Suchergebnisse

A lo largo de las últimas dos décadas, las pesquerías de merluza y crustáceos en el caladero atlántico marroquí se han caracterizado por una drástica caída en la actividad de las flotas comunitarias, en particular de las flotas de arrastre, así como por la fuerte expansión de las pesquerías nacionales marroquíes. Aunque ambos hechos se enmarcan en el fenómeno de crisis mundial en el acceso a los recursos externos y de desarrollo de las pesquerías de los países ribereños de África noroccidental, los acuerdos de pesca comunitarios con el Reino de Marruecos se han caracterizado por una especial dureza y un tratamiento discriminatorio de las flotas comunitarias en las condiciones de acceso a los recursos, a la vez que por la debilidad de los planteamientos negociadores de la Comunidad Europea. A pesar del estado de sobrexplotación o explotación plena de los stocks de merluza europea Merluccius merluccius L., 1758 y gamba blanca Parapenaeus longirostris (Lucas, 1846) detectado por los grupos de trabajo de la FAO, la competencia entre las flotas marroquíes y comunitarias parece ser la razón básica de las restricciones de los acuerdos que han adolecido de un objetivo conservacionista real inutilizando la labor de investigación y gestión pesquera desarrollada por los organismos internacionales. ; During the last two decades, the hake and crustacean fisheries in Moroccan Atlantic fishing grounds have been characterised by the severe decline in the activity of fleets from the European Union, in particular its trawling fleets, and by the strong expansion of domestic fisheries. Although both factors can be viewed within the framework of the world-wide crisis in access to external resources and of fisheries development in northwest African coastal countries, the EU's relationship with the Kingdom of Morocco regarding fishing issues has been characterised by special harshness on the part of the latter and a discriminatory treatment of EU fleets in conditions for accessing resources, as well as the EU's weak approach to ...

The latest Green Paper on the EU Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) identified the high level of discards in Europe as one of the structural weaknesses of the current CFP. The new CFP introduces a discard ban in European waters, with an obligation to land all regulated species. The fishing management system in the Mediterranean is based on effort control and technical measures, and this is raising some particular concerns about the effective implementation of the discard ban. With the exception of bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus, Scombridae), there are no quotas in the Mediterranean and this regulation affects all regulated species with the minimum landing size. Under these circumstances, the discard ban may lead to an increase in the amount of juvenile fish caught, because such catches are not counted against a given quota, as is the case in the Atlantic fisheries, and thus, there is no incentive to avoid catching them. On the contrary, the obligation to land the juveniles that are now discarded and their subsequent fishmeal processing might even become commercially interesting. One possible consequence of the new regulation may be an increase in the illegal marketing of fish below the minimum size. The landing, storage and transportation of juveniles will all be legal, and this may simplify their commercialization via the black market. The discard ban and landing obligation should be accompanied by other measures to ensure their successful implementation, including the agreement of the fishing sector to comply with the rules and regulations ; Versión del editor ; 5,8000

Discarding is considered globally among the most important issues for fisheries management. The recent reform of the Common Fisheries Policy establishes a landing obligation for the species which are subject to catch limits and, in the Mediterranean, for species which are subject to Minimum Conservation Reference Size (MCRS) as defined in Annex III to Regulation (EC) No 1967/2006. Additionally, several other initiatives aim to reduce unwanted catches of target and bycatch species, including species of conservation concern. This raises the need to study discarding patterns of (mainly) these species. In this work we collated a considerable amount of historical published information on discard ratios and lengths at discarding for species caught in EU Mediterranean bottom trawl fisheries. The main aim was to summarize the available historical records and make them more accessible for scientific and managerial needs, as well as to try identifying patterns in discarding. We show discard ratios and lengths at which 50% of the individuals were discarded (L50) for 15 species (9 bony fishes, three crustacean decapods, and three elasmobranchs). Discard ratios were usually low for target species such as hake, red mullets and highly commercial shrimps and exemptions from the landing obligation under the de minimis rules could be sought in several cases. Discard ratios were usually higher for commercial bycatch species. Discarding is affected by a combination of factors and for a given species, especially for non-target ones, discards are likely to fluctuate within a fishery, across seasons, years, and regions. For most species considered, L50s were lower than the MCRS (when in place) and length at first maturity. L50s of target species, such as hake, were very small due to the existence of market demands for small sized individuals. However, for species of low demand, like horse mackerels, a higher retention size was observed, often exceeding MCRS. Lengths at discarding are affected by legal provisions, market demands but ...