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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 trends 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.
For each of these species, standardized information is given on stock identity, fisheries, abundance indices, sampling, biological data, assessment, management recommendations and future research.
Of the 17 stocks analysed one is found to be overexploited, round sardinella (S. aurita) western stock. For this stock it was recommended not to increase catches until further analysis with more complete data on the stocks is available. Five stocks were found to be fully exploited: flat sardinella (S. maderensis) western stock and Sardinella spp. Northern stock, bonga (E. fimbriata) northern stock and southern stock, and anchovy (E. encrasicolus) western stock. For these stocks it was recommended, as a precautionary measure, that catch level should not exceed the catch of the last year or the average catch of the last four years. The Cunene horse mackerel southern stock was found to be overexploited but the models did not fit well the data presented to the Working Group, but other independent information point out the bad conditions of the stock, for this stock it was recommended that targeted effort on this species should be reduced. For four of the stocks analysed the data did not provide reliable results and for three stocks the data available were not sufficient to apply an assessment model. For these stocks, as a precautionary measure, the Working Group recommended that catch level should...