OVERFISHING IN THE

MEDITERRANEAN
THE PROBLEM.
Fish stock levels in the Mediterranean Sea are very low. The European Environment Agency
said that over 65% of all fish stocks are living in the region that is outside the safe biological limits
and some of the most important fisheries such as albacore and blue fin tuna, hake, marlin, swordfish,
red mullet and sea bream - are threatened. There has also been a noticeable decline in the size and
quality of the fish that has been caught nowadays, and in many areas larger and longer-lived species
have disappeared all together from commercial catches. This makes the situation worse because long-
term sustainability of stocks is the protection of its young, juvenile fish so that these can reach
maturity and breed. As overfishing has already caught most of the larger adult fish, most of the time,
the smaller fish are caught and kept – even if it is against the law to do so.
 By-catch is the accidental capture of non-
target species from seabirds to juvenile fish,
sometimes sea turtles or even sharks and dolphins.
It must be immediately discarded back into the
sea, even if the creature is dead or dying. The
amounts of discarded animals for Mediterranean
fisheries are between 20 and 70 percent.
Numerous regulations have been put up to ban the
use of driftnets in the Mediterranean Sea, as it
results as the highest percent in by-catch, but are
still widely used despite the laws and some
driftnet fleets are
even expanding.

In 1999 Greenpeace published a report revealing that the

amount of blue fin tuna in the Mediterranean has decreased by over
80% in the previous 20 years and government scientists warn everyone that the stock will collapse if
nothing is done to prevent it. The effective management systems are simply not good enough,
resulting in increased commercial pressure on our dwindling fishery resources. Of all the
Mediterranean countries, Spain is the only one that started to use a National Plan of Action to
overcome the problem of IUU fishing (illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing industry), although
there is a lack of funding and infrastructure in international waters.

THE PROPOSED SOLUTION.

Fully protected areas cover less than 1% of the Mediterranean Sea, far from the percentage
that scientists recommend which is twenty to fifty percent of the sea. Immediate action is needed to
save this sea. What is needed is a network of fully protected, large-scale marine reserves to cover the
range of Mediterranean marine ecosystems. Which mean national parks, but in the sea. Marine
reserves are areas closed to all uses, especially fishing and mining, as well as to other activities that
may harm this ecosystem. Within these areas there may be core zones where no humans are allowed
in, for instance areas that act as scientific reference areas or areas where there are particularly
sensitive habitats or species. Conservation is about protecting not just single species, but the full
variety of species and their habitats, as well as all of the interactions between species that make up an
ecosystem. This requires an
approach that considers all these
aspects. Marine reserves, which
protect entire areas from a range of
human impacts, do just
this, which makes them a
unique tool for
conservation.