Obtaining sustainability indicators for hake fishery in the Cantabrian- Northwestern fishing ground (Galicia area)

The project Obtaining sustainability indicators for hake fishery in the Cantabrian- Northwestern fishing ground (Galicia area): contribution to a more sustainable management of the hake fishery is framed on the coastal and marine environment, and more specifically in the Galician region of the Cantabrian- Northwestern fishing ground, covering the territorial sea in the north of Spain and in which fishermen from the Autonomous Community of Galicia operate.

With an implementation period of time covering March 2013 to May 2014, this is an initiative with a specific interest to the General Secretariat of Fisheries of the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment, with the specific goal of improving sustainability and management of the hake fishery in the Cantabrian-Northwestern fishing ground (Galicia area). The resulting sustainability indicators can become a useful, objective and innovative tool to categorize measure or diagnose these fisheries and their associated production systems.

The aim of Lonxanet Foundation with this project is clear: improve the sustainability of the fishing fleet in its institutional, social, economic and environmental dimensions. To achieve this, different stages of work have been designed. Thus, in a first stage it is necessary to define and agree indicators that will measure each dimension of sustainability. Then, a questionnaire is designed to obtain meaningful information (from primary sources) to obtain the indicators. Having identified the vessels and ship-owners participating in the fishery is passed to the second phase of the project.

Collecting data from the questionnaires, tabulating them and their introduction into a statistical data treatment program stars the second phase. Once the database it is finalized, there will be a detailed operation thereof and, finally, through a well-proven methodology, the sustainability indicators of the studied fishery will be provided.

This is a project of Lonxanet Foundation for Sustainable Fisheries that has the support of the Biodiversity Foundation, from the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment of Spain.

Link to the article about the project in Revista Mar (Sea Magazine).