The FAO Yearbook of fisheries and aquaculture statistics 2015 has been just officially released. This edition contains the most recent global statistics on capture fishery production, aquaculture production, commodities production and trade, apparent fish consumption derived from food balance sheets as well as statistics on fleets and employment of major producing countries. It is structured into a booklet (containing summary tables, relevant general notes, concepts and classifications, a pull-out map of FAO major fishing areas as well as a brief overview of major trends and issues relating to the individual statistical sets) and a CD-ROM presenting the full yearbook package with all the key information and the complete set of statistical tables.

The Yearbook is one of the tools through which users can access the different statistics collated and disseminated by the Fisheries and Aquaculture Department of FAO. These include:

1. FishStatJ - Software for fishery statistical time series offering experts and scientists a stand-alone application for complex and sophisticated data exploration and extraction.
2. Online Query Panels enabling users to extract customized information and reports

A new and refreshed website of the Coordinating Working Party on Fisheries Statistics (CWP) is alive. The updated site includes changes to navigation, a refreshed look&feel, a section with highlights and relevant upcoming meetings, and importantly the new version of the CWP Handbook.

The primary goal of this upgrade was to provide the revised CWP handbook contents in a more dynamic and structured way so to allow for a more intuitive and easy navigation across sections, while adapting the contents of the old CWP website to the new FAO institutional image.

With this revamping the users will get more from a quick read through contents that we plan to be periodically updated so as the website will become a reference to all those belonging or related to the fisheries statistician's community.

For any questions, suggestions, feedback or comments, please E-mail us at CWP-secretariat@fao.org.

The Ninth session of FAO's COFI Sub-Committee on Aquaculture wrapped up last week in Rome. The Sub-committee meeting brought together 188 delegates from 94 member countries and observers from regional fisheries bodies, international organizations and civil society organizations to review a full agenda of aquaculture-related items.

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The FAO inter-regional TCP project TCP/INT/3501 "Strengthening biosecurity governance and capacities for dealing with the serious shrimp infectious myonecrosis virus (IMNV) disease" has the overall goal of strengthening institutional biosecurity governance for dealing with IMNV of whiteleg shrimp in selected countries (Brazil, China, Ecuador, Indonesia, Mexico, Thailand). IMNV is an OIE-listed disease that was first observed in Brasil; Indonesia and very recently India are the other two countries currently positive for IMNV. The final workshop of this TCP being held from 2-5 November 2017, in Qingdao, China in collaboration with the National Fisheries Technology Extension Center (NFTEC) and the Yellow Sea Fisheries Research Institute (YSFRI) is aimed to: (i) present the outcomes of the Emergency Preparedness and Response System (EPRS) Audit, FAO self-assessment survey, and IMNV disease strategy manual; (ii) discuss the results of the IMNV surveillance and analysis of data; (iii) discuss through working group re: IMNV management and IMNV disease outbreak investigation; (iv) do laboratory work on IMNV diagnostics (IMNV PCR, histopathology); and (v) discuss the way forward. The Opening session was graced by Ms Qingli, Director of Disease Prevention and Control Department of NFTEC; Mr Feng Zhang, Deputy Director of NFTEC and Mr Xianshi Jin, Director of Yellow Sea Fisheries Research Institute. Some 28 participants (Brasil: 2, Ecuador: 2; Indonesia: 2; Mexico: 1; Thailand: 2; China: 18; and FAO resource experts from Australia, Chile, USA and 1 translator) are in attendance. Mr Feng Zhang in his opening remarks hoped that "with the platform of the this FAO inter-regional TCP project and the Belt and Road Initiative, we can deepen our exchange with foreign experts, share epidemic prevention and control technologies and management experiences, especially solutions to the sustainable development of shrimp culture industry, so as to work together to achieve green and healthy development of this industry".