Boat seines in Greece: Landings profiles and identification of potential métiers

Stelios Katsanevakis,Vassiliki Vassilopoulou,Christos D Maravelias,John Haralabous

doi:10.3989/scimar.2010.74n1065

Abstract

SuMMarY: although boat seines have a significant share in the total fish landings in Greece, there is little information on boat seine fisheries. the present study aims to identify boat seine metiers on a national level and contribute to a better understanding of their operation in Greece. We used boat seine landings data collected from a large number of ports in the aegean and east ionian Sea between 2002 and 2006. the landings profiles were grouped with a two-step procedure: the first step involved a factorial analysis of the log-transformed landings profiles, and the second step was a classification of the factorial coordinates (hierarchical agglomerative clustering). Six metiers were identified in the aegean Sea, and three in the ionian Sea. the ‘picarel-bogue’ metier was the most important in both seas, accounting for 54% and 88% of the fishing trips of the sample in the aegean and ionian Seas respectively. apart from picarel and bogue, other important target species were red mullet, european squid, common pandora, chub mackerel, and european pilchard. varying spatial (within the aegean and ionian Seas) and seasonal patterns were evident for the identified metiers.

Highlights

Fishery management advice has traditionally been given on a stock-by-stock basis
SUMMARY: boat seines have a significant share in the total fish landings in Greece, there is little information on boat seine fisheries
The present study aims to identify boat seine métiers on a national level and contribute to a better understanding of their operation in Greece

Summary

Introduction

Fishery management advice has traditionally been given on a stock-by-stock (or single-species) basis. Conventional single-species fishery management has long been recognized as potentially problematic, especially in multi-species multi-fleet fisheries (Vinther et al, 2004). In these fisheries, more than one species is caught in the same area due to the underlying biocommunity structure, and different fleets exploit the same stocks simultaneously or sequentially, catching different proportions. To provide multispecies multi-fisheries advice, fisheries scientists have to better understand the behaviour of fishers and assess the flexibility of fishing practices, which may vary depending on market conditions, the season, managerial restrictions, or the skipper’s empirical knowledge (Hilborn and Ledbetter, 1985; Pelletier and Ferraris, 2000; Marchal et al, 2006). A starting point would be to identify fishing practices for every fleet segment in the fishery

Objectives

Results

Discussion

Conclusion