The Thirtieth Session of the The Committee on Fisheries (COFI), is being held in Rome this week at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) headquarters. The COFI is currently the only inter-governmental forum where major fisheries and aquaculture issues are addressed and recommendations are issued to governments, regional fishery bodies, NGOs, FAO and the international community. In the past, COFI has been used as a forum in which non-binding global agreements were negotiated.

This years Session started out on July 9th, with a presentation of The State of the World Fisheries and Aquaculture. Over the course of the week the Committee will review relevant outcomes from Rio+20, major developments in combating illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing and outline their vision for the future in a Program of Work and Medium Term Plan. Yesterday they also announced a competition aimed at combating IUU fishing. 

International Monitoring, Control and Surveillance Network (IMCS) launched the very first Stop IUU Fishing Award on July 11, 2012 during COFI at the FAO headquarters. The competition is designed to encourage innovation and effective new ideas in the fight against IUU fishing. The winners will not only receive a monetary prize, but will have an entire workshop dedicated to explaining their work during the Fourth Global Fisheries Enforcement Training workshop in Central America in 2013. Deadline for entries is November 30, 2012, click here for more information about the contest.