Recreational fishing on the West coast of the Northern Adriatic Sea (Western Mediterranean) and its possible ecological implications

Abstract

The marine recreational fishing (MRF) represents one of the most popular activities along the coasts of numerous countries around the world, in particular in the Mediterranean Sea. Despite the evidences of potential effects on the marine biodiversity and commercially exploited stocks, a sound information base and adequate management plans are still lacking, both at the national and basin level. An analysis of the MRF on the West coasts of the Adriatic Sea was carried out, in 2014, by using a standardized questionnaires approach, aiming to describe the state of the art and to preliminarily assess catches, in comparison with the commercial ones, at the regional scale. Gilt-headed seabream, European seabass, cuttlefish, squid and Atlantic bluefin tuna resulted the anglers' preferred species, even if the top five in term of caught biomass were bluefin tuna, seabream, cuttlefish, common dolphinfish and little tunny, in the order (accounting up to 60% of total catches). The exploitation level resulted to be significant, as confirmed by the comparison with commercial fisheries, being the MRF captures 30% or 45% of the artisanal fishery in the same area, with some species, such as bluefish, bonito, pandora and picarel, showing larger values. The preliminary assessment of ecological effects, highlighted that the exploitation use about 10%-16% of energy fixed by the primary production (Primary Production Required to sustain fishery), but the ecosystem effects are still sustainable (Lindex and probability to be sustainable fished). However, combining catches by MRF with those by small scale fishery completely changes the situation, showing an unsustainable condition, suggesting the need for taking into the account also MRF in the future management planning for the Adriatic coastal area

Ecological, Social and Economic Aspects of Italian Marine Spearfishing Tournaments (2009-2020)

“…The total biomass extracted in ten years, in the competitions examined here (5.7 tons) seems negligible with respect to that measured in recent studies. For example, Pranovi et al (2016) estimated the total biomass extracted annually from all recreational fisheries along the Italian northern Adriatic Sea to be between 287 and 465 tons. Obviously this value represents all recreational fishing harvesting, but offers, anyway, a baseline for comparison.…”

The commercialization and use of exotic baits in recreational fisheries in the north‐western Mediterranean: Environmental and management implications

“…In the Mediterranean Sea, recreational fishing is an important growing activity, representing more than 10% of total fishery production in the area [European Commision (EC), ; Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), ], and its potential impact on marine biodiversity is increasingly being recognized (Coleman, Figueira, Ueland, & Crowder, ; Font & Lloret, ). Despite growing scientific interest in this activity over the last few decades (Herfaut, Levrel, Thébaud, & Véron, ), a sound information base and adequate management plans are still lacking, and the emerging and potential indirect ecological impacts on the marine ecosystem of certain aspects of this activity have not, thus far, been taken into account (Pranovi, Anelli Monti, Caccin, Colla, & Zucchetta, ).…”

Charter fishing in the Aegean Sea (Turkey), Eastern Mediterranean: The missing point of fisheries management

“…Boat recreational fishing activity is related to favourable weather conditions, with summer and autumn being the most preferred in the Mediterranean (Pranovi et al, 2015). While Pranovi et al (2015) did not mention any reason other than weather conditions for the seasonality, Font and Lloret (2014) reported that fish diversity and accessibility to fish stocks influence the activity period. In the present study, charter fishing in the Aegean region also showed seasonality, but with the particularity that this decreased during the summer.…”

“…Their management plays an important role in the protection of marine resources from overfishing and other associated negative anthropogenic impacts (Mueller et al, 2008;Pranovi et al, 2015). It has been reported that anglers can positively influence the conservation of natural resources, and contribute to increased management success by complying with developing regulations (Arlinghaus, 2006;Cardona and Moralis-Nin, 2013;Nguyen et al, 2013).…”