ISSN 2070-7010 FAO 656 FISHERIES AND AQUACULTURE TECHNICAL PAPER 656 Implementation of the ecosystem Implementation of the ecosystem approach to fisheries for purse seine in Lebanon: baseline report approach to fisheries for the purse seine fisheries in Lebanon Baseline report This document F AO COVER PHOTOGRAPH: ©FAO/CLAUDIA AMICO FAO FISHERIES AND Implementation of the AQUACULTURE TECHNICAL ecosystem approach to PAPER fisheries for the purse seine 656 fisheries in Lebanon Baseline report Manal R. Nader Director - Institute of the Environment Associate Professor - Faculty of Arts and Sciences University of Balamand Lebanon Shadi El Indary Instructor Marine and Coastal Resources Program Institute of the Environment University of Balamand Lebanon Manale Abou Dagher Fishery Resources Officer Marine and Coastal Resources Program Institute of the Environment University of Balamand Lebanon Marcelo Vasconcellos Fishery Resources Officer Marine and Inland Fisheries Branch (FIAF) FAO Rome, Italy Samir Majdalani Former Head of Department of Fisheries & Wildlife Directorate of Rural Development & Natural Resources Ministry of Agriculture Lebanon Mark Dimech Senior Fishery and Aquaculture Officer FAO Abu Dhabi Imad Lahoud Agricultural Engineer - Head of Department Department of Fisheries & Wildlife Ministry of Agriculture Lebanon FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS Rome, 2020 Nader, M.R., El Indary, S., Dagher, M.A., Vasconcellos, M., Majdalani, S., Dimech, M. & Lahoud, I. 2020. Implementation of the ecosystem approach to fisheries for the purse seine fisheries in Lebanon – Baseline report. FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Technical Paper No. 656. Rome, FAO. https://doi.org/10.4060/ca7533en The designations employed and the presentation of material in this information product do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) concerning the legal or development status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The mention of specific companies or products of manufacturers, whether or not these have been patented, does not imply that these have been endorsed or recommended by FAO in preference to others of a similar nature that are not mentioned. The views expressed in this information product are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of FAO. 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The original [Language] edition shall be the authoritative edition.” Disputes arising under the licence that cannot be settled amicably will be resolved by mediation and arbitration as described in Article 8 of the licence except as otherwise provided herein. The applicable mediation rules will be the mediation rules of the World Intellectual Property Organization http://www. wipo.int/amc/en/mediation/rules and any arbitration will be conducted in accordance with the Arbitration Rules of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL). Third-party materials. Users wishing to reuse material from this work that is attributed to a third party, such as tables, figures or images, are responsible for determining whether permission is needed for that reuse and for obtaining permission from the copyright holder. The risk of claims resulting from infringement of any third-party-owned component in the work rests solely with the user. Sales, rights and licensing. FAO information products are available on the FAO website (www.fao.org/ publications) and can be purchased through [email protected]. Requests for commercial use should be submitted via: www.fao.org/contact-us/licence-request. Queries regarding rights and licensing should be submitted to: [email protected]. iii Preparation of this document The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the University of Balamand (UOB), Institute of Environment (IOE), with the agreement of the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA), started the implementation of a pilot case study on the ecosystem approach to fisheries (EAF) in Lebanon in 2016, within the framework of the FAO Mediterranean Project EastMed (“Scientific and Institutional Cooperation to Support Responsible Fisheries in the Eastern Mediterranean”). The pilot case study focuses on the purse seine sardine fishery (PSSF) in Lebanon that harvests small pelagic fish, specifically sardines which are assumed to be the main target species. The case study was funded by the FAO–EastMed project and implemented in collaboration with the MOA and FAO Lebanon. One of the first steps in the pilot case study was the elaboration of an EAF-Baseline Report (EAF-BL), which is presented in this publication. The objective of the EAF-BL is to complete the EAF planning phase by defining the scope of the case study. The EAF- BL is a document that outlines the available information on the PSSF that can assist with the rest of the EAF management planning process. It documents all relevant information about the fishery, the species and geographical areas covered in the case study, the socio- economic profile of the fishery and the institutional arrangements for its management. iv Abstract The objective of the EAF baseline report was to provide the necessary baseline information to pilot an EAF on the PSSF in Lebanon. This decision was based on the advances that the country has made in the fisheries sector in the past decade which paved the way for the introduction of the latest management approaches in fisheries. In-depth background research on the PSSF was undertaken by the Marine and Coastal Resources Program at the Institute of Environment, University of Balamand (MCR-IOE-UOB) which covered national and regional documents deemed beneficial for the project objectives. Additional documents and information were provided by the EastMed Project and, at national level, by the Directorate of Fisheries and Wildlife (DFW) within the MOA. These documents included material relating to the laws regulating the PSSF, the number of fishers and vessels, the size of the catch and the species caught, etc. Through regular meetings and constant exchange of information between project partners, this report documents all the available and relevant material on the PSSF in Lebanon, including the species caught, the geographical areas covered by the case study, the socio-economic profile of the fishery and the current institutional arrangements for its management. v Contents Preparation of this document iii Abstract iv Abbreviations and acronyms vii 1. INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 The Mediterranean Sea 1 1.2 The Lebanese coast 2 1.3 The ecosystem approach to fisheries 4 2. OVERVIEW OF THE FISHERY AND EXPLOITED RESOURCES 5 2.1 Lebanese fisheries overview 5 2.2 Fishing gear used and areas fished 5 2.3 Importance of the fishery to the local/national/regional economy 7 2.4 Available knowledge on the status of fisheries resources 10 2.5 Legal and administrative frameworks 17 2.6 Management measures 24 2.7 Main stakeholders 25 3. THREATS TO FISHERIES SUSTAINABILITY 27 3.1 Threats to ecological well-being 27 3.2 Threats to community (human) well-being 27 3.3 Ability to achieve 28 4. CONCLUSIONS 29 5. REFERENCES 31 Annex I 35 1 Status reports 35 2 Catch and effort initiatives 35 3 Stock assessment and biological studies 36 4 Historical fish catch reconstruction 37 5 Socio-economic initiatives 37 6 Capacity building and awareness raising initiatives 37 Annex II 41 Total and main characteristics of the Lebanese fishing fleet in 2011 41 Annex III 43 FLOUCA Web 43 vi FIGURES 1 Mediterranean Sea and the Geographical Subareas of the 1 General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean 2 The continental shelf of Lebanon 3 3 Comparative comparing purse seiners and other categories of gear 10 4 Fishing harbours where catch/effort data is collected by the MCR–IOE–UOB 35 Plates 1 Sardina pilchardus 12 2 Sardinella aurita 13 3 Engraulis encrasicolus 13 TABLES 1 Fishing gear in Lebanon 6 2 Comparison between total catch in North Lebanon and the purse seine 8 fishery from 2011 to 2013 3 Comparison between total catch and the purse seine fishery in Lebanon for 9 2014 to 2015 4 List of fish species caught (in tonnes) by purse seiners (6–12 m) in 2014 11 5 List of fish species caught (in tonnes) by purse seiners (>12 m) in 2014 12 6 Mediterranean top five landings for 2009, 2010 and 2011 13 7 Clupeidae purse seine fishery in North Lebanon from 2010 to 2013 14 8 Clupeidae and Sardinella aurita caught by purse seines in Lebanon in 2014 15 and 2015 9 Laws and regulations related to the fisheries sector in Lebanon 18 10 Public authorities with mandates related to the fisheries sector 22 11 Lebanon Draft Fisheries Law 23 12 Management measures 24 13 Stakeholders involved in the fisheries sector 25 14 Values for number of vessels, engine power (hp), length overall (m), fishing 41 days, fuel consumption (LL 1 000), volume of landings (t), value of landings (USD 1 000) and employment onboard.