engleski

Small-scale fisheries in the Adriatic Sea: information gaps at biological, socio-economic and environmental level

The small-scale fisheries is a prismatic and dynamic sector and its characteristics vary from one location to another. It tends to be strongly anchored in local communities reflecting their traditions and values. In the Adriatic Sea a wide range of small-scale fisheries (SSFs) are engaged in various set of gear fisheries over the year. SSFs in the region target a pool of species using a high number of fishing methods mainly depending on season (e.g. only in Croatia a total of 55 different fishing gears are officially listed and currently used). Many small-scale fisheries are effectively unregulated, unreported and poorly monitored. Within the framework of the Working Group on Small Scale Fisheries in the Adriatic Sea of the FAO AdriaMed Project, the major knowledge gaps and priorities for the small scale fisheries sector in the Adriatic have been identified. Lack of appropriate and complete statistics is one of the main constraints identified for most of the Adriatic coastal countries (few countries have in place routinely monitoring programmes while others are dealing mostly with estimates). Moreover, when dealing with data requirements, the social and economic component of small scale fisheries should be addressed ; in particular basic data on level of employment, catch quantity and value, fleet composition, fishing season, area and, ideally, on by-catch should be collected..In the Adriatic context, when dealing with shared stocks and subregional management processes, attention should also be paid at national management plans to tackle issues like territorial access rights. Adriatic SSFs management processes, they strongly require the harmonization of the information available, the data collection and data requirements. Management of SSF in the subregion has often been targeted to fishing gear, whereas individual species are caught with variety of gear types, so any future management indication needs to be based on all gear types used. Full participation of fishing communities in decisions on the sustainable use of natural resources should be facilitated as well as monitoring and surveillance through innovative approaches to marine conservation (co-management) should be considered. The outcomes of the discussion held among Adriatic experts on SSFs is provided as background for a wider discussion on perspectives and sustainable development of SSFs at Mediterranean level taking into account the FAO principles defined by in the International Guidelines on Securing Sustainable Small –scale Fisheries.

small-scale fishery; gaps; biology; environment; socio-economy; Adriatic Sea

nije evidentirano