Recreational Fishing Within Marine Protected Areas In the Mediterranean COLLECTION Recreational Fishing Within Marine Protected Areas in the Mediterranean Toni Font, Josep Lloret & Catherine Piante Include a legal warning if relevant Publication lead: WWF-France, Port-Cros National Park Copyright: © WWF-France, Port-Cros National Park Reproduction of this publication for educational or other non-commercial purposes is authorized without prior written permission from the copyright holder provided the source is fully acknowledged. Reproduction of this publication for resale or other commercial purposes is prohibited without prior written permission of the copyright holder. Citation: Font T., Lloret J., Piante C. 2012. Recreational fishing within Marine Protected Areas in the Mediterranean. MedPAN North Project. WWF- France. 168 pages. ISBN 979-10-92093-03-2 9791092093032 This work is dedicated to the memory of our friend Coordination: C. Piante, N.Gérardin and J.P. De Palma and colleague, Alex Lorente, marine biologist at the English translation: Francis Boyle Marine Reserve of Costa del Montgrí, Illes Medes & Layout: Si Disseny, S.C. Baix Ter, who died recently. We hope our work contri- Produced by: WWF-France www.wwf.fr butes in some way to consolidating the task of marine Cover photo credit: Toni Font © conservation to which Alex, with enormous enthu- Available from: www.medpan.org siasm, dedicated his working life. November 2012 2 COLLECTION RECREATIONAL FISHING WITHIN MARINE PROTECTED AREAS IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 3 COLLECTION Editors Authors The WWF is the largest global conservation organisation Toni Font & Josep Lloret – University of Girona It has more than 5 million donors throughout the world. > www.udg.edu The organisation has an operational network in 100 countries offering 1,200 nature pro- tection programmes. WWF’s mission is to halt and then reverse the process of degra- dation of the planet > [email protected] > > www.wwf.fr > [email protected] The MedPAN North project is a transnational European project whose general aim is to improve the effectiveness of the management of the marine protected areas of the north Mediterranean. It is conducted under the auspices of the MedPAN network and is coordinated by the WWF-France. It unites 12 partners from 6 European countries that Catherine Piante - WWF France border the Mediterranean: Spain, France, Greece, Italy, Malta and Slovenia. The project is co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund Med Programme, and has a > [email protected] budget of €2.38 million. The project began in July 2010 and will end in June 2013 > www.medpannorth.org Port-Cros National Park is a marine, coastal and insular national park. It was established in 1963 and is the first national marine park created in Europe. Financial support > > www.portcrosparcnational.fr MED Programme The MED Programme is a European transnational cooperation programme in the fra- mework of the «territorial cooperation» objective of the European Union’s cohesion > www.programmemed.eu Generalitat de Catalunya Departament d’Agricultura, Ramaderia, Pesca, Alimentació i Medi Natural The Generalitat is the institutional system in which the self-government of Cata- lonia, Spain, is organized. It manages several parks, including marine protected areas. 4 COLLECTION RECREATIONAL FISHING WITHIN MARINE PROTECTED AREAS IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 5 COLLECTION Acknowledgements We would like to thank all the managers, technicians and scientists in the marine pro- tected areas for their involvement to this work through their valuable input via question- naires and email. We are especially grateful for the continuous support we have received from Catherine Piante (North MedPAN project coordinator) and Nicolas Gerardin (Parc National de Port-Cros). The generous assistance provided by Catherine Piante and Jean Pierre de Palma (WWF-France) enabled us to contact all the MPAs very efficiently. We also thank Alessandra Accornero (Chargée de mission MER du GIP des Calanques), Eric Charbonnel (Parc Marine de la Côte Bleue), Jérôme Payrot (Reserve marine de de Cerbère-Banyuls), Sandra Cariou (Agence des Aires Marines Protégées) and Gauthier Verbeke (Forum des Aires Marines Protégées), for their helpful comments and corrections regarding an earlier draft of this document. We are also grateful to Milena Tempesta and Rita Marino (WWF Italy; Riserva Naturale Marina di Miramare), and the Agence des Aires Marines Protégées (France) who, from the beginning of our project, have generously offered us their collaboration in collecting data. 6 COLLECTION RECREATIONAL FISHING WITHIN MARINE PROTECTED AREAS IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 7 5.8.3 Profession.............................. ......................................................................................................................................................67 5.8.4 Fishing experience (expertise).................. ....................................................................................................................................68 5.8.5 Origin................. ..........................................................................................................................................................................71 5.8.6 Fishing alone or in company?.................... ...................................................................................................................................71 5.8.7 Most commonly-used kind of vessel for recreational fishing.................... .....................................................................................72 5.8.8 The fishermen’s perspective................ .........................................................................................................................................73 Table of contents 5.8.9 Conflicts between recreational fishermen and other users................ ............................................................................................75 5.8.10 Recreational fishing associations or federations ................ ........................................................................................................76 5.8.11 Environmental education.................. ..........................................................................................................................................78 5.9 Economic aspects............... .........................................................................................................................................89 5.9.1 What is the economic importance of recreational fishing at the local, regional or national level?............ .......................................89 1.Summary ............. .........................................................................................................................................................10 5.9.2 How much do fishermen spend on fishing?............. .....................................................................................................................91 2.Introduction................. ...................................................................................................................................................11 5.9.3 A different economic approach (Contingent Valuation Method and Travel Cost Method)............ .....................................................93 2.1 The importance of recreational fishing worldwide.............................................................................................. 12 5.10 Regulation and legislation......... .................................................................................................................................94 2.2 What is the role of the Marine Protected Areas (MPAs)?........... .....................................................................................12 5.10.1 European Regulations.................. ..............................................................................................................................................94 2.3 Definitions of Recreational Fishing.............. .................................................................................................................13 5.10.2 National legislation................ .....................................................................................................................................................94 2.4 The main environmental impacts associated with recreational fishing ........................ .................................................15 5.10.3 Regional regulations................ ..................................................................................................................................................96 2.5 Interaction with commercial fishing.............. ................................................................................................................15 5.10.4 How is each MPA regulated?............. .........................................................................................................................................96 5.10.5 Specific Regulations in MPAs........... ..........................................................................................................................................98 3. Objectives....... ................................................................................................................................................................16 5.11 Other non-legislative documents................. .............................................................................................................100