Fishing method and species:

Co-management was explored in a boat seine fishery, the transparent goby fishery that operates in Mallorca during winter months, in which the fishermen themselves changed the incentive of maximizing catches by maximizing profit.

Survival assessment and species composition of the discarded fraction of the catch was also studied to determine how many and which of them will be subject to the LO.

What is the discards problem?

All species are affected by a lack of qualitative data on catches and by-catch, with the by-catch consisting mostly of undersized fish.

What activities did the MINOUW project carry out?

The experiments aimed to assess three different points:
1. To evaluate the fishermen’s perception of how the co-management plan is working.
2. To have a better knowledge of the fishery when proposing new measures for sustainable regulation of the fishery.
3. Assessment survival of the discarded fraction is important for the management of the resource.

 

What outcomes were expected?
  • Co-management was explored in a boat seine fishery, the transparent goby fishery that operates in Mallorca during winter months, in which the fishermen themselves changed the incentive of maximizing catches by maximizing profit.
Results

The balanced relationship between the fishermen’s initiative and the administrative regulatory capacity is necessary to maintain the community voice of the fishermen for the collective purpose of keeping the fishery sustainable. Ignoring post-release mortality is a relevant concern for the transparent goby fishery provided that this fishery is managed based in the CPUEs from the previous month (Morales-Nin et al., 2017) .

For a full summary of results download the PDF here: (692kb)