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Depredation by marine mammals in fishing gear

A review of the Mediterranean Sea, Black Sea and contiguous Atlantic area













Gonzalvo, J. & Carpentieri, P. 2023. Depredation by marine mammals in fishing gear – A review of the Mediterranean Sea, Black Sea and contiguous Atlantic area. Studies and reviews (General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean), No. 102. Rome, FAO.




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    Brochure, flyer, fact-sheet
    Depredation by marine mammals in the Mediterranean, Black Sea and contiguous Atlantic area
    Brief
    2024
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    Marine mammal depredation, whereby marine mammals remove catches from nets and damage fishing gear, has become an issue worldwide, affecting both the survival of wild marine mammals populations and fishers’ livelihoods. However, the lack of data regarding the scope of these interactions in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea hinders the ability to protect both parties. As interactions between fishers and marine mammals in the region become more frequent, loss of income can create conflicts, undermining efforts to improve both marine mammal conservation and fishery sustainability in the region. This brief summarizes the review produced jointly by the Agreement on the Conservation of Cetaceans of the Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea and contiguous Atlantic Area (ACCOBAMS) and the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) and aims at providing policy makers and other interested parties with relevant baseline data and information on marine mammal depredation, mainly involving dolphins, in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea.
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    Book (series)
    Dolphin depredation in Mediterranean and Black Sea fisheries
    Methodology for data collection
    2022
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    When marine mammals come into physical contact with fishing gear, there can be harmful effects to both the animals and fishers. The animals may be incidentally caught in fishing gear, or in the case of depredation, marine mammals – usually dolphins – may remove and/or damage fish captured in nets or hooks, resulting in damage to fishing gear, loss of capture and consequently lower catch values and fisher revenues. Depredation can also lead to entanglement, which can in turn produce incidental catch. The competitive overlap between dolphins and humans at sea represents a worldwide issue, as it affects both the survival of wild dolphin populations and the livelihoods of fishers, and it is receiving growing attention from fisheries management organizations around the globe. Many gaps still remain, however, in the knowledge of the actual extent of the problem, including in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. In order to understand and mitigate dolphin depredation in the region through effective management measures, adequate regional/subregional and national monitoring programmes are required to obtain representative data on dolphin depredation events during sampled fishing operations. The purpose of this protocol, which allows for replicability and comparisons among fisheries across the region, is to facilitate and improve data collection in a harmonized and standardized way. Its aim is to improve understanding of the dolphin populations involved in depredation events, assess the regional magnitude of depredation to determine the economic losses suffered by fishers, identify the typologies of fishing practices that lead to depredation, as well as potential mitigation measures, and collect information for the conservation of marine mammals.
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    Book (series)
    Monitoring incidental catch of vulnerable species in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea: Methodology for data collection 2019
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    Bycatch – a term widely used to refer to the part of catch unintentionally captured during a fishing operation, in addition to target species, and consisting of discards and incidental catches of vulnerable species – is considered one of the most important threats to the profitability and sustainability of fisheries, as well as to the conservation of the marine environment and ecosystems. In the Mediterranean, studies on the incidental catch of vulnerable species cover only a small portion of the total fishing activity. In addition, there are several important knowledge gaps for many types of fishing gear, and several countries and/or subregions, as well as on temporal scales, and only a few measures are in place that address the protection of vulnerable species. Monitoring programmes and surveys on incidental catches, which follow a harmonized methodology allowing for results to be compared across subregions, are necessary to improve knowledge on the issue and to subsequently support the identification of potential mitigation methods and tools, and relevant management measures. This publication and the methodology contained herein aim to provide a framework for the development and implementation of an efficient, standardized data collection and monitoring system for all vulnerable species encountered in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, namely elasmobranchs, marine mammals, seabirds, sea turtles, and macrobenthic invertebrates.

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