Impact of artisanal and recreational fisheries in nature 2000 network protected areas and future projections influenced by climate change

Abstract

Traditionally, artisanal fishing in the Canary Islands has been managed through policies focused primarily on regulating professional fishing effort, but without considering the technological changes that have occurred within the fleets or the increase in recreational fishing licences, although these fishermen compete for the same resources. Likewise, inadequate use of fishing systems, the lack of information, the oversizing of real fishing power, levels of fishing effort higher than the resilience of species, loss of ecosystems and water quality, together with the impacts derived from climate change, among others, are responsible for the decline and depletion presented by some of the main target species of fisheries. In this context, and to address this problem from a more comprehensive point of view, the use of new management methodologies based on an ecosystem approach to fisheries is considered the most suitable option. Through temporal and spatial models, exploitation patterns that guarantee the sustainability of resources in the future will be established. The ecosystem model developed for the island of Gran Canaria has served to determine the structure, functioning and status of the island's marine ecosystem, quantifying the impact of fishing activity, both professional and recreational, combined with climate change. The results obtained show the risk of continuing with the current fishing strategy, and the need to establish new management measures that limit the impacts of the extractive activity of artisanal and recreational fishermen.