SAFESEA - Sustainable local fisheries and promotion of a safe sea for cetaceans

The SAFESEA project aims, during a period of two and a half years, attaining information at: evaluation of status of small cetaceans populations, evaluation of incidental capture of cetaceans in gillnets, purse-seine and beach purse-seine fisheries and implementation of a pilot essay of deterrent devices (pingers and acoustic enhanced nets) in order to decrease incidental capture of cetaceans. Simultaneously we intend to increase the awareness of local fisherman communities, towards a more sustainable exploitation of sea resources and to the conservation of threatened species.

These information’s will ultimately contribute to allowing fishing activities to become compatible with cetacean conservation and therefore contribute to sustainable development of local fisheries.

Cetacean strandings are very frequent in the central-northern region of Portugal and many of such events present signs of incidental capture, leading to a growing concern, particularly about the status of harbour porpoise population, which may be threatened. In Portugal, information about the intensity of incidental captures is still lacking (without estimates of incidental capture for species or fishing methods).

Through the direct participation of local fishermen associations, this project will be contributing to the sustainability of the fisheries and the conservation of threatened species not as a result of government imposed laws or exterior ideas but as a consequence of their own efforts. In fact, we will try to show that conservation and sustainability measures resulting from fishermen recommendation are more effective with higher probability of succeeding.

The area for the implementation of SAFESEA, will be the central and northern coast of Portugal, between the Village of S. Martinho do Porto and Caminha, covering an area of about 500 km. The area that will be monitored goes from the coastal line till the 200 meters bathymetric line (30 to 50 km from the coast). In this area it is possible to find some of the most important Portuguese fishing harbours and very important local fishing communities, known to be dependent upon traditional methods of fishing.

Last Modified: 02/09/2009