ARIEL project cod.278 WPT2 “Pilot activities for transnational and regional networking” Act.2.2 SSF AND AQ R&D TRANSNATIONAL BEST PRACTICES CATALOGUE Type of Document Public use Authors Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries (IOF) in cooperation with Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR), University of Montenegro – Institute for Marine Biology (IMBK) and National Research Centre (CNR-ISMAR) Work Package: WPT2 Pilot activities for transnational and regional networking Deliverable T.2.2 Version and date Final version - March 2020 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS ARIEL PROJECT .................................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined. INTRODUCTION...............................................................................................................5 GOOD PRACTICE EXAMPLES IN GREECE ................................................................ 8 GOOD PRACTICE EXAMPLES IN CROATIA…………………………………………………………….14 GOOD PRACTICE EXAMPLES IN MONTENEGRO .................................................. 27 GOOD PRACTICE EXAMPLES IN ITALY ............................................................. …..30 2 THE ARIEL PROJECT Small-scale fisheries and aquaculture are emergent sectors and represent key drivers for the sustainable growth of Adriatic-Ionian communities. Beside their socio-economic importance, these sectors are composed of several micro-companies, providing an atomized entrepreneurial landscape and tending to be marginalized in decision-making processes. Small-scale fisheries and aquaculture are currently facing common challenges: key enabling technologies, capacity creation, improved technological, and market researches for more cost-effective and sustainable solutions, resources co- management, science-based policies, improved biological and production data collection and assessment, viability and sustainability of ecosystem function. Under these premises, ARIEL project co-financed by the INTERREG VB ADRION Programme 2014-2020 (https://www.adrioninterreg.eu/), aims to promote technological and non-technological solutions for innovation of small-scale fisheries and aquaculture among scientists-policy-makers-entrepreneurs, acting as a knowledge network and considering in a single frame the complex ecological, economic and societal challenges. ARIEL will develop capacity-building actions for policy makers for the adoption of a science-based approach to improve resources co-management and develop appropriate supporting schemes to stimulate actors clustering. Project activities will lead to strategic and operational guidelines to promote open innovation in SSF and AQ led by research institutes, facilitated by policy makers, endorsed by entrepreneurs and recognized by consumers. ARIEL promotes the up taking in small-scale fisheries and aquaculture of open innovation led research, facilitated by policy and endorsed by operators involving multiple-skills organizations from Italy, Croatia, Montenegro and Greece able to strategically/operationally tackle the complex challenges of small scale fisheries and aquaculture sectors growth in the Adriatic-Ionian Region and able to identify key innovation drivers for policy and research as well as ensure project results durability and transferability. 3 The ARIEL partnership is composed by 8 scientific and institutional organizations from 4 Countries: Lead Partner: CNR-IRBIM Ancona (IT) Marche Region, Region of Sicily (IT) Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries (HR) Public Institution RERA SD for Coordination and Development of Split Dalmatia County (HR) Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (GRE) Region of Western Greece (GRE) Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MEN) University of Montenegro – Institute for marine biology (MEN) Project duration: 30 months (1.1.2018-30.06.2020) Project budget: € 1 249 234.50 4 INTRODUCTION Unlike fast-growing aquaculture sector, where all scientific results and innovations are quickly integrated into business, the situation is quite different in small-scale fisheries (SSF). This fisheries sector is still largely traditional and continues to operate within framework as it was hundreds of years ago. Mediterranean fisheries have existed since ancient times, so the current fisheries pattern is the result of this long history, rather than the outcome of a specific management policy (Matić-Skoko, 2018). For most commercial species, a significant feature is that juvenile fish support most of the fishery. The mean annual landings have been around 1.5 million tons in the last decade. Mediterranean fishing production represents a limited proportion of the world production, which is about 100 million tons. But, on the other hand, the average price of the products of this activity, intended almost exclusively to be consumed when fresh, are five to ten times higher than those in most other regions of the world. Besides, from the European point of view, Mediterranean fishing is far from being marginal, since it represents nearly 20% by weight and 35% by the value of the Community's fishery production. From a socio-economic point of view, fishing activities in the Mediterranean employ several hundreds of thousands of persons. Mediterranean fisheries are highly diverse and vary geographically, not only because of the existence of different marine environments, but also because of different socioeconomic situations. Concerning the catch in recent years, countries that mostly contribute to the total landing in 2014 for the Mediterranean Sea are Italy (177,019 t), Spain (78,467 t), Croatia (78,928 t), Greece (no data), France (15,076 t), Cyprus (1,249 t), Malta (2,403 t) and Slovenia (247 t) (FAO, 2015)2, all EU member states while just small proportion fall on African Mediterranean countries. The only innovations in SSF sector are the modernization of vessels and fishing tools and techniques. Of course, there is also the use of modern fish tracking devices such as echo- sonders, sonars, GPS, ... Therefore, it is difficult to find good practice examples of transferring research results and innovations to SSF. In this sector, it is interesting to diversify the activity in which fishermen turn to fishing tourism as an additional activity during the period when the catch of fish is poor or when it is not allowed to use certain fishing gears or fish in an area. And then there is the sale of their own fish without the extra links in sale chain inside their own fish markets or to serve it directly at their restaurants. ________________________________ 1 Matić-Skoko, 2017. 3. Mediterranean fisheries in a framework of new Common Fisheries Policy (CFP): Challenges and opportunities. In: “Trends of Fisheries and Aquatic Animal Health” Bentham e-book, pp: 85-101, DOI: 10.2174/97816810858071170101; eISBN: 978-1-68108-580-7, 2017; ISBN: 978-1-68108-581-4 2 FAO, 2015. FAOSTAT. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome, Italy. 5 In general fisheries management in the Mediterranean is at a relatively early stage of development, judging by the criteria of North Atlantic fisheries (Papaconstantinou and Farrugio, 2000). Quota systems are generally not applied, mesh-size regulations usually are set at low levels relative to scientific advice, and effort limitation is not usually applied or, if it is, is not always based on a formal resource assessment. Despite this, there has been some progress towards management by means of closed seasons and areas, which has provided positive results (Di Franco et al., 2016). The fisheries legislation of the different Mediterranean countries contains a great variety of conservation/management measures which can be broadly separated into two major categories: those aiming to keep the fishing effort under control and those aiming to make the exploitation patterns more rational. The first set of measures is based on restrictions imposed on the number or fishing capacity of the vessels, rather than on catch limits and control of discards and by-catches, upon which the fisheries policy in the Atlantic mostly relies. Among these measures, some aim at preventing the expansion of the number of fishing vessels through a licensing system, and can be characterized as direct, while other measures aim at placing upper limits on the fishing capacity of individual vessels, through engine power and tonnage limitations, and can be characterized as indirect. The second set of measures is based on provisions concerning gear specification, gear deployment, fishing practices or techniques, fishing seasons or areas, and resource exploitation patterns, which are commonly known as technical measures and such type of management is characteristic for the Mediterranean. For sure multiple control methods have to be used wherever possible and closed areas should be used to buffer uncertainty. They highlighted that these closed areas must be large and exclude all principal gears to provide real protection from fishing mortality and to be really effective. Generally, collected scientific fisheries data on the state of the stocks and related issues have to be more reliable because the fishing industry need to have a better and more stable basis for long-term planning and investment, for example, when regime changes reduce productivity in response to climatic fluctuations. It is expected that this have to safeguard resources and maximize long-term yields. Reliable and up-to-date information about the state of marine resources is essential to support sound management decisions as well as effective implementation of the reformed