The Canary Islands Oceanographic Centre of the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO-CSIC), based in Tenerife, has begun formal talks with Morocco’s Sub-Regional Fisheries Commission (CSRP) in Agadir to establish a strategic scientific partnership through funding from the European Interreg programme. The initiative seeks to position the Canary Islands as the leading platform for oceanographic knowledge, scientific support and fisheries technology transfer for the countries of northwestern Africa and the central-eastern Atlantic.
Cross-border scientific partnership
The foundations for this collaboration were laid during an official visit to the Tenerife centre by CSRP Permanent Secretary Khallahi Brahim and its scientific adviser, Patrice Brehmer. The international delegation was received by the director of the Canary Islands Oceanographic Centre, Jesús M. Arrieta, and researcher Catalina Perales-Raya, who is responsible for matters relating to the Fisheries Committee for the Eastern Central Atlantic (COPACE/CECAF) on behalf of Spain.
The central aim of the negotiations is to design an Interreg project — the European Union mechanism for cross-border and interregional cooperation — linking CSRP member states with European marine research organisations. Taking advantage of the Canary Islands’ status as an EU Outermost Region, the project would attract EU funding for joint oceanographic campaigns, the marine observation network and the exchange of fisheries data between the two shores of the Atlantic.
Sustainability and aquaculture development
The working agenda prioritises the biological assessment of shared fishery resources in the Eastern Central Atlantic, a strategic fishing ground for EU and international fleets operating under sustainable fisheries partnership agreements. In this context, the IEO will provide its technical expertise for scientific advice aimed at preventing the overexploitation of fish stocks and ensuring the sustainable management of fisheries in the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) of CSRP member countries.
The meeting also served to assess the potential of the Canary Islands Oceanographic Centre in the field of marine aquaculture. The Tenerife centre offered its research expertise to the states of the African subregion to support the development of sustainable aquaculture projects that diversify marine protein production, strengthen local food security and reduce pressure on wild catches along the Atlantic coast.
The Canary Islands as a training platform
The Interreg project currently being designed envisages the creation of a permanent research network between Spanish and African scientific centres. Through this cooperation framework, the Canary Islands will establish technical training programmes for biologists, marine observers and fisheries inspectors from CSRP countries, consolidating the transfer of operational capabilities and the use of state-of-the-art oceanographic monitoring technologies.
The integration of Canary Islands fisheries research into continental dynamics strengthens the archipelago’s geostrategic role in maritime governance. Cooperation between the IEO, the CSRP and the COPACE structure establishes the islands as an indispensable scientific reference point for the sustainability of marine resources and the management of the blue economy in the West African Atlantic.
The article IEO in Tenerife and Agadir’s CSRP negotiate Interreg project on fisheries in the African Atlantic was first published on canarymaritime.com.
