FAO hosts 20th WECAFC Session to advance fisheries cooperation, marine sustainability in Caribbean

The 20th Session of the Western Central Atlantic Fishery Commission (WECAFC), held last week in Montego Bay, St James, marked the largest-attended biennial session in nearly a decade as it brought together more than 120 participants, including 26 member countries and 11 partner organisations.

WECAFC is the largest regional fishery body of the Latin America and the Caribbean under the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). During the hybrid session, which got under way on July 8 and ended July 11, delegates reviewed progress, shared innovations, and discussed priorities for sustainable fisheries and marine conservation in the western central Atlantic.

Over the three-day session, participants examined the strategic reorientation of WECAFC, species-specific management plans for queen conch, spiny lobster, flying fish, and dolphinfish, and region-wide measures to curb IUU fishing and climate impacts. Other topics included legal reforms, sargassum management, and aligning with global instruments such as the WTO fisheries subsidies agreement and the BBNJ Agreement.

The session opened with calls for inclusive resource management and stronger regional cooperation to enhance food security and economic growth.

“To grow fisheries and aquaculture in the WECAFC region, it is essential to promote sustainable aquaculture, especially in food-insecure areas, and to expand effective management to fisheries facing sustainability challenges. These solutions and actions are central to FAO’s work in the region, supporting sustainable fisheries, aquaculture, and stronger value chains through its Blue Transformation Roadmap,” said Maximo Torero, the FAO assistant director-general and acting regional representative for Latin America and the Caribbean.

At the session, delegates also reviewed the financial and administrative affairs of the Commission, elected new leadership, and adopted the updated 2025–2027 work plan. The chairmanship, previously held over the last intersessional period by CARICOM countries under the leadership of Floyd Green, Jamaica’s minister of agriculture, fisheries and mining, was officially passed on.

Mexico was elected as the new chair, represented by Isabel Cristina Reyes Robles, director of international affairs at the National Aquaculture and Fisheries Commission. St Kitts and Nevis assumed the role of second vice-chair, represented by Randell Thompson, chief fisheries officer. The first vice-chair, to come from the Central America Fisheries and Aquaculture Organization (OSPESCA) membership, will be designated intersessionally.

Building on the achievements of the 2023 session held in Bridgetown, Barbados, the Commission continues to address growing demands for science-based, inclusive and climate-resilient fisheries management, while working to formalise stronger institutional arrangements for regional cooperation.

WECAFC 20 positions the region’s fisheries and aquaculture sectors as vital pillars for food security, livelihoods and blue economic development, particularly for small island developing states.