Ceremony on board the research vessel Dr Fridtjof Nansen in the port of Luanda

The event will feature opening remarks by the Minister of Fisheries and Marine Resources, Dr. Carmen Sacramento Neto, a speech by the Ambassador of Norway, Mr. Bjørnar Dahl Hotvedt, the FAO Representative in Angola, Mrs. Gherda Barreto Cajina, and the FAO’s Senior Fisheries Officer  Responsible for the EAF-Nansen-FAO Program Mr. Pedro Barros, from Rome.

The ceremony and onboard visit will be open to the media, where members of the Government and over 50 representatives from the public and private sectors, including, development agencies, diplomatic corps, government officials and research institutions will participate. The event will be a unique opportunity to showcase the unique ocean research facilities that have served the Program's partner countries for nearly five decades.

The EAF-Nansen Program is a long-standing partnership between FAO and Norway, dating back to 1975. To date, the Program provides technical support in the field of fisheries research and management and has collaborated with 58 countries in Africa, Asia, and South America. In its current phase (2017-2023), the EAF-Nansen Program works with 32 countries in Africa and supports regional and country-specific efforts to improve food and nutrition security and achieve sustainable fisheries management systems. Thus, the goal is to increase scientific and socio-economic knowledge, improve fisheries policy and management according to the ecosystem approach to fisheries (EAF), and develop the capacity of fisheries research and management institutions to sustainably manage fisheries.

Angola as a signatory country has benefited from several national and regional scientific research cruises to deepen the knowledge of the oceans and seas, which have allowed for years to estimate the abundance of the main fish resources that abound along the coast, as well as relate their dynamics with environmental variability. This has allowed secure information through a series of data, not only of the marine biodiversity and its ecosystems but also a scientific basis for the rational and sustained exploitation of marine resources.

The Dr Fridtjof Nansen is a state-of-the-art research vessel, and has conducted several stock assessments of major transboundary fishery resources and environmental studies aimed at generating data to inform policy decisions on marine and fishery resource management. The Vessel is an integral part and important tool of the EAF-Nansen Program, owned by Norway and operated by the Norwegian Institute of Marine Research (IMR).