General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean - GFCM

Management Plan | Common dolphinfish fisheries in the Mediterranean Sea

Common dolphinfish (Coryphaena hippurus) is a GFCM priority species of regional importance. It is present all over the Mediterranean and needs to be managed at basin level. Small-scale fisheries usually target this species using anchored fish aggregating devices (FADs), whose impacts on the environment have been the focus of increasing attention in recent years. In order to reduce the harm caused to ecosystems by FADs and to maintain the common dolphinfish at sustainable levels, the GFCM adopted a multiannual management plan in 2023. An international joint inspection and surveillance scheme for common dolphinfish fisheries outside waters under national jurisdiction in the Mediterranean Sea was also adopted the same year.

Main Provisions

  1. Establishes a two-step approach:
    • A transitional period over the first three years (2024, 2025, 2026) with the implementation of transitional measures, including catch limits, maximum number of FADs per vessel, minimum conservation reference size (MCRS) as well as other technical measures, and foreseeing the finalization of the stock assessment
    • A long-term phase (2027-2031) with the implementation of adaptive, long-term measures stemming from the evaluation of the transitional management measures as well as the finalization of stock assessment and management strategy evaluation
  2. Establishes temporal closure from 1 January to 14 August of each year, in all GSAs
  3. Sets annual catch limits
  4. Limits the number of FADs deployed per vessel
  5. Establishes MCRS of 35 cm total length, with 5% tolerance in weight or in numbers
  6. Limits fishing effort (i.e. the number of fishing vessels) at 2019 level
  7. Sets daily bag limit for recreational fishers of 10 kg or five fish of any size per person per day
  8. Minimizes the entanglement by FADs of non-target and vulnerable species and other impacts on the environment (e.g. by prioritizing biodegradable materials)
  9. Sets compulsory marking of FADs with identification information
  10. Establishes a list of authorized fishing vessels maintained by CPCs and communicated to the GFCM
  11. Establishes that each CPC shall ensure that adequate mechanisms are set up to record each fishing vessel in a national fleet register and to record vessels’ catches and fishing effort via the logbook, as well as to monitor fishing vessels’ activities and landings via catch and effort sampling surveys according to the rules stipulated by each CPC

The provisions of the multiannual management plan are complemented and ensured by an international joint inspection and surveillance scheme outside the waters under national jurisdiction in the Mediterranean Sea (GSAs 1 to 27).

Objectives

  • Ensure that exploitation levels of common dolphinfish are, or maintained, at MSY levels
  • Prevent increases in fishing effort and adjust fishing capacity to levels consistent with MSY, with a view to ensuring economically viable fleets
  • Contribute to the elimination of discards
  • Reduce illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing activities
  • Reduce the impacts of FADs on ecosystems
  • Limit fishing mortality from other sources, i.e. for recreational fisheries targeting common dolphinfish

Relevant Decisions

Recommendation GFCM/46/2023/14 establishing a multiannual management plan for the sustainable exploitation of common dolphinfish in the Mediterranean Sea, repealing Recommendations GFCM/30/2006/2, GFCM/43/2019/1 and GFCM/44/2021/11

Recommendation GFCM/46/2023/17 on an international joint inspection and surveillance scheme for common dolphinfish fisheries outside waters under national jurisdiction in the Mediterranean Sea

Learn more about the GFCM's management plans.