General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean - GFCM

Selectivity pilot project in Strait of Sicily tests ways to prevent the catch of juveniles of commercial species


08/06/2023

On June 8 every year, World Ocean Day is an occasion to celebrate our one shared ocean and the crucial role it plays in our lives. It is also an opportunity to raise awareness of just how important it is that we work to safeguard it.

For the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the work to protect our ocean and the livelihoods that depend on it never stops. Strengthening fisheries sustainability, protecting biodiversity, increasing marine ecosystem resilience and guaranteeing food security and jobs that rely on healthy regional seas are part of its mission 365 days per year.

Selectivity trials involve three identical commercial trawlers fishing in parallel at the same time and on the same grounds, using different gear ©GFCM/Claudia Amico

One important project currently underway focuses on selectivity – a highly significant issue in fishery resource management and conservation. Specifically, it is a pilot project which explores ways of reducing levels of unwanted catch in a multispecies bottom trawl fishery in the Strait of Sicily. The trials focus on European hake and deep-water rose shrimp – two commercially important species managed through a GFCM multiannual management plan and currently at risk of overfishing.

“The main idea is that through mitigation trials we are looking for ways to reduce the catch of juveniles,” explains Paolo Carpentieri, GFCM Fisheries Resources Monitoring Officer. “We aim to find a balance between fishery sustainability, which should maintain the livelihood of fishers, and trying to preserve the ecosystem.”

Bycatch – a term widely used to refer to the part of catch unintentionally captured during commercial fishing, in addition to target species, and consisting of discards and incidental catches of vulnerable species - can result in significant levels of mortality for commercial and non-commercial species alike. This includes juveniles that have not had the chance to reproduce yet. Reducing bycatch is one of the key aims in the GFCM 2030 Strategy for sustainable fisheries.

Chronological numbers and date are recorded for each haul ©GFCM/Claudia Amico

The selectivity pilot project, conducted jointly with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), began on the Italian side of the Strait of Sicily, and it was carried out by the National Research Council - Institute for Biological Resources and Marine Biotechnologies (CNR-IRBIM) of Mazara del Vallo. The trials will be replicated on the Tunisian side later in the year. Two key measures to reduce the catch of juveniles are being tested at sea: modifying the nets used in trawling and fitting the nets with selectivity grids. The tests involve three identical commercial trawlers fishing in parallel on the same grounds, at the same time, during three different days. One vessel uses a commercial trawl net, to act as the control. The second uses a specific sorting grid, depending on the target species. And the third vessel is rigged with a “T90” modified gear, which gives the net square meshes, as opposed to the traditional diamond ones.

As WWF’s Marco Costantini comments: “Trawlers must be selective. Innovation in selectivity, combined with management, can be the solution.”

Discards levels vary a great deal depending on factors including the target species and the fishing techniques and gear used, but bottom trawl fisheries have the highest levels of discards in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. The findings of this pilot project could therefore have a significant positive impact across the region. Results will inform which selectivity measures should be fully adopted within the framework of multiannual management plans for deep-water rose shrimp and European hake.

Fisher sorting the catch of the day on one of the trawlers involved in the selectivity trials ©GFCM/Claudia Amico

Importantly, the scope of the pilot project is likely to be enlarged in future, to test selectivity measures in other areas of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea.

For now the project elicits optimism, as Vincenzo Balsomini, captain of one of the trawlers involved in the Sicily trials, expressed: “I believe in it because I need my work to continue. If we go on like this it will not be so easy to work, it will all come to destruction… [Fishing and the sea] is work, is life – it’s everything!”