EIFAC Inland fisheries TECHNICAL of Europe PAPER 52 Suppl. by William A. Dill Davis, California, USA Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations Rome, 1993 The designations employed and the presentation of material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. M-40 ISBN 92-5-103358-7 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. Applications for such permission, with a statement of the purpose and extent of the reproduction, should be addressed to the Director, Publications Division, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, 00100 Rome, Italy. © FAO 1993 PREPARATION OF THIS DOCUMENT In response to the recommendation of the European Inland Fisheries Advisory Commission (EIFAC) to present a synthesis of the state of inland fisheries in Europe, the first volume (EIFAC Technical Paper No. 52) and this supplement have been prepared by the author. The summaries for the nine countries that follow represent material which was not incorporated into the first volume because of delays in response from the governments concerned. This supplement volume is based on a version approved by the concerned countries circa 1985, recently published literature, and the author's overall knowledge of the countries. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In the first volume of EIFAC Technical Paper No. 52, issued by FAO in 1990, thanks were extended to the EIFAC National Correspondents, as well as to others, who aided in its preparation. To this list, the following names should be added to thank those EIFAC Correspondents and others whose response to queries by the EIFAC Secretariat helped prepare this second volume: Mr N. Nechev (Bulgaria), Mr J.E. Brachet (France), Mr D.M. Kostakopulos (Greece), Mr F.J. Mota (Portugal), Prof. Dr N. Bacalbaşa- Dobrovici (Romania), Dr M. Elegido (Spain), Dr B. Hölmberg (Sweden), Dr J.W. Banks, Mr A.V. Holden, Miss J. Mitchell, Mr R.J. Pedlow, Mr B. Stott, Mr A. Swain and Mr R.B. Williamson (United Kingdom). I am also grateful to the following for their aid in sending me information which has been used in preparing this supplement, or in helping me to view some of their fisheries personally: Dr K. Andersson (Sweden), Mr J. Allardi, Dr D. Babin, Dr M.G. Castelnaud, Mr R. Charpy, Mr P. Chimits, Dr D. Viard and Mr P.F. Vivier (France), Mr J.S. Alabaster, Mr I.R.H. Allen, Dr A.J. Brook, Mr E.D. Le Cren, Mr F.T.K. Pentelow and Mr K.A. Pyefinch (United Kingdom). Again, I am particularly grateful to Dr R.L. Welcomme, Chief, Inland Water Resources and Aquaculture Service of the Fisheries Department of FAO, and present Secretary of EIFAC, and Mrs R. Sola and Ms S. Borghese, also of the Fisheries Department of FAO, who have aided materially in the preparation of this supplement. Distribution: FAO Fisheries Department FAO Regional Fisheries Officers Directors of Fisheries EIFAC Mailing List Author Dill, W.A. Inland fisheries of Europe EIFAC Technical Paper. No. 52 Suppl. Rome, FAO. 1993. 281 p. ABSTRACT This document presents a summary of the geographical, historical, technical and institutional infrastructure of inland fisheries in the following European countries: Albania, Bulgaria, France, Greece, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom. Information is set out in a standardized format for ease of comparison. The document completes the information provided in EIFAC Technical Paper No. 52, which refers to: Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Finland, Germany, (Fed. Rep. of), Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, San Marino, Switzerland, Turkey, Yugoslavia. CONTENTS Page Albania 1 Bulgaria 17 France 35 Greece 79 Portugal 107 Romania 128 Spain 151 Sweden 179 United Kingdom 213 Summary and Conclusion 273 General References 277 Errata to Technical Paper No. 52 279 ALBANIA The Republic of Albania, the smallest and least developed country in Eastern Europe, combines a narrow semi-tropical coastal fringe on the Mediterranean with an interior of rugged mountains and remote valleys. Primarily pastoral and agricultural, industrialization has been slow even under its economy, which has been controlled but is now shifting to a market economy. Albania's contacts with its neighbouring countries have been slight for many years, an information on its fisheries is not well known to either EIFAC or FAO1/. At present, one can only say that Albania's inland fishery resources are primarily those of its larger lakes, shared with Greece and former Yugoslavia, and that there is also a fishery potential in its reservoirs and coastal brackish waters. 1/ Albania has long been a land of mystery to the rest of Europe. For example, in 1790 its citizens were considered to be strange or even unknown by Lorenzo da Ponte, Mozart's librettist for Così Fan Tutte. K. Hassert's observation of 1898 on Albania still holds: “Das laud is weniger bekannt als weite Gebiete von Africa”. Prophetically, in 1914, Saki wrote: “Affairs [in Albania] are beginning to take a very serious turn.” In short, especially since the country is now in a state of flux, to quote Anon (1989), “We confess to not knowing much about Albania” 1. AREA: 28 748 km2 2. POPULATION: 3 388 000 (est. 1990) Density: 118 inh/km2 3. PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY Albania extends along the western lateral of the Balkan Peninsula, between 39° and 43°N, latitudes and 19° and 21°E longitudes, opposite the heel of the Italian boot. Its greatest N-S extent is 346 km; its greatest E-W extent is 145 km. Its altitudinal range is from sea level to 2 764 m. The average elevation is 708 m, and two-thirds of the country is over 900 m. Albania, with a frontier of 1 204 km, is bounded by former Yugoslavia on the north and east for 476 km, Greece on the south and southeast for 256 km, and the Mediterranean Ocean (Adriatic and lonian Seas) on the west for 472 km. About 64 km of its former Yugoslavian border follows river courses; and 65 km of this border is within lakes. With respect to its Greek border, about 19 km are along rivers and 7 km within lakes2/. 2/ These figures derived from (Albania) Dir. des Stat. (1981) differ somewhat from those in the Yugoslavian and Greek statistical yearbooks (see the accounts for those countries) Albania consists essentially of a coastal plain (about 20 percent of the country) backed by a mass of rugged high mountain ranges. In the extreme north, the highlands consist of the steep North Albanian Alps of highly eroded limestone and deep inaccessible valleys. The central highlands have a western portion of soft rocks, mainly sandstones, penetrated by wide river valleys, and an eastern portion which is primarily a high serpentine zone. The latter, a continuation of the western former Yugoslavian Dinaric range, is almost impassable. In the extreme south, limestone ranges again occupy the highlands, meet the sea, and continue south into Greece as the ranges of Epirus. The lowland area, predominantly of clays, sands, and gravels, lies along an irregular coast, 48 km at its widest point. Crossed by low limestone ridges running from the mountains to the coast, it is divided into a series of poorly drained once malarial plains separated by spurs and traversed by roughly parallel rivers. The coast, which is building into the sea, is flooded during the rainy season and snowmelt, and is bordered by marshes. The densest Albanian forests occur in the north, but elevation as well as latitude determines the forest cover. Thus, Mediterranean vegetation such as scrub oak, olive, and maquis is found along the coast and in the south. Oak forests are found on the lower slopes above the xerophytic zone of maquis and extend far inland. They are replaced by beech forests on the higher and moister ranges, alternating with pine forests on the drier subsoils. Above tree-level (1 600–2 000 m) the peaks and ridges have Alpine vegetation. Meadows replace conifers in the higher mountains. Limestone is the predominant under-rock, although many valleys are floored with sandstones and clays, and the central range has much igneous rock and serpentine. Much of the soil cover has been stripped off and deposited as alluvial fans and deltas. Albania's coastline is well indented, but lacks islands and has few good harbours. Durrës (Durazzo) is the major port and there are three minor ones. The northern two- thirds of the coast, fringed with turbid, siltladen waters, is characterized by large rivers and deltas. Its shore lands are flat with lagoons and brackish swamps. The southern third has a narrow coastal plain with shorter rivers and clearer waters. 4. CLIMATE The climate ranges from Mediterranean on the coast to continental in the interior. In the southern coastal lowlands, the average annual temperature is 16.6°C, the coldest month (January) averages 8.9°C, and the warmest month (July) 25°C. Corresponding temperatures for the northcentral uplands are: 10.5°, 1.1° and 21.1°C, respectively. Inland temperatures vary more with elevation than latitude. The winters are short but cold, with snow on some mountains until August. There is little frost in the lowlands but it is heavy in the mountains. The highland lakes are frozen but freezing is rare along the coast.