Past, present and future of small-pelagic fisheries in the north-western Mediterranean Sea through fishers’ perceptions

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• dc.contributor.author Ortega, Miquel
• dc.contributor.author Mohamed Santamaria, Sara
• dc.contributor.author Zografos, Christos
• dc.contributor.author Mascarell-Rocher, Yesmina
• dc.contributor.author Coll, Marta
• dc.contributor.author Sbragaglia, Valerio
• dc.date.accessioned 2025-03-13T11:50:26Z
• dc.date.available 2025-03-13T11:50:26Z
• dc.date.issued 2025
• dc.description Includes supplementary materials for the online appendix.
• dc.description.abstract Fisheries have transformed significantly in recent decades, and further changes are anticipated to address pressing environmental and social challenges. In this context, there is an urgent need to implement science-based public policies that incorporate local knowledge. It is necessary to better assess fishers’ perceptions, including both historical (e.g., perceived changes of abundance of species) and future (e.g., views on potential future changes) perspectives. In this paper, we focus on a case study of small-pelagic fisheries in the Spanish northwestern Mediterranean Sea, using semi-structured interviews, graphical analysis, and a Q-methodology. Based in the information obtained from all the active purse seiners vessels in Castelló de la Plana, the most important Spanish Mediterranean small pelagic purse seine harbour, we show how these methodologies are useful for gathering fisher’s knowledge regarding historical biomass trends for small pelagic and accompanying species over the last six decades, contributing valuable information on periods where no scientific assessments were available. When looking towards the future, Q-methodology reveals three fisher discourses regarding how to ensure the future sustainability of fisheries: (i) "We don’t need more subsidies we need more fish," (ii) "We need more public support for fishing," and (iii) "The future of the fishery it’s not in our hands". These three perspectives highlight internal disagreements about what should be the priorities for implementing public policies. However, results also show consensus that the implementation of adaptive management measures can be of common interest, and that bottom trawling activities should avoid juveniles and spawning ground of small pelagic fish.
• dc.description.sponsorship This study is a contribution to SEINE-ETP project (Ocean Stewardship Fund MAVA Grant). VS is supported by a “Ramón y Cajal” research fellowships (RYC2021-033065-I) granted by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. The authors acknowledge partial funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 grant agreement No 101059877 (GES4SEAS). This work acknowledges institutional support of the “Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence” accreditation (CEX2019-000928-S) to the Institute of Marine Science (ICMCSIC).
• dc.format.mimetype application/pdf
• dc.identifier.citation Ortega M, Mohamed Santamaria S, Zografos C, Mascarell-Rocher Y, Coll M, Sbragaglia V. Past, present and future of small-pelagic fisheries in the north-western Mediterranean Sea through fishers’ perceptions. Mar Policy. 2025 Jan;171:106490. DOI: 10.1016/j.marpol.2024.106490
• dc.identifier.doi http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2024.106490
• dc.identifier.issn 0308-597X
• dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/10230/69931
• dc.language.iso eng
• dc.publisher Elsevier
• dc.relation.ispartof Marine Policy. 2025 Jan;171:106490
• dc.relation.projectID info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EC/HE/101059877
• dc.relation.projectID info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/2PE/CEX2019-000928-S
• dc.rights © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).
• dc.rights.accessRights info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
• dc.rights.uri http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
• dc.subject.other Indústria pesquera -- Mediterrània, Mar
• dc.subject.other Mediterrània, Mar -- Política pesquera
• dc.title Past, present and future of small-pelagic fisheries in the north-western Mediterranean Sea through fishers’ perceptions
• dc.type info:eu-repo/semantics/article
• dc.type.version info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion