General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean - GFCM

Management measures | Common dolphinfish fisheries and the use of anchored fish aggregating devices in the Mediterranean Sea

The common dolphinfish (Coryphaena hippurus) is a GFCM priority species of regional importance. It’s present all over the Mediterranean, so it needs to be managed at basin level. People usually fish for the 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 common dolphinfish stock levels, a series of transitional measures have been adopted while a multiannual management plan is being developed..

MAIN PROVISIONS

  • Address the different components of fishing mortality (e.g by limiting the number of FADs deployed)
  • Maintain fishing effort (i.e. the number of fishing vessels) at the current level
  • Minimize the entanglement of non-target vulnerable species and other impacts on the environment
  • Set the basis for regulating the composition, location, maintenance and replacement of FADs, as well as for their identification and marking
  • Lay the foundation for the establishment of new FAD fisheries and impose the use of a fishing authorization system with an associated register maintained by each CPC
  • Facilitate the collation of existing data and the collection of new data via a research programme aimed at informing the development of future conservation measures

Learn more about the GFCM's management plans.