Socioeconomic Performance of Fisheries in the “Stretto” Coast FLAG in Southern Italy

The importance of fisheries and their central role in creating strong relationships in the territories of some coastal communities has generated a revision process of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) with the inclusion of Fishery Local Action Groups in the definition of bottom-up local development strategies that involve the participation and planning capacity of fisheries communities. Nowadays, in some EU areas, there is a lack of information on fishermen activities from a technical-economic point of view, with negative consequences in fishery planning at the local level. The present study provides an analysis of the economic performance of the vessels operating in the area of the “Stretto” Coast FLAG in Southern Italy. The information on costs and revenues have been gathered in 2015 through a technical-economic survey on a sample of 34 fishing vessels representing 24.11% of the total number of vessels active in the area. The direct survey aims at quantifying specific economic indicators in order to link the data on fishing effort with those on the profitability of enterprises, differentiated into 3 classes of Gross Tonnage (GT), for an assessment of the technical and socio-economic results of fisheries in the area.