Permanent trawl fishery closures in the Mediterranean Sea: An effective management strategy?

Since June 2010 the Italian government prohibited the trawling activity within three nautical miles from the coast or within the 50 m isobath. This decision was expected to have a great impact on trawl fishing activities, but at the moment no real assessment of the effects on catches and possible ecological implications has been undertaken. In order to fill this gap, an assessment on the North Western Adriatic Sea coast has been performed. Landings per Unit of Effort (kilograms per boat per day) for each trawling fleet segment have been analysed, by comparing on a monthly basis the before (2007-2009) and after ban (2011-2013) period. The comparison was carried out considering total landings and the six main species targeted inside the three miles area (sand smelt, cuttlefish, red mullet, sole, turbot, and mantis shrimp). Within a general reduction of total landings, a differential effect based on the analysed métiers was detected, with small trawlers being more negatively affected than the large and rapido ones, which showed, for some species, positive impacts. From an ecological point of view, though, no positive overall effects were detected, probably due to the fact that the adopted measure is not sufficient to reduce the overexploitation. In any case, all this is affecting the structure of the small-scale fishery in the area, since small trawlers are changing métier, moving towards the artisanal fishery, with deep impacts on the very coastal area that the trawling ban was designated to protect, compromising all possible benefits.