July 2001

GFCM/XXVI/2001/2


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FAO

GENERAL FISHERIES COMMISSION FOR THE MEDITERRANEAN

TWENTY-SIXTH SESSION

Lacco Ameno, Ischia, Italy, 10 - 13 September 2001

INTERSESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

 

 

1. The reporting on the intersessional activities is a standing item of the agenda for the sessions of the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) and includes activities of the Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) and of the Committee on Aquaculture (CAQ). As a detailed report on the conclusions and recommendations of the activities of SAC is given in document GFCM/XXVI/2001/3, the present paper is limited to a summary of the conclusions and recommendations endorsed by SAC after reviewing the activities undertaken and the major conclusions of the Working Groups and SAC Sub-Committees.

2. The mandate of SAC for the intersessional period is described in the paragraph 55 of the report of the Twenty-fifth Session and is reproduced in paragraph 7 of the Fourth Session of SAC (Athens, Greece, 4-7 June 2001).

ACTIVITIES OF THE SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY COMMITTEE (SAC)

3. The Fourth Session of SAC was held in Athens, Greece, from 4 to 7 June 2001. It was attended by 15 Members and observers from ICCAT and WWF.

4. The meeting reviewed the conclusions of its ad hoc Working Group meeting on the definition of Management Units in the GFCM area (Alicante, Spain, January 2001), the progress in the finalization of the Glossary and the conclusions and recommendations of its Sub-Committees and endorsed the following conclusions and recommendations of its subsidiary bodies.

Management Unit

5. The delimitation of the management units by the Working Group was based on the FAO statistical limits in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea with some modifications to meet requests of the GFCM Members.

6. A map and a list of proposed Management Units (30) were reviewed by the Committee. It agreed to a new proposal taking into consideration the Libyan suggestion to sub-divide its natural waters into three units. It was also agreed that limit between Tunisian and Algerian water should be dotted, awaiting further consideration by scientists from both countries. The Committee entrusted Jorge Baro from Spain to submit the new proposal to the Commission in its present session. The details of the discussion on this issue will be provided by the Chairman of SAC in his report to the Commission.

Operational Unit

7. The definition of the operational unit was discussed by SAC. Further analysis of the parameters required for the definition of the operational unit was felt necessary. The basic information related to economic structure in the table for submission on operational unit had yet to be identified.

Progress in the elaboration of the GFCM Glossary

8. A draft Glossary that included definitions related to stock assessment, marine environment and ecosystems and economic and social sciences was reviewed.

9. SAC recommended that a single document be finalized and presented for consideration by the Commission.

SAC Sub-Committees

Small Pelagics Species

Anchovy

10. Engraulis encrasicolus in Northern and Central Adriatic Sea: Considering the current levels of catches (25% of biomass) and the decrease of the biomass in 1996, it was recommended to maintain the current level of fishing effort. CPUE data updated to 1999 showed a trend of stock abundance similar to the previous years. Market opportunities should be investigated in order to find new markets for sardine which would reduce both discards of sardine at sea and fishing pressure on anchovy. Due to the potential danger of recruitment over-exploitation, the Committee recommended to set the minimum legal size to length at first maturity. The Committee adopted a specific recommendation concerning the catch of anchovy at a size below minimum length at first maturity. This is reproduced in paragraph 33 of the SAC report.

Horse mackerel

11. Trachurus trachurus in Central Aegian Sea: In view of the abundance index estimated during the previous years (1988 -1995), SAC recommended keeping fishing effort at the current level.

Bogue

12. Boops boops in Central Aegian Sea: SAC recommended keeping fishing effort at the current level until multi-gear assessment work was undertaken.

Demersals Species

Hake

13. Merluccius merluccius in the Gulf of Lions: The assessment of this stock showed a growth overfishing and a risk of recruitment overfishing. In order to correct it, SAC recommended the improvement of the fishing pattern of the trawl and the reduction of effort of all gears.

14. Merluccius merluccius in Eastern Ligurian-northern Tyrrenian: SAC recommended the following: (i) seasonal closures should be implemented in order to protect the highly concentrated and vulnerable individuals presently in the nursery areas; (ii) in order to drive the spawning biomas to a safer situation (currently it represents about 16% of the pristine biomass), a moderate reduction of 15% in effort was suggested; (iii) the mesh size currently in use result in catching very small size (8-9 cm), which was much lower than the legal size of the species. However, the adoption of a bigger mesh should lead to a slight improvement in Y/R for hake but contemporarily important losses as regards the catch of several other species that make part of the commercial package might occur; (iv) an increase in the size of first capture could also be obtained by self-regulation of the fleet, avoiding the fishing grounds where small hakes were concentrated or by enforcement of temporary or total closures of defined areas.

15. Merluccius merluccius in Aegian Sea: According to available data, the stock was defined as overexploited. In an attempt to protect as far as possible this stock, SAC recommended to enforce strongly the existing technical measures and regulations. Considering the existing closed season for demersal trawlers for four months in the Hellenic Seas and the spatial distribution of nursery grounds of this species, an improvement in the situation of this stock would be expected. In general, the reduction of effort and the increase of the selectivity of this species, avoiding the catch of small individuals was considered a priority for all hake stocks.

Red mullet

16. Mullus barbatus in Southern Ligurian-northern Tyrrenian: With the current level of exploitation there was a risk of depletion of this stock that should be taken into consideration. SAC recommended: (i) a total closure of the three mile coastal strip which was considered sufficient for the immediate protection of the juveniles after recruitment; (ii) settlement of artificial obstacles within the three mile strip to avoid illegal groundfish trawling; (iii) a seasonal closure during the period of post-recruitment could be theoretically efficient delaying the catch of newly settled individuals; (iv) a reduction in effort considered to be too high at present (v) as mesh size currently in use defined a length at first capture smaller than the legal size, the enforcement of area and temporary closures could determine an increase in the above-mentioned size that made unnecessary an increase in mesh size for the species.

17. Mullus barbatus in Aegian sea: SAC recommended the enforcement of current management measures, the application of which should reduce the mortality of juveniles in nursery areas, decreasing the exploitation level of the stock.

Red shrimp

18. Aristeus antennatus in the Balearic Islands: SAC recognized that the stock was over-exploited and expressed concern about the decreasing trend of biomass (current biomass represented about 10% of the estimated virgin biomass). In consequence, it recommended reducing the fishing effort targetting this species and to implement a harvesting rule based on the fishing mortality and biomass estimates.

19. Aristeus antennatus in the Alicante Gulf: SAC recommended to keep the present effort at its current level.

Large Pelagic Fishes

20. SAC took note of the Resolutions adopted during the intersessional period by ICCAT on management of large pelagic species. The Committee recommended that these recommendations be reviewed at the next Session of GFCM.

21. The Committee recommended the implementation of the Resolutions concerning the research programmes on bluefin tuna and swordfish at the level of the GFCM area.

Fisheries Statistics and Information

22. The Scientific Advisory Committee agreed:

Marine Environment and Ecosystems

23. Given recent and on-going developments concerning the ecosystem-based management concept, it is recommended to create a transversal Working Group that would involve specialists from the four SAC Sub-Committees.

24. SAC further recommended that:

Economic and Social Sciences

COMMITTEE ON AQUACULTURE

Activities

25. There was no meeting of the Committee on Aquaculture during the intersessional period under review. However, the recommendations of the last Session of the Commission concerning the work programme for the networks associated with the CAQ included an endorsement of activities that had been proposed by the second session of the CAQ and that could be implemented in the intersessional period, according to funds availability. These activities centered on three main groups; those related to SIPAM for aquaculture information systems; those pertaining to the area of work of SELAM on social, economic and legal aspects of aquaculture, and those related to TECAM, dealing with technical and biological aspects of aquaculture development.

26. The SIPAM activities requested by the last GFCM session referred to:

27. The activities listed have been implemented to the extent possible. The National Coordinators meeting took place in Istanbul, Turkey, from 9 to 12 November 2000 thanks to the generosity of the Italian Ministry of Agricultural Policies that covered the cost of travel of the participants and assistance of the Turkish government which covered the cost of local organization. The discussion included a progress report from the Regional Center in Tunis, the situation of the data bases in terms of records and quality of data, the pathology and marketing data bases on which there was little progress, a programme to improve the laws and regulations data base to be arranged with the collaboration of the FAO Legal Office, the distribution of the SIPAM for WINDOWS release 2.3, home page and brochure in new languages, and the situation of the budget.

28. This meeting was followed by a meeting of the SIPAM Steering Committee which took place in Rome, at FAO Headquarters on 17-18 May 2001. The Committee did set the priorities for the rest of the year taking into consideration the availability of funds and the contribution of the FAO Regular Programme.

29. In connection with the review of the platform and the software with the assistance of the FAO/FIRI Regular Programme, a contract was signed to finalize the Web page of SIPAM, including the possibility to browse the entire data base. The contract is due to be concluded shortly after this session of the GFCM. The data base on the web page will include only verified and confirmed records while the PC based system will continue to work to upgrade and complete the existing records. The Web page of SIPAM will also be linked to the central FIGIS system being developed by FAO, and new formats for reports will be produced in order to extract information from the various data bases and present it both in SIPAM and FIGIS.

30. The coordination for the establishment of the national networks has continued. Two meetings to establish the Italian internal network were held in December 2000 and February 2001 to ascertain the interest of the various institutions and to allocate responsibilities for the various data bases. In order to expand the system to cover all the GFCM countries, the Albanian Fisheries Department has been contacted through the ADRIAMED project to join SIPAM. Contacts have also been started with Syria and Bulgaria after the re-organization of their fisheries sector.

31. Regarding the TECAM and SELAM activities, the last sessions of CAQ and of GFCM had recommended to give priority to activities with higher regional value, and to follow the indications of the Consultation on the Adoption of Article 9 of the FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries in the Mediterranean Region. The activities retained for implementation in the intersessional period, subject to the availability of funding, were:

32. At the last SIPAM National Coordinators meeting in Istanbul, it was decided that the workshop on data bases on marketing of aquaculture products, which affects also the two data bases on imports and exports of SIPAM, would have to await the results of the concerted action programme MASMANAP, funded by the EC. It was thus agreed that the participation of the SIPAM Regional Center staff to the last meeting of the MASMANAP project would be opportune to decide on the future course of action on these topics (see below for participation to the MASMANAP project final meeting). Therefore the continuation of this work will be discussed after the next meeting of the national coordinators.

33. The TECAM Advanced Course on Fish Breeding Programmes, took place in Zaragoza, Spain, from 2 to 6 April 2001. The course was attended by 32 experts from 11 countries (Albania, Egypt, France, Greece, Italy, Malta, Morocco, Spain, Tunisia, Turkey and United Kingdom). The main objective of the course was to acquaint participants with the principles and elements underlying genetic improvement programmes. The course focused on the two main Mediterranean cultured finfish species, namely European sea bass and gilthead sea bream.

34. The organization of the Consultation on Capture and Culture Fisheries Interactions that was proposed at the last session of the GFCM has commenced, in collaboration with the ADRIAMED project. This activity, which required a longer preparation than the other activities of the programme, due to its special characteristics, will be concluded in 2002.

35. The TECAM Advanced Course on Mediterranean Offshore Mariculture, was held in Zaragoza (Spain), from 28 May to 2 June 2001 using the facilities available at the CIHEAM-IAMZ. A total of 28 experts from 13 countries (Brazil, Croatia, Egypt, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Morocco, Romania, Spain, Tunisia, Turkey and USA) took part in the course. The course intended to provide participants with the most recent knowledge available on offshore mariculture, with special emphasis on the Mediterranean situation, and it included sessions on status of offshore farming, site evaluation, systems review, net technology, management, and economics.

36. The TECAM Survey on Mediterranean Aquaculture Diagnostic Laboratories is a continuation of the various activities on fish health management carried out by the TECAM network. The survey has been organized by the International Centre for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies through the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Zaragoza (CIHEAM-IAMZ) and with the collaboration of the FAO Fisheries Department. Three questionnaires have been prepared and distributed to previously identified laboratories, and about 50 survey replies have been received till now, from key public and private laboratories in different Mediterranean countries (i.e. Croatia, France, Greece, Israel, Italy, Malta, Morocco, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Tunisia and Turkey). Following the analysis of the survey replies, a directory of Mediterranean laboratories working on diagnosis of fish and shellfish diseases is under preparation and will be published as a special volume of the CIHEAM journal Options Mediterranéennes. The publication will also include a reference report about existing diseases and pathogens and their incidence and distribution in Mediterranean aquaculture.

37. The Seminar on Seafood Market Studies for the Introduction of New Aquaculture Products was held in Zaragoza, Spain, from 21 to 22 June 2001. The seminar was planned as a joint activity between the EU Concerted Action project MASMANAP (Methodology for seafood market studies with the aim of introducing new aquaculture products) and the SELAM Network. It was organized as a concluding event of MASMANAP (a project of 30 months duration), to disseminate its results and also as a continuation of previous activities of the SELAM Network in the field of marketing and economics. The Seminar aimed to review the evolution of the main European seafood markets. Research priorities were identified. Fifty experts from 13 countries (Albania, Belgium, Cyprus, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Morocco, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Tunisia, Turkey and United Kingdom) participated in the seminar.

EIFAC PROPOSAL

38. The GFCM Secretary received a request from the EIFAC Secretariat proposing the setting up of a GFCM/EIFAC Working Group on Sturgeon to cover the Danube, the Black Sea and the Caspian and Adriatic Seas. The Committee agreed, in principle, to the proposal and requested the Secretariat to consult with GFCM Member countries bordering the Black Sea and which were not represented at the SAC Session before submitting it to the Commission. It is hoped that the Commission will be informed about the reaction of those countries during its Session in September.

SUGGESTED ACTION BY THE COMMISSION

39. The Commission is invited to take note of the activities undertaken by GFCM during the intersessional period and to advise about actions to be taken by Member States and by its subsidiary bodies.

40. The Commission is also invited to review the conclusions and recommendations submitted by its subsidiary bodies and to endorse those it may consider opportune.

41. The Commission may also consider the EIFAC proposal for the setting up of a Joint GFCM/EIFAC Working Group on Sturgeon, should its Member countries from the Black Sea consider such a proposal acceptable to them.