Abstract

Moored or anchored Fish Aggregating Device (aFAD) fisheries are steadily growing in many island states and overseas territories across the Caribbean. However, there is a pervasive lack of regulation, monitoring, and management of such fisheries across the region, raising concerns about their long-term sustainability. Here, we briefly present the Caribbean Regional Management Plan for the aFAD fishery, hereafter referred to as the Plan. The Plan builds on the 2015 CRFM sub-regional aFAD fishery plan for the eastern Caribbean (CRFM 2015), a recent regional survey on aFAD fisheries, and on grey and peer-reviewed literature documenting efforts to improve the current state of knowledge of such fisheries in the region (e.g. Montes et al. 2017, Wilson et al. 2020).