Assessing Knowledge Gaps and Management Needs to Cope With Barriers for Environmental, Economic, and Social Sustainability of Marine Recreational Fisheries: The Case of Spain

Abstract

Este artículo contiene 14 páginas, 4 figuras. ; The European Parliament is concerned about the lack of information on the relevance of nine million Europeans engaged in marine recreational fishing (MRF), committing Member States to encourage environmental and socioeconomic sustainability of the sector. The objective of this paper is to provide recommendations to guide research actions and management policies, based on the case of Spain, a key country because its complex administrative regimen and the intensive use of its coasts, including 900,000 recreational fishers. A review of the state of the knowledge was performed to identify research gaps, while governance challenges were identified in an International Symposium on MRF. In the last two decades research on MRF was remarkable (139 publications). However, public investment in research (€2.44 million in the same period) should be improved to cover knowledge gaps on socioeconomic relevance, on impacts on vulnerable species and on implications of global warming. The license system should be standardized to allow estimation of effort, catch and expenditure. Social networks, mobile applications, fisher ecological knowledge, and citizen science programs could help to develop cost-effective research and management. Sciencebased, adaptive policies should improve the allocation of resources between MRF and other stakeholders, introducing co-management to reduce conflicts. ; This work received funds from the Xunta de Galicia under the modality of Grupos de Referencia Competitiva (Grant ED431C2019/11), RECREGES I and II projects under Grants ED481B2014/034-0 and ED481B2018/017, and SICORE project, funded by the Fundación Biodiversidad, Ministerio para la Transición Ecológica, Gobierno de España, Pleamar program, which is cofounded by the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund. SV acknowledges the financial the European COST Action "Ocean Governance for Sustainability – challenges, options and the role of science," the ICES Science Fund Project "Social Transformations of Marine Social-Ecological Systems," and the CYTED program for the ECOMAR Network. JP-F received funds from the project "Governance challenges for sustainable small-scale fisheries: creating synergies with marine conservation and tourism" (GOBAMP II, CSO2013-45773-R), financed by Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of Spain. JA was supported by a JDC postdoctoral research grant funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness (ref. IJCI-2016-27681) and a Ramon y Cajal Grant funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (grant no. RYC2018-024488-I). ; Peer reviewed