Report of the fourth meeting of the Working Group on Aquaculture. Muscat, Sultanate of Oman, 27–28 January 2009

The fourth meeting of the Working Group on Aquaculture (WGA) of the Regional Commission for Fisheries (RECOFI) was held in Muscat, Oman, from 27 to 28 January 2009 and was attended by the representatives from seven member countries. The WGA reviewed the recommendations and decisions of the Commission made at its fourth session (Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, 7–9 May 2007) and noted that all planned and endorsed WGA activities had been duly implemented. The meeting extensively discussed the fin al activities and inputs to the Regional Aquaculture Information System (RAIS) in view of its imminent and official launching in March 2009. The participants discussed and agreed on the i) RAIS User Manual, ii) promotional flyer, iii) press release, and iv) on the overall communication strategy to launch and to further strengthen the information system. The WGA noted with regret that the start of the “Aquaculture legal and policy framework project” during the intersessional period was not possib le as the agreed financial input from all the contributing Commission members had not been received. The WGA finalized its proposed programme of work for the new intersessional period based on the needs and recommendations resulting from the implementation of activities in the last biennium and emerging issues of importance for the region. The WGA recognized that the Commission, based on its current level of financial contribution, may not have the required budget to implement a comprehensive aq uaculture programme and recommended that some activities could be implemented with extrabudgetary funds. The six main activities proposed in order of priority for the new work plan include: 1) application of risk analysis to aquaculture, 2) environmental monitoring in cage aquaculture, 3) impacts of red tides to aquaculture, 4) development of national strategies on aquatic animal health, 5) spatial tools and aquaculture zoning, and 6) aquaculture recirculation strategies. The WGA recommended tha t the Commission should also encourage and support more training and on-the-job cooperation in the field of aquaculture development among its members as well as in countries outside the region.