A Technical Review Document on the Ecological, Social and Economic Features of the South Western Waters Region
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
MEFEPO Making the European Fisheries Ecosystem Plan Operational A technical review document on the ecological, social and economic features of the South Western Waters region EC FP7 project # 212881 Work Package 1 TECHNICAL REPORT A technical review document on the ecological, social and economic features of the South Western Waters region. Goikoetxea1, N., Aanesen2, M., Abaunza1, P., Abreu3, H., Bashmashnikov4, I., Borges3, M.F., Cabanas1, J.M., Frid5, C.L.J., Garza6, D., Hily7, C., Le Quesne8, W.J.F., Lens1, S., Martins4, A.M., Mendes3, H.V., Mendoça4, A., Paramor5, O., Pereiro1, J., Pérez6, M., Porteiro1, C., Rui Pinho4, M., Samedy8, V., Serrano1, A., van Hal9, R. and Velasco1, F. 1. Instituto Español de Oceanografia (Spain) 2. Universitetet i Tromsø (Norway) 3. Instituto de Investigaçao das Pescas e do Mar (Portugal) 4. Universidade das Açores (Portugal) 5. University of Liverpool (UK) 6. Universidad de Vigo (Spain) 7. Université de Bretagne Occidentale (France) 8. CEFAS (UK) 9. Wageningen IMARES (The Netherlands) 1 CONTENT 0. Summary 1. Overview of the South Western Waters region 1.2 Ecological environment 1.2.1 Physical and chemical features 1.2.1.1 Topography and bathymetry of the seabed 1.2.1.2 Hydro-physical characteristics 1.2.1.3 Spatial and temporal distribution of salinity 1.2.1.4 Spatial and temporal distribution of nutrients and oxygen 1.2.1.5 pH and CO2 profiles 1.2.2 Habitats 1.2.2.1 The predominant seabed and water column habitat types 1.2.2.2 Special habitat types 1.2.2.3 Habitats subject to specific pressures 1.2.3 Biological features 1.2.3.1 Communities associated with seabed and water column habitats. 1.2.3.2 Angiosperms, macro-algae and invertebrate bottom fauna 1.2.3.3 Fish populations 1.2.3.4 Marine mammals and reptiles 1.2.3.5 Seabirds 1.2.3.6 Species subject of Community legislation or international agreements 1.2.3.7 Exotic species 1.2.4 Other features 1.2.4.1 Toxic contamination 1.2.4.2 Non-toxic contamination 1.2.5 What constitutes “Good Ecological Status”? 1.2.5.1 Good environmental Status (GES) 1.2.5.2 Generic approach to develop a framework that determines GES 1.2.5.3 Application of the framework 1.3 Human activities 1.3.1 What they are/Where they occur 1.3.1.1 Shipbuilding 1.3.1.2 Ports and maritime transport 2 1.3.1.3 Fisheries 1.3.1.4 Offshore energy 1.3.1.5 Coastal and maritime tourism 1.3.1.6 Exploitation of mineral resources 1.3.1.7 Aquaculture 1.3.1.8 Recreational, aesthetic and cultural uses 1.3.2 The intensity of those activities 1.3.3 How the human activities are likely to develop 1.4 Socio-economic environment 1.4.1 The Institutional Governance Setup of Fisheries Management in the South Western Waters 1.4.1.1 Introduction to the EU Institutional Setup for Fisheries Management 1.4.1.2 History and Performance of the Common Fisheries Policy 1.4.1.3 EU level Institutions and Actors 1.4.1.4 Institutions and Actors at Regional EU Seas Level 1.4.1.5 The Member State Level 1.4.1.6 Characteristics of the Common Fisheries Policy Governance System 1.4.2 Selected Reforms of the Current EU Fisheries Governance System 1.4.2.1 Providing a Level Playing Field for the Industry across EU 1.4.2.2 Making the Decision-Making Process more Participatory 1.4.2.3 Restructuring the Scientific Advice System relating to the CFP 1.4.3 Management tools 1.4.4 Socio-economic considerations 1.4.5 French fishing fleet 1.4.6 Spanish fishing fleet 1.4.6.1 Spanish purse seiner fishery 1.4.6.2 Spanish mixed demersal fishery 1.4.7 Portuguese fishing fleet 1.4.8 Azorean fishing fleet 2. Interactions between the ecosystem and fisheries case studies 2.2 Description of the fisheries case studies 2.2.1 Purse seine fishery 2.2.2 Mixed demersal trawl fishery 2.2.3 Mixed demersal line fishery 3 2.3 Description of the ‘Social and Ecological Component by Pressure matrix ’ 2.3.1 Socio Economic variables in the Matrix 2.3.1.1 Background 2.3.1.2 Socio-economic variables 2.3.1.3 Background variables and variable correlations 2.3.2 Biological variables in the Matrix 2.3.3 Reading the SECPM 2.4 Social and Ecological Component by Pressure matrix 2.4.1 Purse seine fishery 2.4.2 Mixed demersal trawl fishery 2.4.3 Mixed demersal line fishery 2.5 Ecological Matrix elements supporting evidence 2.5.1 Purse seine fishery 2.5.1.1 Habitats 2.5.1.2 Plants 2.5.1.3 Invertebrates 2.5.1.4 Vertebrates 2.5.1.5 Other groups 2.5.2 Mixed demersal trawl fishery 2.5.2.1 Habitats 2.5.2.2 Plants 2.5.2.3 Invertebrates 2.5.2.4 Vertebrates 2.5.2.5 Other groups 2.5.3 Mixed demersal line fishery 2.5.3.1 Habitats 2.5.3.2 Plants 2.5.3.3 Invertebrates 2.5.3.4 Vertebrates 2.5.3.5 Other groups 2.6 Synergetic effects of the case study fisheries with other human activities 2.6.1 Purse seine fishery 2.6.2 Mixed demersal trawl fishery 2.6.3 Mixed demersal line fishery 4 2.7 Models of fishing effects on the ecosystem 3. What people think 3.2 What consultations have been done in the regions 3.3 Stakeholder impressions 3.4 Stakeholder preferred management tools and regimes 3.5 Linkages between the ecological, economic and social perspectives on the system 4. Conclusions 5. References 6. Appendix 1: Socio-economical variables 7. Appendix 2: Questionnaire POs’ perceptions (Spanish model) 5 0. Summary This document gives an overview of present knowledge of the South Western Waters Region ecosystem and the human activities that affect it, with a specific focus on three fisheries case studies, their impact and economic perspective, the institutional governance setup for fisheries management and a vision on human activities. It is recognised that much of the information and knowledge currently available to develop an ecosystem approach to fisheries management in Europe is not being used effectively as it is so widely dispersed (Connoly and Rice). The aim of this Work Package was to integrate the existing knowledge on ecological and socio-economical issues in the South Western Waters region. In order to understand the ecological and physical processes that occur in the marine environment in this area, as well as to understand the degree of alteration produced by the impact of human activities, it is necessary to review the existing data concerning the locations, extensions and distribution of the habitats. In this regard, chapter one gives an overview of this knowledge starting in the first section with a description of the physical and chemical features of the northeastern Atlantic area (from Brittany as the northern limit, down to the Strait of Gibraltar to the south, including also the ultraperiferic regions of Madeira, Azores and Canary Islands) that form the conditions within which the biological features have evolved and depend upon. These biological features are described next, from benthic and algal communities to the fish communities and the marine mammals and sea birds. The second section describes the human activities occurring and impacting the South Western Waters environment. It gives an overview of the activities already occurring in the study area and the impacts caused by those activities, and it finishes with a future perspective for the different activities. Chapter one finishes with the description of the socio-economic environment. This section focuses on the management around fisheries on a European scale, but with specific attention for western European issues. It provides an overview of the different management tools used to control the fishery activity. These tools can be divided into three overarching groups; input (e.g. area and time restrictions) and output (e.g. TACs and discard regulations) management, as well as economic incentive mechanisms (e.g. Individual tradable quotas and subsidies). This is followed by an overview of the socio-economic considerations of European fisheries and communities depending on the main fisheries in each of the case studies. Chapter two focuses on three fisheries case studies in the South Western Waters Region. These case studies are chosen based on their importance in the area, their likely impact on the environment and due to data availability of these fisheries. The first case study focuses mainly on the Spanish and Portuguese purse seine fishery in SWW which, targets on small pelagic species such as sardine, anchovy, mackerel and horse mackerel. The second case study is the mixed demersal trawl fishery, which focuses mainly on Spanish and Portuguese trawl fishery targeting hake and horse mackerel, as well as French Nephrops mixed trawl fishery. The last case study focuses mainly on the Azorean demersal line fishery; whose dynamic seems to be controlled by black spot seabream, in spite of being a multispecies, multigear and multifleet fishery. Following the description of these fisheries case studies, it was tried to combine the impacts of these fisheries case studies with the effect of socio-economic component on an extended list of ecological components (e.g. habitats, food web, all individual components 6 of the food web etc.) in a matrix presentation scheme. This Social and Ecological Component by Pressure Matrix (SECPM) provides an overview of the interactions between the fishery and various components of the fishery system, ecological and socio-economic.