Core questions raised in the workshop

• How to bridge the needs of the fishing enterprises on finding research centres that are specialised in Mediterranean issues, equipped with the necessary practical and financial resources?
• How to structure the fishing sector so that it can either participate or recommend fishing enterprises to play a role in RTD activities that are required?

A.         RTD (Practical)

One of the first conclusions resulting from the different interventions is the difficulty for scientists, who are active in research work, to find a partner from the industry. They do not know where to look for professional associations representing fishing enterprises, nor how to obtain good contacts and do not know how the industry is organised at the local, regional, national and European level.

Similarly, fishing enterprises have difficulties in identifying research centres having the practical and financial means to collaborate with them on specific and targeted issues concerning their sector. It is therefore important for the industry to be properly structured at the national level.

• fishermen - who sometimes may fear to communicate their data, and
• scientists -  who may not always explain clearly the aim of their work.

It is also felt that RTD should go beyond national borders and local interests. More would be learnt by extending research to wider geographical areas. A lot of scientific information is available at national levels but there is an obvious communication gap between the national authorities, research centres and the EU level. It is therefore recommended to promote better use of the existing data.

1.                 Structure of the scientific community

• In Italy, scientific research in the marine sector is centralised within the Scientific Coordination Committee.
• In Greece and Spain, there is no centralised organisation but there are only a few big research centres and these are easy to identify.
• It would be advisable to create a coordinated programme between Member States in order to progress faster.
• In Corsica, a scientific committee has been created to ensure the future of the fisheries sector and make progress in the knowledge on local species.

2.                 Access to information

3.                 Topics of research

Scientists who work in fisheries RTD need to provide the necessary information to decision makers. In this respect, regarding the needs in the field of research, the following issues were mentioned during the workshop:

·         study on the lobster in the region of Corsica and sharing the knowledge on the same species with Sardinia,

·         the assessment of blue fin tuna stocks,

·         the application of renewable energies in the fisheries sector,

·         developing vessels with clean engines,

·         the impact of climatic change on fish stocks,

·         the impact of predators on commercial species,

·         the impact of other activities of exploitation of the sea beds on the fishing resources,

·         the impact of marine pollution, of tourism, etc.

In other words, workshop participants underlined the need to have indicators that affect and influence the resources, but also socio-economic indicators regarding the impact of all these factors on the income and activities of fishermen.  

B.         Managerial/Commercial

A good assessment of the state of the different species in the Mediterranean Sea is missing to date.

Nonetheless, fishermen need this information badly in order to establish their management plans in the framework of the new regulation on technical measures in the Mediterranean Sea. Such increased collaboration as suggested between scientists and fishermen is therefore urgent.

The amount of catches from sport fishing boats and leisure boats needs to be assessed given that thousands of boats navigate in the Mediterranean Sea, during several months each year, and take part in numerous contests of game fishing, etc.. Fishermen request that sport and leisure fishing is regulated. It is difficult to accept that thousands of sport fishermen catch species that are submitted to strict EU regulations for professional fishermen.

Similarly, it is important to assess the impact of pollution and of climate change on Mediterranean fishing resources and consequently on professional fisheries.

It was felt that a lot of imprecision exists as regards marine protected areas (MPAs). Regulations foresee the creation of a number of marine protected areas but they do not all follow the same purpose, do not all protect the same species, fauna/flora, are not all limited in time, and few of them seem to be assorted with detailed creation criteria. Therefore, professional fishermen expressed the need to assess whether it is necessary to maintain these if they do not succeed in fulfilling their role or when the recovery of a specific species has been reached. Not all the MPAs are closed to fisheries, some are closed only partially. Simply put, it appears important to be more (or very) precise when referring  to MPAs  because the terminology can cover very different concepts.

C.           Social/Political

The idea of an Brussels-based advisory committee on maritime affairs was evoked, where all the maritime sectors of activity could discuss joint problems (wind farms installations in traditional fishing grounds, for instance, etc.).