The Global Roundtable on Marine Ingredients (GRT) released the report Transforming the Small Pelagic Fish Value Chain in West Africa: Maximising the Value of the Catch, from a workshop held in Nouakchott, Mauritania, on July 10-11, 2025.
The workshop brought together 60 participants from across the sub-region, including representatives of local communities, governments, international organisations, private sector actors, research institutions, and civil society. Co-organized by the GRT, the Mauritanian Institute for Oceanographic and Fisheries Research (IMROP), and the Mauritanian Small Pelagics Fishery Improvement Project (FIP), the event aimed to deepen understanding of the socio-economic dynamics surrounding small pelagic species and identify pathways for enhancing their contribution to food security and livelihoods.
The newly released report provides a comprehensive summary of the presentations, discussions, and conclusions. It highlights the urgent need to shift from a model focused on raw material exports to one that prioritizes value-added transformation and regional cooperation.
Speaking at the opening of the workshop, Árni M. Mathiesen, Independent Chair of the Global Roundtable on Marine Ingredients, emphasised the global relevance of the discussions. “Aquatic foods, with their high nutritional value and low environmental footprint, play a vital role in addressing the challenge of food security for a global population exceeding 8 billion. The West African sub-region faces declining fish stocks due to overfishing and climate change, alongside economic competition and shifting consumer preferences. Without strengthened regional institutional cooperation, we will face enormous difficulties.”
According to the Fisheries Committee for the Eastern Central Atlantic (CECAF), five stocks are overexploited and four are fully exploited. Climate change is exacerbating these pressures, as evidenced by the 2023 Nansen campaign, which reported abnormally high temperatures and the absence of sardines south of Cap Blanc.
Cheikh Baye Braham, Chair of the CECAF-North and scientist at IMROP, noted that “faced with these challenges, scientific and regional management of migratory stocks is essential. The implementation of management plans, investment in data monitoring and the promotion of the ecosystem approach to fisheries appear to be priorities. Finally, the sustainable development of fishmeal and fish oil industries must be reconciled with West African food security”.
Participants engaged in focused group discussions on four topics:
- Fisheries Data Systems – Recommendations included strengthening data collection at processing plants, improving regional coordination, and establishing a sub-regional observatory for small pelagics.
- Regional Regulatory Alignment – Participants called for harmonized management measures, enhanced cooperation through regional fisheries bodies, and fiscal incentives to promote more responsible practices.
- Fishery Improvement Projects (FIPs) – The group proposed inclusive governance frameworks and regional forums to support bilateral and multilateral collaboration.
- Promoting Direct Human Consumption – Recommendations focused on improving infrastructure, diversifying processing methods, supporting artisanal transformation, and launching targeted awareness campaigns.
The report concludes that small pelagics are not only part of the future, but also of the past and present, as a resource of high nutritional value and a source of employment. It calls for coordinated regional governance, improved infrastructure, and targeted public policies to promote direct human consumption of small pelagic fish.
Participants have begun to touch the opportunities at hand; now is the time to seize them. Further work needs to be done based on present and past activities. Resources need to be sought from those currently benefitting from the use of the stocks, remembering their living, renewable nature and thus the paramount importance of sustaining them over time, a core component of healthy oceans, food security, and the blue economy,” the report states.
The Global Roundtable on Marine Ingredients will continue working with international and regional stakeholders and monitor how the recommendations are implemented.
Download the report here.
