Production system characteristics

The “Coastal fish” case study is composed of a large diversity of vessel, using different techniques and fishing a large diversity of species. They have short trip duration (approximately 24h) given proximity of fishing to port. Most of “Coastal Fisheries” Case Study belongs to small-scale fisheries fleet*, but it include also others vessels catching non quota species in national waters or vessels catching sedentary stocks like shells. The coastal fleet is significant in all European countries and often belongs to localities where fishing has cultural importance.

Market

Average prices are generally high for “high fresh quality” landings dedicated to the market of fresh seafood for direct consumption. The markets are often local or “niche”. In a sense, “Coastal Fisheries” is the opposite of the “Whitefish” case study.

European “Coastal Fisheries” face several challenges influencing the competitiveness and the sustainability of the sector :

1. Degradation of economic results, that could creates difficulties in attracting young people and increasing the risk of not maintaining traditions at local level
2. Competition on stocks, leading to overcapacity and overexploitation, is common to several fisheries. These situations may reinforce the management measures which can affect strongly coastal fleet segments even though their impact on fishing mortality is generally lower than other fleet segments.
3. Competition for space and use-conflicts with other coastal activities
4. Market issues in terms of competition with other products and imports, substitution with other products/species in the market place or economic crisis affecting southern EU countries consumers of whole fresh species;
5. Recent changes in society’s demand for product freshness, traceability, quality labels and attractiveness of sustainable production may represent a strong opportunity of market valorisations but also reveals some weaknesses in current marketing strategies

SUCCESS' objectives

Given this challenges list, the SUCCESS project will try to answer to the following broad questions by their implications within workpackages (WP) :

• What are the sources of vulnerability of Coastal fisheries ? (WPs 3&4)
• What is the link between consumer expectations and the products? (WP2)
• Is there any potential for new products and new marketing strategies? (WP 2&3)
• How can producers differentiate their main products both locally and nationally? (WP2, WP4)
• Is there a potential for new outlets (national market, exports) instead of local/ Niche market? (WP4)
• What are the dominant forms of management system and how far does they combine stock conservation and marketing strategies at European level? (WP3)
• What is the “replicability” and potential extension of such initiatives at European level ? (all WPs)

Fleet segments studied

According to the large diversity, the "Coastal fisheries" case study will not provide an exhaustive representation of that picture but will focus on fleet segments which illustrate the issues and challenges (presented below) :   

   - The Brittany (France) coastal liners targeting Sea bass

   - The Netters of the Gulf of Salerno (Italy) targeting Common cuttlefish

   - The Fasolari Fishery : dredgers from Northern Adriatic (Italy) targeting smooth clams

   - The English Channel scallop fishery (both French and UK fleets)

   - The multispecies Coastal fisheries in the province of Trapani (Italy)

   - The Netters multispecies fishery of Ile Yeu (France)

   - The coastal fisheries in Galicia (Spain)

* small-scale fisheries fleet : defined by the EU regulation as vessels less than 12 meters using static or passive gears. It represents already 55% of the total number of vessels, 41% of the total FTE employment and around 15% of the total landings in value1 in 2011 at European level (STECF, AER 2014)

• The “Coastal fisheries” case study in the workpackages (coming soon)
• Results for “Coastal fisheries” case study (coming soon)
• News, events and conferences related to the “Coastal fisheries” case study (coming soon)