Socioeconomic Aspects and Characteristics of Artisanal Fishing in the Marchica Lagoon (Mediterranean, Morocco)

Socioeconomic Aspects and Characteristics of Artisanal Fishing in the Marchica Lagoon (Mediterranean, Morocco)

Manal Demiathi, Asmae Aknaf, Jamal Settih, Hesham Awadh, Mustapha Aksissou, Mohamed Analla
DOI: 10.4018/IJSESD.295969
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Abstract

Marchica lagoon offers very favourable conditions for practice of artisanal fishing which is the main socioeconomic activity carried out in this coastal ecosystem. However, artisanal fishing there suffers from a lack of control and management due to the absence of a data collection system on the various biological and socioeconomic aspects of this fishery. Thus, it considers serious threaten their sustainability. The main purpose of the paper to give a comprehensive account of artisanal fishing and its socioeconomic aspects in the Marchica lagoon, through a survey carried out at five sites around the lagoon. It has been found that there a low level of education among fishermen. The fishermen practiced two gears, pound net and trammel net. The economical analysis showed that the total annual gross product per boat is about 15766,80 USD, which gives an average monthly income of about 1148, 10USD par boat. Therefore, the wealth produced by these fisheries have a real impact on the quality of the fishermen live. Hence, ensure sustainable development of this fishery.
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Introduction

Marine and coastal ecosystems provide a variety of environmental services, including the provision of dietary proteins through fisheries. These fisheries a source of a significant amount of food produced for human consumption (Hart and Pearson 2011), and More than 2.6 billion people rely on seafood as their main source of proteins (Revéret and Dancette 2010).

Artisanal fishing contributes to the national economy through the foreign exchange earned from exports, and to local economies through a significant source of food, employment, and tradition in coastal communities around the world (Fargier 2012; Kittinger 2013; Batista et al. 2014; Smith et al. 2019). It accounts 25% of the worldwide catches and grew rapidly in the last decades (Pauly & Charles 2015; Zeller et al. 2015). Artisanal fishing represents an important part of the fishing sector in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, which involving a large number of small tonnage fleet between 1 and 4 tons, and 80% of the total fleets (FAO 2016). Typically, the artisanal fishing fleet is based on investments of small capitals and characterized by using several fishing gears at the same or different times of the year ( Farrugio, Oliver, and Biagi 1993; Batista et al. 2014;), for targeting a wide variety of invertebrates, demersal and pelagic fishes which representing 5.5% of the world marine fauna (Fredj, Bellan-Santini, and Meinardi 1992; Farrugio et al. 1993; Battaglia et al. 2010; Vitale et al. 2011).

In Morocco, artisanal fisheries consider an important source of livelihood, especially in the costal Moroccan Mediterranean. and plays an important role in the Morocco economy by contributing to national income,  employment and foreign exchange (Awadh et al., 2018). The Moroccan artisanal fishing fleet registered in 2019 in the Alboran Sea, is about 3100 boats based in a total of 90 landings sites for fishing products, including 6 fishing ports, 5 fishing villages, and 8 landing points (Malouli, and Benziane 2021). These boats are built of wood, characteristics by a small size, less than 6 with tonnage between 1 to 2 gross registered tons (GRT), and using a multitude of gears. It targets a wide range of valuable species such as octopus, lobster, spiny lobster, Sea breams, Pageot, Grouper etc. (Nibani, 2010).

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