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EastMed Project Technical Document No 16: Socio-economic analysis of the Lebanese fishing fleet

Year of publication 2013

Pages 81 p.

Author Dimech, Mark;Pinello, Dario;FAO EastMed project

Product type Project

Series title EastMed Technical Documents (FAO)

Edition 1

Synopsis (short abstract) This study was implemented after the EastMed 2nd co-ordination meeting on the 5-6th April, Antalya, Turkey (EastMed 2012), where the participants agreed to have a preliminary assessment of the economic situation of the Lebanese fisheries sector. In order to undertake such an assessment an economic survey based on direct interviews was conducted from March to May 2012. The study was split up into two phases. In the first phase the information on the technical characteristics of the most recent fl eet was obtained. This was then followed by the second and main phase which included the socioeconomic sample survey and the socio-economic analysis. The licensed fishing fleet of 2011 was stratified according to the GFCM task I fleet segmentation, after which the population of vessels was randomly sampled and direct interviews based on a questionnaire were conducted. The results showed that in general the Lebanese fishing fleet is making a profit of about 24% of the revenue which is comparable to other fleets in the Mediterranean of similar characteristics. It is a family based fishery, where the owners of the vessels, are directly involved in the fishing activity, with the assistance of family members, there is a non aging fishers’ population, and a low level of education. The income per fisher-owner (7,400 USD) and fisher (3,000 USD) is 20% and 70% respectively less than the national GDP per capita, furthermore a fisher earns about 25% less than the minimum wage of the country. In t his respect the fishers in Lebanon are present in both the lower-middle class (fisher-owners) and the lower class (fisher), where the latter are part of the poorest section of society. The auction market is the main channel used to sell the product, however the whole value chain should be studied in more detail. The salaries of the fishers should be increased by increasing the revenue and this can be accomplished either by increasing the prices or the quantity of production. The latter seems to be a more plausible solution and can be achieved by improving the sustainable exploitation of the stocks and exploring the possibility to exploit new fishing grounds such as the deep water grounds (> 200 m) and offshore waters for large pelagic species.

Language English

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