Line of action:

Status:

Execution date:

General Objective:

The Zepamed II project gives continuity to Zepamed and pursues the integration of the fishing sector in the future management of marine SPAs in the Mediterranean, promoting its participation in the development of tools that give value to birds and minimise the problems arising from their interaction with fishing. The gears on which the focus is placed are the bottom longline and the palangrillo.

Specific objectives:

• To advance in the knowledge of the accidental catches of seabirds through an estimation of the fishing effort for bottom longlines and palangrillos, focusing on the marine SPAs of the Levantine-Balearic Marine Demarcation.
• Work with the fisheries sector to raise awareness and promote good management of the Natura 2000 Network.
• To enhance the role of fishermen in monitoring tasks, sharing successful experiences and providing simple and adaptable tools to minimize accidental catches, and to publicize the possibility offered by seabirds as a resource to promote fishing tourism.

The project achieved the proposed results with the following results:

• The fishing tactics or methods used by small gear and bottom longline vessels from Catalonia, the Valencian Community, the Balearic Islands and the Region of Murcia were identified, differentiating those susceptible to accidentally catching seabirds. For Catalonia, the number of vessels and fishing effort for bottom longlines and billets was calculated based on auction data from 194,960 fishing trips between 2016-2018 and 2004-2005. In this period, the number of vessels fell by almost a third and fishing effort fell by 32% in bottom longlines and palangrillo, and by 10% in gillnets, increasing by 38% in octopus pots. The fishing effort varied considerably between vessels and ports in Catalonia.

• It was estimated that currently the demersal longline (billet and bottom longline) accidentally captures around 1,000 birds a year in Catalonia and represents a decrease of 56% compared to the data of 15 years ago.

• Fishermen from the four autonomous communities reported a total of 193 accidentally caught birds, most of them in the palangrillo (75.6%). The most caught species were the “small” shearwaters (Puffinus) (46.6%), the great cormorant (16.6%) and the Cory’s shearwater (16.1%). In the palangrillo, a greater number and diversity of species were captured, while the fixed and paranza nets mainly captured diving birds, such as cormorants and grebes.

• An international workshop for the exchange of experiences was held with the participation of experts and fishermen from Ecuador and representatives of the Albatross Task Force BirdLife International, with a great reception from local fishermen.

• Progress was made in the development and fine-tuning of mitigation measures, especially the rapid draft system, with the use of a “Nisuri” bait concealment tube.

It is worth highlighting the work of the project in media aimed at the fishing sector, especially with the preparation of a guide for the identification of seabirds designed as a tool for fishing tourism, and with the dissemination in magazines in the fishing field. Overall, the work carried out has a growing acceptance and recognition by the fishing sector, which is becoming increasingly aware of the importance of birds and, in particular, of the problem of bycatch, and shows great interest in getting involved in the search for solutions, to be developed in the context of the Natura 2000 Network as a first step. However, the great diversity of gears and the idiosyncratic nature of the craft sector, accompanied by significant year-on-year variability, make it difficult to comprehensively assess and implement standardized measures across the fleet, so it is important to continue advancing the work from the local perspective.