Present and future status of artisanal fisheries in the Adriatic Sea (western Mediterranean Sea)

Abstract

Artisanal fisheries represents an important source of employment and income for many Mediterranean coastal communities, as well as an important cultural and traditional identity factor at a regional level. However, despite its importance, it is generally under-studied, in both ecological and socio-economic terms, so hampering the chance of developing sustainable and integrated management measures. At present, on the West coast of the Adriatic Sea, within the three-mile area, artisanal fisheries and hydraulic dredging are the only approved commercial fishing activities. This study confirmed the importance of the artisanal fisheries in this area, representing a multitarget and multigear activity. Despite the 39 exploited species, however, we found high vulnerability both for species (76% of total catches depend upon only three species-cuttlefish, mantis shrimp, and sole) and thermal affinity groups (cold and temperate species contributed to the entire catches). Furthermore, our data showed that fishing effort and CPUE values were greater than those reported at the regional level, and also indicated that the discard rate was lower than in other Adriatic areas. Regarding ecological effects, the two trophodynamic indicators that we applied showed a sustainable situation, but scenarios of possible changes in environmental or fishing effort conditions highlighted the proximity of the stock to the unsustainability threshold. Our findings suggest the need for an adequate management strategy to cope with possible future changes in population boundaries and conditions

Reducing unwanted catches of trammel nets: experimental results of the “guarding net” in the caramote prawn, <em>Penaeus kerathurus</em>, small-scale fishery of the Ligurian Sea (western Mediterranean)

“…In the present study, discards were dominated by the grey swimming crab, L. vernalis. the presence of this species in the discards of trammel nets employed on coastal sandy bottoms has been widely documented (Rossetti et al 2006, Grati et al 2015, Pranovi et al 2016. The grey swimming crab is an important faunistic element of the species assemblages of the shallower coastal bottoms; its catchability is highly variable, being influenced by factors such as sea conditions, water transparency and the current regime.…”

Biology and fisheries of the spotted flounder (Citharus linguatula) caught by multiple gears with partial spatiotemporal overlaps

“…Other studies in the Mediterranean and southern Europe have also demonstrated that different fleet segments may exploit different fractions of a stock (e.g. Martin et al, 1999;Erzini et al, 2003;Fabio et al, 2016). While size is the parameter most commonly examined, differences in other biological parameters have been documented for common cuttlefish caught by trawls, nets and traps in the northern Adriatic Sea (Bettoso et al, 2016).…”

Pots as alternative and sustainable fishing gears in the Mediterranean Sea: an overview

“…Whereas a given pot design is usually developed to target one main species and a small number of accessory species (Pranovi et al 2016;Grati et al 2018), analysis of our dataset disclosed that a species is often targeted by more than one type of pot. In fact, pots can differ by several technical parameters, each of which potentially affects catch efficiency.…”