The REDUCE Project is aimed at minimizing the bycatch of threatened megafauna in the Central East Atlantic. This initiative brings together over 13 partners from Africa and Europe. The Project was officially launched from April 15 to 20, 2023, in Barcelona, Spain. With €8.9 million in funding from the European Union over four years, activities in Africa will be carried out in Cape Verde, Mauritania, Senegal, and Morocco by key partners, including the Regional Partnership for Coastal and Marine Conservation in West Africa (PRCM).
All the partners of the REDUCE project in Spain at the launch.
As part of this project, PRCM will carry out awareness-raising and advocacy work with governments, industrial fishing companies and NGOs on bycatch. In addition, PRCM will help governments to develop observer programs on board industrial fishing vessels, providing training in the collection of bycatch data and the implementation of bycatch mitigation measures in the EEZ.
The meetings held on 30 May and 27 June 2023 in Dakar (Senegal) and Praia (Cape Verde) have already generated significant support for the project. The aim of these meetings was to present the project and engage the Senegalese and Cape Verdean authorities, associations of industrial fishing shipowners, NGOs and partners involved in maritime spatial planning (MSP).
To date, PRCM and its partners have begun the work to create a network for monitoring strandings of marine megafauna, fishing nets and Fish Aggregating Devices (FADs). They have also trained on-board observers in the four countries concerned, obtained Vessel Monitoring Systems (VMS) from national partners and engaged fishing industries and fisheries departments in MSP.
Work sessions are planned in July and August in Mauritania and Morocco to present the project to local stakeholders. This will be followed by a period of training by South African experts in bycatch data collection for observers on board industrial vessels in the four countries: Cape Verde, Mauritania, Senegal and Morocco.
