Welcome by Ms. Shandira Ankiah, Director of Fisheries (Ag.), Fisheries Division, Ministry of Agriculture, Land and Fisheries, Trinidad and Tobago - Chair of the Caribbean Fisheries Forum

Honourable Ministers, Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen, members of the academic and scientific fraternity, esteemed colleagues, fishery stakeholders and fellow Member States.

Good Day. 

As Chair of the Caribbean Fisheries Forum, it gives me great pleasure and honor to extend to you all a very warm welcome to the Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM) 20th Anniversary Scientific Conference. This four-day event is packed with information across a wide range of subject areas of relevance to the core areas of the work of the CRFM - addressing fisheries and food security; policy, legislation and institutional frameworks,  data and science, aquaculture and marine science, fisheries conservation and management as well as cross-cutting issues such as capacity-building, climate change, ocean acidification, disaster risk management and recovery, international and regional cooperation and partnerships, the future of the CRFM in Blue Economic Growth and culminating with the presentation of national reports of Member States. 

This event represents the largest ever scientific gathering of the CRFM with presenters drawn from a wide range of stakeholders, including the industry, governmental and non-governmental organizations and academia, amongst many others.

Ladies and gentlemen, the next four days promise to be exciting, engaging, informative, innovative and constructive.