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FAO-AdriaMed Seminar o Ribolovnom Kapacitetu
24-25/10/2002 -
Fano -
Italy |
Over the last few years, the issue of excess fishing capacity has received a lot of attention worldwide. It follows from decades of effort to deal with the degradation of fish stocks and the related issue of overexploitation without due consideration being paid to the direct or indirect effect of fleet capacity. Fishing capacity can be defined for a given fleet as the amount of fishing effort that can be produced over a given period of time (e.g. a year) under full time utilization (i.e. assuming normal utilization, unrestricted by catch or effort constraints). Excessive fishing capacity, in the form of excess fleet size leads to economic waste. If catches are not regulated or poorly regulated, it may also lead to the degradation of fishery resources and the dissipation of food production potential. The impact of excessive fishing capacity on the biological and economic condition of many fisheries throughout the world has been a matter of growing concern.
Although the use of the term fishing capacity is increasingly widespread, its definition varies among countries and institutions and the related assessment and management aspects are not always familiar. In the Adriatic region, as well as in the whole Mediterranean, the issue of fishing capacity is relatively new.
The relevance of the fishing capacity issue is often referred to and highlighted in the FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries. References to it may be found in several Articles of the Code such as Article 6 (at section 6.1, 6.3), Article 7, which deals specifically with Fisheries Management. (7.1.8, 7.2.1, 7.2.2, 7.4.3, 7.6.3, 7.6.5). The International Plan of Action for the Management of Fishing Capacity was developed on this basis and adopted by COFI in 1999.
Fishery management is one of the components of the AdriaMed Project and the fishing capacity issue is regarded as a relevant aspect. This topic was discussed during the last meeting of the AdriaMed Coordination Committee (Tirana, Albania, 21-23 November 2001). It is specifically addressed in paragraphs 63, 64 and 65 of the adopted report (AdriaMed Technical Documents TD.7).
Consequently, AdriaMed organized a Seminar on Fishing Capacity Definition, Measurement and Assessment. The Seminar was run together with the staff from the Fishery Policy and Planning Division of FAO and it also focused on the characteristics of Mediterranean fisheries. The participants were fishery biologists, economists, managers and representatives of the fishery associations. |
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PUBLICATION: |
FAO AdriaMed |
AdriaMed Seminar on Fishing Capacity: Definition, Measurements and Assessment.
(Fano, Italy 24-25 October 2002). |
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GCP/RER/010/ITA/TD-13 (AdriaMed Technical Documents n°13).
2004.
119 pp.
-6,5 Mb-. |
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Keywords:
fishery management - fishery policy - fishing effort - fishing vessels - shared stocks |
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Abstract |
The AdriaMed Seminar on Fishing Capacity was held at the Laboratory of Marine Biology and Fisheries, Fano, Italy on 24th and 25th October 2002. The Seminar aimed at familiarising experts from several fields related to fisheries in the Mediterranean to the issue of fishing capacity, its definition, measurement, assessment and related management options. The concepts of capacity utilization and target capacity, overcapacity and overcapitalization were introduced and clarified, together with the meaning of capacity under-utilization. In a context such as Adriatic fisheries, appropriate fleet segmentation is essential for capacity assessment. An important step is the establishment of a proper comparative monitoring system in the Adriatic Sea region, based on correct segmentation of the fleet and also accounting for the important issue of polyvalent vessels. Given the multi-species and multi-gear nature of the Adriatic Sea fisheries, one of the management options to resize the fishing capacity would be to redirect the effort, however the estimation of capacity is possible only as a total and not for a single species. Examples of fishing capacity appraisal were provided through case studies from the English Channel, the Mediterranean and Adriatic Sea’s fisheries.
To assess effective fishery management plans it is important to know the fleet size and structure, the potential output from the current fleet and the target management objectives, considering both biological and economic parameters. The Seminar reviewed possible ways to manage fishing capacity, all of which aim to contrast free and open access to fisheries. Healthy fisheries in an area such as the Mediterranean and Adriatic can only result from careful collaborative management with the sharing of national information at all levels.
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