CABFishMAN
Conserving Atlantic Biodiversity by Supporting Innovative Small-Scale Fisheries co-Management
Welcome on the website of my Professional Practice that focused on assessing the economic value of fishing grounds operated by small-scale fleets, as part of the CABFishMAN project.
About the CABFishMAN project
CABFISHMAN is an international project aimed at improving the protection of the marine environment and marine resources in the Northeast Atlantic. The project seeks to establish an ecosystem-sensitive approach to management of small-scale fisheries in the area by engaging small-scale fisheries and facilitating a collaborative approach between stakeholders.
My Professional Practice
Institute presentation
My Professional Practice took place in Mieres del Camino, in the Asturias, Spain.
I was working at the INDUROT, which stands for 'Institute of Natural Resources and Territorial Planning'. This institute is a centre of the University of Oviedo and is characterized by its interdisciplinary approach in promoting the common participation of professionals from various fields: from experimental and social sciences to humanities and engineering.
I was supervised by Laura Garcia de la Fuente, who is the coordinator of the economics of natural resources and the environment department of INDUROT and who is specialised in the artisanal fishing fleet in Asturias, its characterization and its socio-economic importance.
In total, my PP lasted 8 weeks.
Study area
The Principality of Asturias is a region of the north Spain which has around 335 km of shoreline along the Cantabrian Sea. The diversity and richness of the Cantabrian fishing grounds have favored the historical settlement of a great number of coastal communities and encouraged the development of an important fishing fleet, distributed along 19 fishing harbors (García-de-la-Fuente et al., 2013).
My mission
My work there has mainly been focused on the assessment of changes in métiers used by the Asturian Small-Scale Fleets (SSF) from 2009 to 2018. But first, let's learn more about the Asturian SSF.
Artisanal or small-scale fisheries are often defined as small capital exploitations that develop their activity in inshore waters, so within a few hours from the ports where the fishers are based (Colloca et al., 2004).
Its fishing patterns are characterized by the use of diversified fishing gears targeting a great variety of species and frequent changes in gears and techniques to maximize profitability (García-de-la-Fuente et al., 2013).
Fleet characterisation
Although there is no a specific definition of artisanal fisheries, regional experts and fishing administration of Asturias agree to consider as artisanal at least those vessels registered as “Artes menores” in the National Census of the Operating Fishing Fleet.
This fleet comprised 233 vessels in 2010 (71% of the total regional fleet) with an average length of 8.8 m, an average capacity of 4.6 GT, an average engine power of 51.8 kW and 2.1 crewmembers per boat (García-de-la-Fuente et al., 2013).
Methodologies
Reading articles
Sample selection, data analysis and application of criterias on Excel
Use of R to create chord diagrams
The analysis
The selected sample was composed of 103 vessels that have been active in between the years 2009 and 2018. The vessels are mostly registered in the 'Artes Menores' (small-scale) license type. Some of them were registered as 'Palangre de Fondo' (bottom longline) or Cerco (seiner) which are sometimes authorized to fish in onshore waters and therefore can be considered as small-scale. The boats'lengths are comprised between 5.71m and 26.64m and have a Gross Tonnage capacity comprised between 1.12GT to 89.36GT and a power capacity between 16kW to 410 kW.
Also, regarding the data, they do not include private ship identifiers (such us names, codes, etc.) and respect data protection, confidentiality and anonymity issues.
Once the sample has been selected, the aim of the analysis I had to perform was to focus on the inter-annual changes of métiers in between 2009 and 2018.
According to Deporte et al. (2012), a métier is a group of fishing operations targeting a specific assemblage of species, using a specific gear, during a precise period of the year and/or within the specific area.
In the Asturias, the SSF operated 16 different métiers during the study period. You can visualise these métiers in the image carousel on the left. I left, on purpose the names of the métiers in Spanish but can can also find the translations to english in the collapsible box below.
List of Asturian métiers
Angula pesca profesional = Professional eel fishing
Anzuelo para caballa = Mackerel rod-hook
Beta salmonetera = Red mullet gillnet
Betas = Hake gillnet
Cacea caballa = Mackerel trolled hooks
Cerco = Seiner
Cerco de chicharron = Purse seiner
Extraccion de algas de fondo = Deep seaweed extraction
Miños = Monkfish trammel net
Nasas marisco = Spider-crab trap
Nasas pulpo = Octopus trap
Palangrillo = Hake longline
Palangrillo lubina = Sea bass longline
Pincho-caña = Rod-hook
Potera = Squid jig-hook
Trasmallo = Red mullet trammel net
Once the sample was selected, I had to analyse and process the data to answer to these set questions composed of 4 intermediate questions and 1 main research question.
Intermediate questions:
How has the intensity of practice of each métier changed over time?
For how long was carried out each métier during each year? And has duration varied over time?
Has the degree of alternation varied over the period analysed ? How ?
What is the degree of change in the métiers used from one year to the next ?
To answer these questions, I had to create 9 inter-annual matrices and create graphs to visualise the results and draw conclusions.
If you are interested in the outcomes of the intermediate questions, feel free to contact the author of this website via email (see contact section).
Inter-annual changes of métiers
What patterns of change are occuring in the métiers used?
The main goal of my PP was to answer the aforementioned question, that I also previously mentioned as 'main research question'.
To be able to answer it, I used again the 9 matrices that I created via Excel and processed them with R to create chord diagrams.
Chord diagrams are diagrams that represent flows between several entities, here the flow artisanal fishing métiers over time.
You can see on the image carousel on your right the corresponding 9 chord diagrams of métiers changes. Changes can be seen as either maintained, substituted or abandonned. As some changes could not be justified by one of these criterias, I created the category 'other métier' which then correspond to a change for no relevant reason.
From these results we can see that there are no apparent/relevant transfers between the different types of métiers used.
The substitutions that usually occur are directed towards a métier that uses the same type of gear so 'anzuelo para caballa - cacea caballa', 'beta salmonetera - betas', 'palangrillo - palangrillo lubina or potera' and so on. That is to say that the gear don't usually change but the métier does because the targeted species has changed. Only for a few cases, the change in métier using hooks or nets substitutes métiers based on traps (nasas).
Test your knowledge on SSF and fishing métiers
Author and contact
About the author:
My name is Léonore Page, I am 23 years old and I am from the north of France.
For my bachelor, I studied Global Sustainability Science with a major in Water, Climate and ecosystems at Utrecht University, the Netherlands.
In IMBRSea, I did my first semester at Ghent University (online), second semester at UAlg (online) and third semester at Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology (online). At least, my PP was in presential.
Thesis topics: "Improving fisheries: Light in the (cod-) end of the tunnel". Study on the use of LEDs in fishing gears for catch optimization or deter bycatch, at ILVO, Ostend in Belgium.
Contact:
Link of pictures
Headers:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/rayandbee/2041112170/
CABFishMAN:
https://twitter.com/hashtag/cabfishman?lang=el
https://www.azti.es/en/proyectos/cabfishman/
Institute presentation:
https://www.indurot.uniovi.es/
https://www.arrivalguides.com/fr/Travelguide/ASTURIAS/doandsee/la-costa-verde-cudillero-luarca-1256
My mission:
https://www.msc.org/es/sala-de-prensa/blog/news/2020/10/08/blog-el-pulpo-de-asturias
Study area:
García-de-la-Fuente, L., González-Álvarez, J., García-Flórez, L., Fernández-Rueda, P., & Alcázar-Álvarez, J. (2013). Relevance of socioeconomic information for the sustainable management of artisanal fisheries in South Europe. A characterization study of the Asturian artisanal fleet (northern Spain). Ocean & coastal management, 86, 61-71.
Fleet characterisation:
Comes from author
Methodologies:
All pictures come from the author.
Métiers:
Angula pesca profesional -> picture that my supervisor sent me
Anzuelo para caballa -> https://www.alamy.es/foto-caballa-pescado-de-anzuelo-en-el-fondo-del-mar-92214699.html
Beta salmonetera -> http://www2.mercatura.pt/prespo/images/documento/13210245788906.pdf
Betas -> https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-gill-net-fishing-for-hake-merluccius-hubbsi-104050481.html
Cacea caballa -> https://www.delarula.com/cuadernos-de-pesca/las-artes-sostenibles/
Cerco -> https://www.thinglink.com/scene/654920305759748098
Cerco de chicharro -> https://www.diariovasco.com/economia/201604/11/flota-vasca-cerco-podra-20160411115302.html
Extraccion de algas de fondo -> https://gaccantabriaoriental.es/gac-oriental/se-publican-normas-explotacion-algas-gelidium-2020/
Nasas marisco -> https://www.verpueblos.com/galicia/pontevedra/o+grove/foto/1148668/
Nasas pulpo -> https://stories.msc.org/es/pulpo-asturias/
Palangrillo -> http://www.grancanariapescaenred.com/en/about-us/how-we-fish/
Palangrillo lubina -> https://www.pecheursdebretagne.eu/webtv/manu-kelberine-palangre-a-bar-lieu-roscoff-peche-de-lappat-filage-petit-matin/
Pincho-caña -> https://tintorero-wwwartesdepesca.blogspot.com/2010/12/vamos-pescar-merluza-5-parte-y-ultima.html
Potera -> https://www.tokyvideo.com/es/video/pesca-del-calamar-desde-embarcacion
Trasmallo -> https://www.ametllamar.cat/turisme/es/punto-de-interes/artes-menores-trasmallo-pesca-turismo_2151/
Contact:
https://fr.crazypng.com/email-png-collection-dimages-a-telecharger-gratuitement.html
Logos:
https://www.embrc.eu/collaborative-projects/imbrsea-international-master-marine-biological-resources
http://sensnet-project.eu/
This website was created to present the outcome of the Professional Practice which is part of the IMBRSea master programme, supported by the Erasmus + Programme of the European Union.
More information about the programme can be found here: http://imbrsea.eu/
The Remote Professional Practice project "Assessing the economic value of fishing grounds operated by small-scale fleets in the Asturias" was supervised by the INDUROT.