Protection of demersal resources in Morocco

As part of a Memorandum of Understanding between Morocco and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), with funding from the European Union, a campaign to assess the impact of bottom trawling on demersal resources was conducted from 28 July to 07 August 2019 in the Mediterranean area of Morocco.

The objective of this analysis was to estimate the indices of abundance of demersal and benthic species in the Mediterranean area of Morocco, determine the spatial distribution of these species and study the biology of the main species exploited in the region.

This campaign was conducted in accordance with the work protocol of the International bottom trawl survey in the Mediterranean programme – Medits. This protocol, already used by some countries belonging to the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM), i.e. the countries of the European Union, is a standard protocol for harmonising sampling protocols and data collection and analysis methods. This will therefore allow scientifically sound advice for the conservation of stocks, in particular shared stocks.