The Technological Center of the Sea-Foundation (Cetmar), an entity linked to the Ministry of the Sea, promotes and directs in Senegal an international workshop aimed at strengthening the technical and scientific capacities of African professionals in the prevention and reduction of the accidental capture of threatened and protected marine megafauna.
The initiative is being held this week at the headquarters of the Cervantes Institute in Dakar and is promoted together with the General Secretariat of Fisheries of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food of Spain, also counting on the support of the Embassy of Spain. This action is part of the European project Reduce, coordinated by the University of Barcelona, in which Cetmar participates as a partner.
Under the title "Reducing marine megafauna bycatch in Northwestern African fisheries: advancing monitoring, mitigation and sustainability", the workshop brings together around thirty professionals from a dozen coastal countries in Central and Northwestern Africa. Among the attendees are specialists in fishing, marine environment experts, personnel from fishing administrations, research centers, universities, and non-governmental organizations.
In its role as coordinator, Cetmar is involved in the design and implementation of the training content, as well as in promoting the involvement of the different countries in the region. This work is carried out jointly with the partner institutions of Reduce, a European project funded through the Horizon Europe program.
The purpose of this workshop is to strengthen the capacity of the participating professionals to identify, track, and minimize bycatch of marine megafauna, considered one of the main threats to various groups of protected species, such as cetaceans, seabirds, turtles, and sharks.