FAO confirms the sustainability of Balearic fisheries

The General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has certified the healthy status of white and red shrimp, Norway lobster, striped red mullet, octopus and thornback ray in Balearic waters.

A group of researchers from the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO) took part late last year in the Working Group on the Assessment of Demersal Species, which meets annually to evaluate the exploitation status of demersal resources.

According to an IEO statement, the aim of this analysis is to provide a scientific basis for establishing management measures and specific regulations that ensure the sustainable exploitation of these resources in the Mediterranean.

In this context, researchers from the Balearic Oceanographic Centre, Beatriz Guijarro, Núria Zaragoza, Marc Farré and Francesca Ferragut, presented assessments of white and red shrimp, striped red mullet, Norway lobster, octopus and thornback ray.

All of these species are targets of the trawl fleet and represent a significant share of its catches, both in terms of biomass and economic value. European hake was not assessed in this working group, as the methodology is currently under review and improvement.

All the assessments presented were validated by the working group, composed of expert personnel from across the Mediterranean. In every case, fishing mortality levels showed that the stocks are under “sustainable exploitation,” and in most cases, biomass levels in the sea are around or above reference points.

“These sustainable exploitation levels have been achieved after decades of fleet reduction and following a notable improvement linked to the implementation, since 2020, of a range of management measures included in the multiannual plan for demersal fisheries in the western Mediterranean,” explained Beatriz Guijarro.

This plan, driven by the European Union, aims to ensure the sustainability of fishery resources and protect marine ecosystems.

Its main measure has been the introduction of a fishing effort regime based on reducing trawling activity by up to 40% between 2020 and 2024 compared with the 2015–2017 reference period.

The plan also includes spatial and temporal closures to protect juveniles and spawning individuals, as well as catch limits for red shrimp, new minimum legal sizes and improvements in gear selectivity.

“Although these measures have been applied across trawl fisheries in western Mediterranean EU countries, the improvements detected in stocks are much more significant in the Balearic Islands than on the mainland, probably because the initial exploitation status was better due to the smaller development of the archipelago’s trawl fleet,” the researcher added.