When Mediterranean Artisanal Fishers Protect Coastal Ecosystems

According to EuroStat data, the recorded landings of fisheries products from European waters were estimated at about 6 million tons in 2001, down to 3.2 million tons in 2022. This gradual decline slowed after the entering into force of the reform of the European Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) at the end of 2013, but was followed by a steeper decline after 2018. This is reflected in the last assessment of the Scientific Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STEPF), noting that despite progress in the NE Atlantic management, 41% of the assessed stocks in 2022 were outside safe biological limits, down from 80% in 2003. Improvements in the Mediterranean are significantly slower. A warming ocean provokes the measurable poleward migration of species and adds stress to predator-prey relations in all European seas. Within this general picture, the broad-brush landscape is influenced by policy applications more in favour of industrial exploitation and regulatory and market environments, making it very hard for many small-scale fishers (SSFs) to remain in business, let alone attract younger successors for generational transition. In crowded marine spaces, it is a challenge to allocate access rights fairly between fisheries, exclusion zones for resource and habitat protection and much-needed ecosystem recovery, platforms for fossil exploitation, wind farms, underwater cables and recreational uses. Two examples of local initiatives with faunal recovery potential in the Mediterranean are briefly presented as a bottom-up complement to more top-down management approaches. They are spearheaded by artisanal fishers, who seek to restore spawning grounds and other coastal habitats as a way to procure enough fish and other complementary activities to secure their livelihoods in the future. They are supported by local scientists and nature conservation organisations. While promising, this is still rather the exception. Here, it is argued that trust-building between artisanal fishers, conservationists and scientists, and greater systemic support to SSFs by governments, increase chances for the urgently needed structural shifts that deliver the reversal in the ongoing decline in biodiversity and ocean productivity that all aspire to, to ensure sustained social and economic benefits.