AQUAFIMA
Title: Integrating Aquaculture and Fisheries Management towards a sustainable regional development in the Baltic Sea Region
Summary: The fishery sector is an integral part of the Baltic Sea coastal regions and their economies. Not all fish stocks are fished within natural limits, and certain commercially important species (e.g. Baltic cod and Baltic white fish) are severely overfished and outside safe biological limits. Existing national and EU fisheries management policies are apparently not effective enough to maintain or even rebuild a balanced stock situation. New fisheries management regulations are urgently needed. They must have a sound scientific and socio-economic basis to meet the needs of both the consumer and the environment and to preserve one of the most vulnerable marine resources.
Alternative management schemes such as stocking of young fish are under discussion or in the trial stage. However, a multilateral review and transnational cooperation on aquaculture in the BSR has yet to be established. On the global scale, aquaculture continues to expand rapidly. However, the aquaculture sector in the BSR lags behind in this development and still has considerable growth potential. Currently, EU aquaculture output represents approximately 20.3 % of the total EU fisheries production and 2.6% of world aquaculture production (2007). Aquaculture therefore offers attractive regional development opportunities in the BSR, especially in regions affected by decline of capture fishing.
The overall objective of AQUAFIMA is to integrate aquaculture and fisheries management towards a sustainable regional development in the BSR, applying an eco-system friendly approach.
Specifically, the project will:
- Review current national/EU fishery policies and discuss alternative approaches, such as an area-based fisheries management system, with stakeholders and policy-makers;
- Give new impulses and recommendations for an integrated fisheries management in the BSR;
- Evaluate the feasibility of area-based management concepts in transnational case studies in lagoons;
- Evaluate and assess suitable stocking/restocking measures for different fish species;
- Determine the state of the art in aquaculture and its implementation in fisheries management in the BSR;
- Develop strategies to utilize fish and aquaculture for regional economic and tourism development and to integrate aquaculture in a sustainable spatial development;
- Generate skills and implement professional education schemes for Baltic Sea specific aquaculture management;
- Promote the acceptance for farmed fish and aquaculture among BSR citizens;
- Put the development of BSR aquaculture into a EU-wide perspective by exchanging knowledge and experience of projects and institutions in the BSR other EU regions.
The project brings together 12 partners from 7 countries, representing the political, academic and economic sector. The partnership will be complemented by 21 associated organisations from 8 countries.
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