Fishing method and species:

Pelagic trawls net, called locally “Volante”, towed by a single or a couple of vessels (in this case the gear is called “Volante a coppia”). Species targeted are Anchovy and Sardine.

What is the discards problem?

Pelagic trawlers have good selection patterns for the target species. However, unwanted by-catch is produced when fishermen are catching juveniles or large quantities of target species just above the minimum conservation size, which is a product with no market value. In both cases, the unwanted catch is discarded at sea.

What activities did the MINOUW project carry out?
  • Understanding fish discarding practices.
  • Promoting the participation of the fishermen in the definition of the transnational management plan, in order to define spatial and temporal measures which can help avoiding unwanted catches.
  • Promoting the participation of fishermen in the stakeholders fora, like MEDAC.
What outcomes were expected?
  • To understand what factors lead to discarding practices.
  • To foster fisheries involvement in the process of defining the most effective transnational management plan in the region (EC Adriatic Small Pelagic Multiannual plan; MAP) to mitigate the impact of the Landings Obligation in their activity.
Results

PDFs summaries of results can be downloaded here once they are available.