RECREATIONAL FISHERIES IN THE MEDITERRANEAN BASIN: FAO ACTIVITIES

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RECREATIONAL FISHERIES IN THE MEDITERRANEAN
BASIN FAO ACTIVITIES

• Cassandra De Young
• FAO/GFCM
• 1st Congress on Recreational Angling in the
  Mediterranean
• 20-22 September, 2006
• Palma de Mallorca

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INTRODUCTION

• Brief Presentation of the FAO Fisheries
  Department and GFCM w.r.t. Recreational Fisheries
• Thoughts on the potential role of the FAO
  Fisheries Department in developing sustainable
  recreational fisheries

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A PARTIAL GLANCE AT THE FAO FISHERIES DEPARTMENT
and RECREATIONAL FISHERIES
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Note not an hierarchical representation!
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1a FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible
Fisheries and its Technical Guidelines

• Recreational Fisheries are not explicitly
  mentioned in the CoC
• However, they are there implicitly
• And are explicitly included in three CoC
  Technical Guidelines for Responsible Fisheries
• Fisheries Management
• Precautionary Principle
• EAF

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Perhaps Recreational Fisheries merit their own
Technical Guidelines?
RECREATIONAL FISHERIES
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1b One Stand-alone Activity

• The State of the Worlds Marine Capture Fisheries
  Management
• Questionnaire on Legislative and Management
  Frameworks
• Large-scale/Industrial
• Small-scale/Artisanal/Subsistence
• Recreational/Sports/Spear fishing
• Management Management tools in use
• Costs and funding of fisheries management
• Stakeholder involvement in fisheries management
• Conflict Management
• Compliance and Enforcement
• Capacity Management
• of different recreational fisheries included
• Indian Ocean 18 in 9/30 countries responding
• Pacific Ocean 45 in 18/29 countries responding
• Atlantic Ocean 2007
• Mediterranean, Black, and Caspian Seas 2007

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2 FAO FISHSTAT

• Official landings data collected are by species
  and water body not by fleet segment
• However, recreational fisheries landings are
  included in these data
• But, difficult to separate them out
• Visions of collecting data by fleet segments
• Perhaps meta-data approaches ? e.g. FIGIS

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3a FAO Regional Fishery BodiesEIFAC

• 1996 Symposium on social, economic, and
  management aspects of freshwater recreational
  fisheries
• 5 Sessions
• Current status and trends
• Interactions between fisheries and outside
  influences
• Interactions between fisheries and other user
  groups
• Socio-economic and legal aspects of recreational
  fisheries
• Criteria for the management of recreational
  fisheries

1998. Recreational Fisheries Social, Economic,
and Management Aspects. Edited by Phil Hickley
and Helena Tompkins. FAO.
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• Symposium Recommendations to EIFAC
• Improved data collection systems established with
  pre-defined criteria to provide comparable basic
  data - EIFAC Data collection Form
• Developed methods for the application of
  socio-economic value estimates
• EIFAC working party on communication and
  education should be established to improve
  communication amongst all players
• EIFAC working party on recreational fisheries to
  produce European Code of Good Practice for
  Recreational Fishing
• Symposium Recommendations to National Agencies
• Adopt integrated, sustainable, long-term approach
  to aquatic resource management
• Ensure that the true economic and social value of
  these fisheries be included in decision-making
  processes
• Monitor, evaluate, and adjust management
  strategies

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3b GFCM at a glance
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3b GFCM recent events w.r.t. recreational
fisheries

• 2005 Adopted the ICCAT measures for
  recreational fishing activities in the Med. Sea
• Loosely,
• Forbid the use of towed nets, encircling nets,
  seine sliding, dredgers, gillnets, trammelnet and
  longline to fish for tuna and tuna-like species
• Ensure that catches of said species are not
  marketed
• Collect and Transmit catch data

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3b GFCM activities (contd)

• 2006
• The International Angling Confederation (CIPS)
  joined the GFCM as an observer
• Became one of three priority research areas for
  the SCESS
• study the legislative and socio-economic aspects
  of recreational fisheries

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3b GFCM SCESS

• SCESS 2006 Proposed 2 priority areas to move
  toward a baseline understanding
• 1) an analysis of the legal frameworks regarding
  recreational fisheries amongst GFCM countries
• 2) an exploratory survey of the socio-economic
  status of recreational fisheries amongst GFCM
  countries.
• Sub-regional and other projects will help
  here.... e.g. AdriaMed, SFITUM, Italian CoCSF, EC
  Data Collection Regulation
• Thats all for past and recent activities...

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Potential (?) roles of the FAO in promoting
sustainable recreational fisheries

• At a global level
• Continue to provide international fora for
  exchange at both the technical and political
  levels
• Assist in bringing recognition of recreational
  fisheries to higher political levels at a global
  scale
• Develop FAO Technical Guidelines on Recreational
  Fisheries
• At the Mediterranean level
• Jointly organized symposiums (GFCM, EC,
  Associations, Universities, etc)
• Draft GFCM Code of Good Practice? Basin-wide
  norms
• Provide regional reviews and comparative analyses
• Undertake socio-economic analyses vis-à-vis ICCAT
  recommendations

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KIND THANKS!
www.fao.org