Fisheries Management Plan of Sierra Leone. Marine Fisheries Sector. 2020-2025.

This Management Plan, covering a period of five years (2020-2025), focuses on specific targeted fish stocks, in order to set out conservation and management measures and enhance repopulation and encourage a sustainable use of marine resources. The Management Plan aims at achieving the following objectives: regulation of the fishing efforts by fishing fleets in both the industrial, semi-industrial and artisanal sub-sectors to a level that will ensure sustainable exploitation of fish stocks and preservation of the environment; protection of aquatic and marine habitat and biodiversity; improvement of the knowledge-base on the status of the fish stocks; effective implementation of the fisheries legislation and regulations; strengthening of stakeholder engagement in decision making process; ensuring compliance with regional and international fisheries instruments; improving food security through fish supply. The Management Plan concerns: the description of the sector; the classification of fisheries resources, including: sharks, tuna species, crustaceans and molluscs; the identification of key issues and problems in the fisheries, including: significant quantities of the by-catch are juveniles of targeted high-valued species, use of destructive fishing methods and illegal fishing nets, indiscriminate removal of the marine vegetation, pollution of the marine environment.