Acronym RESNEP
Category
Fisheries
Title Marine no take areas as a tool to help iconic mediterranean fisheries in decline: the case of Nephrops Norvegicus Programme National Programme
Instrument (FP6)
Contact Type (FP7)
Strand (Interreg)
NA
Theme (FP7)
Activity Area (FP6)
Regional Area (Interreg)
Action (COST)
NA
Specific Programme (FP7)
NA
Funding source National Coordinator NA Coordinator email NA
Coordinator institution
CSIC - Spanish National Research Council (Spain)
Institutions involved
NA
Start year 2018 End year 2020 Funding (€) € 171,820 Website NA Summary The use of high impact fishing-gear methods has led that many populations of marine resources are actually overexploited. In fact, fishing activity is one of the main drivers of ecosystem change in the Mediterranean sea. This situation of overexploitation has provoked that the population of most of economical important demersal species are overexploited, reducing the economic benefits and the ecosystem services associated with cultural and social aspects. A clear example of an overexploited mediterranean iconic fishery is norway lobster, Nephrops norvegicus. The present stock assessment indexes show how the norway lobster populations are in overexploited status, probably associated to the fishing gear used (bottom-trawling). In addition to a reduction in the size of the individuals, the analysis of the time series of landing data shows a clear reduction in the density of their populations and of their economic profitability.
In the RESNEP coordinated project, the research team intends to evaluate the use of new actions aimed at finding sustainable management options and recovery of this marine resource. The main goal of resnep project is to assess the use of marine no take zones to improve the main fishery-indexes of Norway lobster stocks throughout the spanish mediterranean coast. The specific objectives of this project are: (1) to assess the effect of no take zones on the population indexes (abundance, biomass and individual size) inside the reserve and in the adjacent areas (spillover effect); (2) to evaluate the potential negative effect on the norway lobster recovery due to an increase in the population of natural predators and (3) to evaluate if the size and location of the no take zone is optimal for norway lobster (reserve size based on activity and movement patterns).
The results should allow the establishment of the basis towards a sustainable fisheries management of this iconic crustacean at the regional level, with the possibility of extrapolating the implementation of a network of marine no-take zones all along spanish mediterranean waters. This coordinated project is composed of two multidisciplinary subprojects that aim to address these objectives from a population biology (resnep-pop subproject) and technological (resnep-tec subproject) point of view. The two research teams have a large background in the study of the fishery resources and in the use of technology for the monitoring of marine organisms. Resnep-pop is leaded by researchers of the department of renewable marine resources from the institute of marine sciences of CSIC and the marine technology team composed of members from the polytechnic university of catalonia and the polytechnic University of Madrid.
Keywords
Crustacean;
Fisheries management;
Trawling;
Lobster;
Shellfish;
Marine Region
76
Not associated to marine areas
0
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