close collaboration with all key stakeholders in the Consortium on Billfish Management and Conservation (CBMC). The plan recognizes the mandate of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) over billfish stocks, and supports the implementation of the ICCAT recommendations in the region.

The workshop called for strengthening capacities to improve recreational fisheries data collection in the Caribbean, and presented useful tools such as FAO SmartForms, a mobile platform for fisheries data collection.

This is the report of the First Western Central Atlantic Fishery Commission (WECAFC) Preparatory Meeting for the Transformation into a Regional Fisheries Management Organization (RFMO) held in Bridgetown, Barbados, on 25 and 26 March 2019. Ce document est le rapport de la Première réunion préparatoire pour la transformation de la Commission des pêches pour l’Atlantique Centre-Ouest (COPACO) en une organisation regionale de gestion des pêches en une organisation regionale de gestion des pêches (ORGP), qui s’est tenue a Bridgetown (La Barbade) les 25 et 26 mars 2019. Este es el primer informe de la Primera reunión preparatoria de la Comisión de Pesca para el Atlántico Centro Occidental (COPACO) para la transformación en una organización regional de ordenación pesquera (OROP), celebrada en Bridgetown, Barbados, los días 25 y 26 de marzo de 2019.

The fifth Meeting of the WECAFC Working Group (WG) on Fisheries using Anchored (or Moored) Fish Aggregating Devices (aFAD) was held in a hybrid format from 17–19 April 2023, hosted by the Commonwealth of Dominica. The meeting was attended by various WECAFC Members, including Barbados, Brazil, Colombia, Commonwealth of Dominica, Dominican Republic, European Union, France, Nicaragua, Panama, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and the United States of America. The objectives included reviewing data and recent developments in member countries with aFAD fisheries, discussing working documents related to the implementation of the 2022–2024 workplan, providing a status update on the implementation of relevant instruments and recommendations, and developing recommendations and a proposed work plan for future work.

The eighth session of the Scientific Advisory Group (SAG) of the Western Central Atlantic Fishery Commission (WECAFC) was held in Merida, Mexico, on 3-4 November 2017. The Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute (GCFI) hosted the session at the venue of its seventieth annual conference. The SAG discussed the outcomes of the work carried out by various joint working groups in 2016–2017 and their Recommendations to WECAFC 17. The SAG reviewed the status of the main fish stocks in Area 31 and discussed the impact of the increase in Fish Aggregating Device (FAD) fisheries on the current stock assessment methods used. The SAG further got updated on the functioning of the Interim Coordination Mechanism for Sustainable Fisheries, the WECAFC-FIRMS partnership and the activities of partner agencies in the region. A list of specific SAG Recommendations for the attention of WECAFC 17 is included in the preface of the report

This report presents information on the Grenada tuna fisheries, the components and results of the pre-assessment itself, and recommendations to improve the fisheries’ status in relation to the Marine Stewardship Council Fisheries Standard. Grenada’s yellowfin and bigeye tuna fisheries were assessed against the MSC standard for sustainable fisheries. This standard encompasses three distinct principles: Principle 1 –sustainability of the stocks; Principle 2 – ecosystem impacts; and Principle 3 – effective management. Each Principle in turn comprises a set of performance indicators (PI), of which there are 28 in total. Overall, the pre-assessment identified a significant number of shortcomings that would currently preclude the fishery from achieving conformity with the MSC Fisheries Standard.