Report of the Workshop on elasmobranch conservation in the Mediterranean and Black Sea

This workshop was the fourth of a series initiated in 2010 by the GFCM with the aim of improving knowledge on elasmobranchs and proposing technical management measures for their conservation. The workshop was attended by 19 participants from Croatia, France, Greece, Israel, Italy, Spain, Tunisia and Turkey. The 20 presentations by experts greatly contributed to updating regional knowledge on elasmobranchs after the 2012 GFCM publication on the status of elasmobranchs. The topics presented included biology, fisheries, geographical distribution, data reporting and monitoring programmes and by-catch mitigation measures. Methodologies to estimate by-catch rates and to assess the stocks of these slow-growing, long-lived and datalimited species were proposed. A number of technical measures already tested in other parts of the world that were considered feasible by the experts in attendance were suggested for short-term implementation within the multiannual management plans currently under development in the Mediterranean and in the Black Sea.