Identifying recreational fisheries in the Mediterranean Sea through social media

Abstract

The impact of recreational fishing on fish stocks remains largely unknown, as this is inherently difficult to monitor, especially in areas such as the Mediterranean Sea where many species are targeted using a variety of fishing gears and techniques. This study attempts to complement existing data sets and construct the profile of recreational fisheries in the EU‐Mediterranean countries using videos publicly available on social media. A total of 1526 video records were selected, featuring the capture of 7799 fish specimens. The results show recreational fishing is multispecies in nature (26 species contributed to >80% % of the most numerically important species caught) and exhibits a spatially homogeneous pattern, with differences in species composition being mostly dependent on the fishing technique used rather than on the country. Such findings fill an important knowledge gap on recreational fishing activities, and the methodology provides an innovative approach to gather statistics on data‐poor thematic areas that can potentially complement other data sets, such as the EU Data Collection Multi‐Annual Programme.

Social media reveals consistently disproportionate tourism pressure on a threatened marine vertebrate

“…This medium has great potential to provide qualitative and quantitative information about various human-wildlife interactions, including recreational fishing (e.g. Martin et al, 2014;Giovos et al, 2018), wildlife trade (e.g. Di Minin et al, 2019), and wildlife distributions (e.g.…”

Small-Scale Coastal Fishing Shapes the Structure of Shallow Rocky Reef Fish in the Aegean Sea

“…Rocky reefs of the Aegean Sea have traditionally been exploited by small-scale and recreational fisheries, which have played an important role in the shaping of the cultural and socio-economic character of this coastal region (Tzanatos et al, 2005;Giakoumi et al, 2012;Giovos et al, 2018;Keramidas et al, 2018). Yet, little information is available regarding the distribution and conservation status of rocky reefs, as well as of the associated fisheries resources.…”

“…Over and above, the insular character of the Aegean Sea, renders it difficult to monitor the multiple and multifaceted coastal fisheries activities. As a result, data regarding small-scale and recreational fisheries landings are unavailable or non-existent, while no large-scale survey has been conducted in the past to estimate fish population densities and their spatial variability (Tzanatos et al, 2006;Moutopoulos et al, 2013;Kavadas et al, 2015;Giovos et al, 2018).…”

The Contested Commons: The Failure of EU Fisheries Policy and Governance in the Mediterranean and the Crisis Enveloping the Small-Scale Fisheries of Malta

“…The decline in fish stocks has socio-economic impacts on the fishing fleets, and such impacts are heavily felt across the smallscale sector, which comprises 80% of the Mediterranean fleet, and which is relatively less studied than the large-scale and industrial segment (Battaglia et al, 2010;Lloret et al, in press). Small-scale fishing in the Mediterranean, which primarily includes vessels that are smaller than 12 m in length has been noticed to be in a general decline in the past decades (Gómez et al, 2006;Arceo et al, 2013;Fabio et al, 2016;Said, 2017;Lloret et al, in press) due to an aging demographic of fishermen (Tzanatos et al, 2005), declining resources, and incremental competition from the industrial sector (Gómez et al, 2006;Panagopoulou et al, 2017) and the recreational fleet (European Parliament, 2006;Hadjimichael et al, 2013;Lloret and Font, 2013;Giovos et al, 2018). What is less understood, however, is how or whether this small-scale sector degeneration is being managed or addressed by the governance and policy systems in place, especially now that the EU has recently pledged to support the sustainable development of Mediterranean small-scale fisheries through the Medfish4Ever roadmap (European Commission, 2017).…”