Third in-person coaching of Angolan MCS officers through the SADC Atlantic project

October 2024 — Per Erik Bergh (CEO and Managing Director), Noa Senete (MCS Expert) and Andréa Durighello (Fisheries Expert) travelled to Angola for a third in-person training of MCS officers from Luanda as part of the project SADC Atlantic. They were joined by Stig T Fjellberg, Senior analyst of SIF’s partner organisation TMT.

After the SADC Atlantic project was officially launched on 20 February 2024 in Luanda, under the patronage of the Angolan Minister for Fisheries and Marine Resources, training and coaching of MCS officers has continued, putting into practice instruments and techniques that can be used to assess risks of fishing vessels and conduct inspections.

This training focussed on the monitoring officers from MONICAP in Luanda, with the aim to coach them in the use of remote monitoring tools, in particular Vessel Viewer, Skylight and Seavision.

Coaching will continue remotely after this training – with the objective to help Angolan MCS officers conduct risk assessments based on provided methodology. Together with Namibia and South Africa, and based on this experience acquired, Angola will contribute to the development of regional Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for risk assessments by mid-2025. The objective: implementing these procedures to all SADC MCSCC Member countries and to the MCSCC. Harmonising MCS procedures is one of the objectives of the SADC MCSCC; it will support other key functions such as the Regional Register of Fishing Vessels (RRFV), which is envisioned to condition access of fishing vessels to the fulfilment of criteria to be verified by the MCSCC. By supporting this process, SADC Atlantic makes a key contribution to the operationalisation of the MCSCC.