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THE PROJECT
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Name of the project/symbol |
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Assessment and Monitoring of the Fishery Resources and the
Ecosystems in the Straits of Sicily – MedSudMed.
(GCP/RER/010/ITA Module II). |
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Participating countries |
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Italy, Libya, Malta, Tunisia. |
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Donor |
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Italy through the
Italian Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry
Policies (MIPAAF). |
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Objective |
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The Straits of Sicily is one of the most important fishing areas of
the Mediterranean Sea, where significant fleets operate with high
fish production. Yet, the available knowledge on fishery resources
and their ecosystems in the region is often scarce. The MedSudMed
project was created to strengthen the national and regional research
capacities and to promote scientific cooperation in the southern
part of the central Mediterranean for the assessment and monitoring
of fishery resources.
The Project’s main objective is to improve the knowledge on fishery
resources and their ecosystems – as a contribution to the
development of responsible fisheries management – by supporting
research activities related to the interactions between demersal and
small pelagic fishery resources and biotic and abiotic environmental
factors. |
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Target beneficiaries |
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The beneficiaries include the national scientific institutions in the
participating countries involved in research activities at a regional level as
well as the fisheries administrations of the participating governments.
To a larger extent, the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (FAO-GFCM)
benefits from the improved information and monitoring system.
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Main achievements |
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One of the Project’s most important achievement is the
improvement of the sub-regional monitoring of fisheries
resources with the participation of the research institutions of
the participating countries. The Project has begun the extensive work of
standardizing methodologies and protocols in the context of the
research activities. The Project has successfully produced
baseline scientific information on fishery resources relevant to
fisheries management.
The Project has promoted scientific and technical cooperation in the
central Mediterranean and created a basis for cooperative fisheries
research in the area through a series of actions, such as:
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developing and implementing standardized methodologies and
monitoring programmes based on uniform sampling and data
processing for small pelagic fish and demersal fisheries
resources. These standardized protocols were used during the
nine surveys at sea performed in the Straits of Sicily area,
which allowed data collection in areas where no information, or
only outdated information, was available;
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increasing knowledge on the spatial distribution of fish stocks,
in particular for target species that are of common interest for
the four participating countries, by illustrating the
localization of spawning and nursery areas and the main
characteristics of fish assemblages, and providing a description
of the main oceanographic patterns characterizing the Project
area with the intention of correlating it with the spatial
distribution of the different life phases of fishery resources
at regional scale;
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carrying out a multidisciplinary pilot study to investigate the
relations between the main spatial distribution patterns of
demersal fisheries resources and environmental features and
fishing characteristics, in accordance with the research
requirements related to the ecosystem approach to fisheries;
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organizing 27 meetings attended by national research institutes
and 12 training courses involving more than 100 fisheries
experts, to provide an opportunity to develop an exchange
platform for sharing information and joint data management and
processing at a regional scale; and
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providing technical support to the subsidiary bodies of the GFCM
and exchanging information and technical support with the other
FAO regional fisheries projects in the Mediterranean (AdriaMed,
ArtFiMed,
CopeMed II,
EastMed
and MedFisis).
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