An evaluation of the use of the Traditional Ecological Knowledge of the fishers in the management of their fisheries: the case of the Galician purse seine fleet ICES Annual Science Conference, A Coruña, 15-19 September 2014 Pablo Pita, Duarte Fernández-Vidal and Ramón Muíño

The use of the TEK of the fishers in the management TEK of fishermen can provide detailed spatial information in a way that is both quick and cost-efficient (Neis et al. 1999). TEK-based mapping may be very accurate (e.g. Anuchiracheeva et al. 2003; Aswani and Lauer 2006). Aswani, S., and Lauer, M. 2006. Benthic mapping using local aerial photo interpretation and resident taxa inventories for designing marine protected areas. Environmental conservation 33: 263-273. Anuchiracheeva, S., Demaine, H., Shivakoti, G.P., and Ruddle, K. 2003. Systematizing local knowledge using GIS: fisheries management in Bang Saphan Bay, Thailand. Ocean & Coastal Management 46: 1049-1068. Neis, B., Schneider, D.C., Felt, L., Haedrich, R.L., Fischer, J., and Hutchings, J.A. 1999. Fisheries assessment: what can be learned from interviewing resource users? Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 56: 1949-1963.

The use of the TEK of the fishers in the management However TEK has been hardly integrated into fisheries management models (Huntington 2000), partly because the lack of studies analysing the reliability and accuracy of the results. Huntington, H.P. 2000. Using Traditional Ecological Knowledge in Science: Methods and Applications. Ecological Applications 10: 1270-1274.

The purse seine fishery of Galicia 4% of the 5000 coastal vessels. 16% of the total fishing power. 33% of the landings. 10% of the first sale value. Scientific spatial knowledge on the fishery is limited or non-existent. Source: Instituto Galego de Estadística (2014) Source: http://www.pescadegalicia.com (2014)

The purse seine fishery of the Ría of Arousa 30 vessels Our study area in the Ría of Arousa Source: http://www.pescadegalicia.com (2014)

TEK-based cartography of fishing grounds We identified local experts by a snowball procedure and performed personal interviews with maps to fishers and skippers, including 3 purse seine vessels. In the interviews, they sketched the extension of the areas where they fish each target species. The information was introduced in a GIS superimposing the information obtained from each fisher to achieve a single layer.

TEK-based cartography of fishing grounds 41 species in 456 km2. 63% finfish. 22% molluscs. 12% crustaceans. 2% equinoderms.

TEK-based cartography of fishing grounds Trachurus trachurus Atlantic horse mackerel Scomber scombrus Atlantic mackerel Diplodus sargus White sea bream

1-year fishery monitoring Data loggers Log-books

1-year fishery monitoring Identification of fishing grounds Speed (km·h-1) Speed (km·h-1) Time Cut V=4 km·h-1

1-year fishery monitoring Identification of fishing grounds 223 log-books 232 fishing routes

1-year fishery monitoring Scientific name English name CPUE ((kg·m-2)·1000) Total Used Ammodytidae Sand eel 5826.12 35.22 Atherina presbyter Sand smelt 11.72 6.97 Belone belone Garfish 68.75 0.00 Boops boops Bogue 4217.24 1074.78 Dicentrarchus labrax European sea bass 2.81 Diplodus sargus White sea bream 426.88 64.14 Engraulis encrasicolus European anchovy 351.56 Isurus oxyrinchus Short fin mako 6.25 Katsuwonus pelamis Skipjack tuna 49.53 16.87 Liza aurata Golden grey mullet 11.20 Merluccius merluccius European hake 17.50 Pagellus bogaraveo Black spot sea bream 23.44 Pagellus acarne Axillary sea bream 34.38 4.65 Salmo trutta trutta Sea trout 0.31 Sardina pilchardus European pilchard 242.97 61.52 Scomber japonicus Chub mackerel 6992.22 759.52 Scomber scombrus Atlantic mackerel 1820.27 326.25 Spondyliosoma cantharus Black sea bream 316.29 101.70 Trachurus picturatus Blue jack mackerel 2619.55 423.40 Trachurus trachurus Atlantic horse mackerel 33781.31 5932.70 Trisopterus luscus Pouting 7.03 56908.14 9182.48 21 species. T. trachurus: 216 t

Coincidences TEK cartography and fisheries monitoring Species Coincidences with TEK cartography Total Reported catches 1 2 3 4 5 Ammodytidae 2063 41 6 39 Diplodus sargus 1149 292 261 337 69 24 9 Engraulis encrasicolus Pagellus bogaraveo 2035 75 15 Sardina pilchardus 671 1439 20 46 Scomber scombrus 364 1303 443 124 200 49 Spondyliosoma cantharus 1956 154 214 10 Trachurus trachurus 398 164 833 182 533 251 125 685 168 373

Coincidences TEK cartography and fisheries monitoring Logistic GAM (Hastie and Tibshirani 1990): positions of the fishing hauls in layers of the TEK-based fishing ground cartography. Even in a multi-species fishery. The fishers tended to fish each species in the same areas included in the TEK cartography, especially when catches were reported in the GPS positions. Furthermore, T. trachurus, with a very detailed cartography, with many overlaps between informants and very captured, was mostly caught in fishing grounds indicated by more than one informant. Hastie, T., and Tibshirani, R.J. 1990. Generalized Additive Models. Chapman and Hall, London.

Contact and information: www.recursosmarinos.net/gap2 www.gap2.eu gap2galicia@gmail.com Acknowledgements This study was financed by GAP2 project (http://gap2.eu/). It would not have been possible without the involvement of our partners in the project: the FGCP (http://www.confrariasgalicia.org/) and the Cofradías of Aguiño, Cambados and Ribeira.