The Eurofish Governing Council 2024 concluded on 2 February as scheduled. It was attended by 47 participants representing 25 countries and two institutions. The non-member countries represented were Azerbaijan, France, Montenegro, Sweden, UK, and Ukraine, all of whom sent delegates from the relevant ministries. The annual report for 2023 revealed that Eurofish had more projects in hand than it had ever had in its history. Many of these are supported under EU programmes for example EUMOFA which aims at increasing market transparency and efficiency, and at analysing EU market dynamics; and the European Marine Observation and Data Network (EMODnet), a map repository where data concerning human activities related to the sea are accessible through a single portal. Projects are also funded by other donors and included technical subjects such as making the most of side streams from the aquaculture industry, developing technologies to study the sludge from freshwater farms to identify disease, and new ways to utilise micro- and macroalgae. Other activities included field trips for member country delegations, an aquaculture conference, and the production of aquaculture manuals in member country languages.
Many of the project activities will continue in 2024, while some new ones are also expected to start, for example, a study to develop verifiable indicators that help consumers make informed decision about seafood and thereby stimulate seafood consumption. Eurofish will also be involved in the analysis of conventional and digital value chains in the transformation of aquatic food systems. In Poland Eurofish plans a seminar on EU traceability demands and implementation, while Spain will host a Eurofish-organised conference on valorising side and waste streams from the fisheries and aquaculture sector. More field trips are also scheduled: to study bivalve farming techniques for Albania, Croatia, Italy, and Romania; and to study good practices in pond aquaculture for Hungary. So, 2024 promises to be—another—very busy year. Supporting the execution of all these activities will be a new staff member from Spain who starts in May. Another outcome from the governing council was that the member countries unanimously agreed to extend the member country benefits to Ukraine thanks to an initiative from Norway and Latvia. In practice, this means that the country will be invited to participate in Eurofish activities. Eurofish already shows its support for Ukraine in a small way by publishing a series of articles in the Eurofish Magazine that depicts how companies and institutions in the fisheries and aquaculture sector cope with the war.