Assessment of Profitability and Employment in Fishing Fleet

The main objective of this project is to analyse and evaluate the current bioeconomic situation of the Spanish fishing fleet in the Mediterranean. As well as to create more realistic projections of changes in economic factors and changes in fishing resources to ensure the long-term sustainability of fish stocks (maximum sustainable "MSY" and economic yields "MEY") and to clarify the trade-offs between profitability and the number of jobs in their fishing fleets (small gears, trawls...). In addition to offer recommendations, basing on results obtained, on how to stabilize the long-term profitability of Spanish and European fisheries in general in order to contribute to the sustainable, ecological and economic exploitation of fish stocks in the Mediterranean. This work has been carried out in the context of the European project PANDORA (PAradigm for Novel Dynamic Oceanic Resource Assessments) (link: https://www.pandora-fisheries-project.eu/ ). During the execution of the work, the official economic and biological data of the European Commission, collected in STECF reports and databases, have been analyzed for the entire Spanish fleet in FAO area 37 (GFCM areas 1, 5 and 6). Further, other data has been used through interviews with fishermen and in order to simulate input parameters thus comparing the evolution of profitability and the development of employment described by the STECF data, possibly biased, with field reality data obtained in the field. The results of economic and social indicators, except of Purse-seiners were the most profitable fleets, showed that the fishing capacity of the Spanish Mediterranean fleet has decreased remarkably in the last years. Highlighted by a negative trend in the Net economic profit, artisanal and trawler fleet showed an inefficiency and overcapacity. Whereas starting the year 2016, the economic performance shows an improvement. Further, results of stock assessments demonstrate that stocks are still largely overfished and/or in a bad state. The comparison between the actual situation and the maximum sustainable yield, showed a good profitability, a long-term efficiency and a good standard living of fishermen. Results of fitted models showed that energy costs represent the most important operational cost for all fleets. Where, Fuel cost played a key role in explaining Net Profit. However, fitted models of GVA and wages of crew demonstrated the key role of fuel costs and fishing technique in addition to average landing prices. It is concluded that, the introduction of a management system that aims at reducing overcapacity while promoting the recovery of overfished stocks seems urgent. Moreover, the considerable variation in economic performance within and between the three fleets highlights the need of future surveys, better knowledge on population status and market prices