Current state of knowledge on exploited cephalopods in the Italian waters

2009·3.3 MB·English

by  Patrizia Jereb

1
Boll. Malacol.,45 111-116(suppl. 2009)
Current state of knowledge on exploited cephalopods
in the Italian waters
Patrizia Jereb (El) & Sabrina Agnesi
IstitutoSuperioreperla Abstract
Protezioneela Ricerca Data collectionson catch and effortand estimates oftheeconomic parameters related tothe Italian fishery
Ambientale(ISPRA), are produced by the Institute for Economic Research on Fisheries and Aquaculture (IREPA). Recently, IREPA
Viadi Casalotti 300, carried outa throughout revision ofthe existing data collection system, in orderto improvefisheries statis-
00166 Roma, Italy, tics reliability and to better satisfy the requirements of the European Commission. This allowed to get de-
patrizia.jereb@
ispraambiente.it tailed information previously not available and more adequately reliable data on fisheries resources, includ-
(El)Corresponding ing cephalopods. Based on these recent databases, cephalopod landings during the years 1999-2002 are
Author described and analyzed according to main fishing gear and different group/species. The decreasing trend
shown bycephalopod landingsofthe last decades in the Mediterranean Sea and In the Italian fishery(FAO
data), isevident: the Italian cephalopod production reached its lowervalue in 2002. Possible reasonsforthis
decreasing trend are commented. A national research projectcarried out 20years agoto investigatefisher-
iesstatisticson a local scalealso iscommented to promoteand stimulate discussion. Lastly, perspectivesfor
cephalopod fisheries areconsidered and the continuous increase ofthe Italian cephalopod imports, both in
values and quantity, brieflycommented.
Riassunto
I dati relativi allecatture, allo sforzo ed alle stime dei parametri economici riguardanti la pesca italiana sono
oggi forniti dall'Istituto per la Ricerca Economica sulla Pesca e l'Acquacoltura (IREPA). Recentemente l'IREPA
ha effettuato un accurato processo di revisione del sistema di raccolta dei dati, nell'ottica di migliorare l'at-
tendibilità delle statistiche della pesca e rispondere in maniera più soddisfacente alle esigenze dell'Unione
Europea. Ciò ha consentitodi ottenere Informazioni dettagliate in passato non disponibili edati più attendi-
bili sulle varie risorse oggetto di pesca, inclusi i cefalopodi. Questa banca dati è stata utilizzata nel presente
lavoroperanalizzareedescriverelecatturedicefalopodi verificatesi nel quadriennio 1999-2002, persistema
di pesca e perraggruppamenti e/o specie. L'analisi ha confermato l'andamento decrescente già evidenziato,
per la pesca italiana, nelle ultime decadi (dati FAO), con il minimo 'storico' raggiunto nel 2002. Tale anda-
mentoviene brevementecommentato. Perstimolare e promuovere ulteriori approfondimenti sull'argomen-
to, si commentano anche i risultati di un progetto specifico sul rilevamento delle statistiche della pesca
condotto in Italia 20 annifa. Vengono infine riportatealcuneconsiderazioni sulle prospettive della pesca del
cefalopodi nel nostro Paese, anche alla luce del continuo aumento delle importazioni di questa risorsa.
Key words
Cephalopoda, fishery, Italian waters, recenttrends, current knowledge.
Introduction This is not a new concept in the Italian context; more
than 20 years ago the qualitycheckprogrammePESTAT
The availability ofreliable information on fishery statis- (Bazigos et al., 1984; Cingolani et al., 1986), based on
tics in Mediterranean countries is hampered by several sampling surveys, was designed and carried outby the
factors: the existence of a very large number of landing Istitutodi Ricerchesulla Pesca Marittima (IRPEM) ofthe
places scattered along the coastlines; the presence of ConsiglioNazionaledelleRicerche(CNR),withthetech-
highly diversified and large fishing fleets; the fact that nical assistance of FAO. Results were very interesting,
most fisheries operate without a system of catch quota butthedatacollectionsystemwasconsidered tooexpen-
management; the fact that only a fraction of the fishery sivetobecomea routinelyapplied method on a national
products is sold through formally organized markets, scale.
and that most of the fisheries are multi-specific. In this In recent years too many national and international
peculiar situation, conventional tools used to compute agencieswith differentspecificcompetencesoperated in
fisheries statisticselsewhere, like logbooks, landingdec- Italytogatherstatistical information,e.g.theIstitutoNa-
larations and sales records, do notworkadequately. Re- zionaledi Statistica (ISTAT), the Istitutodi Ricerche Eco-
cently, a general consensus developed on the opportu- nomicheperla Pescael'Acquacoltura (IREPA), theMin-
nity to use sampling surveys carried out on the base of istero delle Politiche Agricole e Forestali (MIPAF), the
statistical designs and ad hoc elaborated methodological European Union and FAO. An operational decision was
procedures to get the needed information; this would eventuallytakenbytheItalianadministrationandIREPA
then be expanded to produce the overall estimates by was identified to start a process of throughout revision
usingrobuststatistical procedures. of the existing data collection system, in cooperation 1 1
with ISTAT. This resulted in the elaboration of detailed
and specific procedures aimed to improve the quality of
theinformationcollectedand increasethenumberofpa-
rameters to monitor. Results were considered successful
and since 2002 IREPA is the official reference Institution
for theproduction ofthe Italian fishery statistics.Aimof
this work is to describe the present Italian cephalopod
fishery, based on the IREPA new database (1999-2002)
analysis (IREPA,2002);thecooperationexistingbetween
ICRAMandIREPAallowed toacquiredataandinforma-
tion not published on the IREPA official Yearbooks due
to the specificityofthe detailsconsidered.
Patrizia
Jereb Material and methods
&
Sabrina Along with the PESTAT conceptual approach, though
thestatisticsappliedby the twoproceduresmayslightly
differ (forall the statisticaldetails and specificssee Bazi-
Agnesi
gos et al, 1984; Cingolani et al., 1986; IREPA, 2002), the
LIGURIA Genova
Imperia
Savona
TUSCANY Livorno
Portoferraio Fig. 1.Cephalopod landingsin 2002 (IREPAdatabase): A. Percentagesof
Viareggio cephalopodsandtheothermaincommercialfisheriescategoriesoverthe
total fishery landings; B. Percentagesofthe main cephalopods commer-
LATIUM Civitavecchia cial groupsoverthetotal cephalopod landings.
Gaeta
Roma Fig. 1. Cefalopodi sbarcati nel 2002 (banca dati IREPA): A. Percentuali di
cefalopodi e delle altre principali categorie di pescato commerciale sul
CAMPANIA Napoli totale del pescato sbarcato; B. Percentuali dei principali gruppi commer-
cialidicefalopodisultotaledeicefalopodisbarcati.
Salerno
CALABRIA ViboValentia
SARDINIA Cagliari IREPA methodology consists in a single stage stratified
PortoTorres sampling by two stratification variables: maritime re-
gions (i.e. a geographical stratification) and fishing sys-
SICILY Catania
tems (i.e. a technical stratification); these include trawl-
Marsala
MazaradelVallo ers, purse-seiners, mid-water pair trawlers, dredgers,
Milazzo small scale fisheries, multi-purpose vessels and tuna
Sciacca fisheries, according to the official denomination of the
Trapani Italian fishing fleet/gears (AA.VV., 2003).
Palermo Main goals of the investigation are the evaluation of
Siracusa fishing effort and activity, the evaluation of landings
APULIA Bari and prices by group of species and the evaluation of
Manfredonia economics.
Molfetta Datacollectioniscarriedoutbymeansofthreequestion-
ABRUZZI Pescara naires: an annual questionnaire to record technical, di-
mensional and vessel-management information on the
MARCHE Ancona
sample units and relevant socio-economic aspects; a
Pesaro
quarterly questionnairetorecord dataon fixed and vari-
SanBenedettodelTronto
able costs, and on social aspects ofproperty and crew; a
EMILIAROMAGNA Ravenna weekly questionnaire to record information reporting
Rimini activitysuchasfishingtimeandarea,averagenumberof
VENETO Chioggia crew members, gears used, quantities, prices and reve-
Viareggio nues - as per species or group of species - and trade
channelforsales. Theselected landingplacesarereport-
Tab. 1. Landing placesselected byIREPAsystemofstatistical datacollec-
tion (IREPA, 2001). ed in Tab. 1.
Data collectors are chosen among operators from the
Tab. 1. Punti di sbarco selezionati dal sistema IREPA per la raccolta dati
112 statistici (IREPA, 2001). productive or management fishery sectors; this repre-
sent a brand new approach, aimed to obtain more relia-
1999 2000 2001 2002
ble and timely data. Periodic inspections are carried out
inordertochecktheirwork,anddataaresentdirectly to Longfinsquid 2.212 2.101 1.662 1.218
the IREPAservervia internet. Shortfinsquid 4.257 3.022 3.158 3.565
Squids 6.469 5.124 4.819 4.783
Results Eledonespp. 1.792 1.210 1.135 6.126
Octopusspp. 14.958 15.042 14.726 7.453
With a total of slightly over 26,600 tonnes, cephalopods
represented 9% of total Italian landings in 2002 (Fig. 1 Octopods 16.751 16.252 15.861 13.578
A), the main fraction of which was constituted by octo-
Cuttlefishes 14.525 14.915 13.211 8.281
pods (51%), followed by cuttlefishes (31%) and squids
(18%) (Fig. 1 B). TOTAL 37.745 36.291 33.892 26.642 Current
Trawlers account for the major component of cephalo- Tab. 2. Italian cephalopod production (tonnes) by main group and year
pod catches, over50% of the overall catch in 2002; small (IREPAdatabase). state
scale fisheries still constitute the second most important Tab.2. Produzioneitalianadicefalopodi(tonnellate)percategoriaeanno of
group ofcephalopodcatchingmethods,but the percent- (bancadati IREPA)
ageofthelandingsoverthetotalislowerthan in thepast knowledge
and the sameis true also for the multi-purpose fisheries. trend of the landings observed from 1999 till 2002 (i.e.
TheItalianregion contributing tothe total Italiancepha- from over 37,700 in 1999 to slightly over 26,600 tonnes on
lopod landings with the highest percentage is Sicily landed in 2002) affected longfinsquid, cuttlefish and oc-
(fishingarea:StraitofSicily),followedbyApulia (fishing topods landings (Tab. 2); as for the octopods group, the exploited
area: southern Adriatic and Ionian Sea), 18 and 16% re- sudden increasein the Eledonespp. landings,oppositeto
spectively, and then by the group formed by Tuscany the abrupt decrease in Octopus spp. landings, is an arte-
(fishing area: Tyrrhenian Sea), Veneto and Marche (fish- fact due to the improvement in the accuracy of the spe- cephalopods
ing area: northern and middleAdriatic Sea) (Fig. 2). cies identification by the operators, therefore only the
In
The Italian region for which cephalopods represent a trendofthegroupasawholeshouldbeconsideredwhen
relatively higher component of the regional landings, using this set of data. As for the main fishing systems the
however, areTuscany,Sardinia and Campania, followed used to catch cephalopods, a major decrease in landings Italian
by Veneto and Abruzzi (Fig. 3). The general decreasing is shown in the small scale fisheries, followed by the
multi-purpose fisheries, while trawl catches decreased waters
only slightly (Fig. 4).
Discussion
The overall Italian fishery production in the Mediterra-
nean Sea had been decreasing constantly over the last
Pestat Irepa
Cephalopods 7 8
Othermolluscs 1 1
Sicily
Crustaceans 7 20
Fish 85 71
Cephalopods 10 7
Northern Othermolluscs 22 2
Adriatic Sea Crustaceans 5 10
Fish 63 81
Cephalopods 12 7
Southern Othermolluscs 29 27
Adriatic Sea Crustaceans 1 6
Fish 58 60
Fig.2.Cephalopod landingsbyRegion (% overthetotal Italiancephalo- Tab.3.ComparisonbetweenPESTAT(1982)andIREPA(2002)analysesof
pod landings) in 2002 (IREPAdatabase). Thosevessels authorized tofish cephalopodlandings(%)inrelationtotheothermainfisheryresourcesby
tuna representanadditionalspecificstratum. mainfisheryproductivegeographicalareas.
Fig.2.Cefalopodisbarcati perregione(% sultotaledeicefalopodi italia- Tab. 3. Confrontofra leanalisi PESTAT(1982) e IREPA(2002)dei cefalo-
ni sbarcati) nel 2002 (banca dati IREPA). Le imbarcazioni autorizzate alla podisbarcati, in percentuale rispettoallealtrecategoriedi pescato perle
pescadeltonnorappresentanounstratospecificoaggiuntivo. principali areegeografichedi produzione. 1 13
FRIULI
LIGURIA
41% 50%
86%
M)
aN s<sXV"5% 40/° 58o/0
0% 10% 4% i W' VENETO
4%
TUSCANY
EMILIA ROMAGNA
66%
Patrizia
MARCHE
Jereb _
53%
&
Sabrina
Agnesi
2% 10%
7<y0
1% 8% 0% 10% 9%
Fish EB Crustaceans B3 Cephalopods E3 Other Molluscs
Fig. 3. Cephalopod landings percentage in relationtotheothermain fisherycategories, by Region, in 2002 (IREPAdatabase).
Fig. 3. Percentualedel cefalopodisbarcati in relazioneallealtreprincipalicategoriedi pescato perregione nel 2002 (bancadati IREPA).
decade: withcatch levels around 300,000 tonnes in 2002, It is not possible to use PESTAT and IREPA datasets to
the Italian fishery industry registered itsworstoutcome. perform statistical cross analysis and/or comparisons;
This reduction in landings is shown alsoby cephalopod however, it is possible to jointly view the situation de-
landings, and this represents an unusual situationin the scribedfortheyear1982bythePESTATsamplingsurvey
general frameofthecephalopod fisheryworldwide. The and thatdescribed forthe year2002by the IREPAinves-
reduction of the Italian fishing effort (in terms of both tigation, to promote and stimulate further discussion
reductionofthefishing fleetand activity) occurred since andtargetedstudies.Thiscomparison(Fig. 6)showsthat
the end of the '90s (IREPA, 2002), may partially explain whilethe fractionofcephalopodlandingsin2002would
at leasta fraction oftheobserved decrement, e.g. the de- representmoreorlessthesamepercentage,inrelation to
creasewhich affected the artisanal fishery. However, the other fishery resources, as the fraction landed in 1982,
more general trend shown by the analysis of historical the situation changes when looking at the main Italian
series of data of cephalopod landings (Fig. 5) (FAO, fishery productionsectors (Tab. 3): here a decrease ince-
2004a), indicates that the decrease started far before the phalopod landings is detectable in theAdriaticarea.
beginning ofthe reduction ofthe Italian fishingeffort. Interestingly, this is what is reported by the FAO year-
The fact thata decrement in landingsisshownbyall the book statistics referring to the Mediterranean Sea (FAO,
three commercially exploited groups also is peculiar: it 2004a), where numbers point out a decrease in cephalo-
mayindicatethatfactorsotherthanthereductionoffish- pod landings in the Adriatic and Ionian Sea, while non
ing effort are affecting the landings amount (e.g. a true significant trends are detectable for the western and
1 14 decrease in the cephalopod exploited populations). eastern Mediterraneanbasins.
Conclusions
Cephalopod value as fishery resource increased world-
wideinthelastdecadeandEuropeispresently themain
world cephalopod market (FAO, 2004b). Spain and Italy
were the second and third country in the world respec-
tivelyasforcephalopod importquantity in2001 and Ita-
lywasatthethirdplace,afterJapanandSpain,asforthe
imported value (over 420 million US dollars [FAO,
2004b]). This peaked to slightly less than 530 million in
2002, which represented about 18% of the total Italian
fishery imported value in the same year. This undoubt-
edly confirms the importance of the cephalopods re- Current
source forthe Italianeconomy and market. fN
This considered, the above reported observations, Years state
of
thoughonlydescriptive,clearlysupporttheopportunity
Italy Mediterranean Sea
to promote target studies on the Italian cephalopods
fisherytobetterunderstand thepresentsituationand its Fig. 5.Cephalopod landingsintheMediterraneanSeaintheyears 1970- knowledge
possible developments. 2002 (FAOdatabase)(FAO, 2004a).
The improvement of the quality of the available infor- Fig. 5. Cefalopodl sbarcati nel Mediterraneo negli anni 1970-2002 (ban- on
mation in terms of additional detailed elaboration of cadati FAO)(FAO, 2004a).
exploited
data collected (national IREPA database), possible at a
local level depending on local policies, could help in
gathering ever more complete descriptions on cephalo-
pod fisheryat the necessary detailed scale. cephalopods
Studies focused on the market structure and prices
in
trendsandpressurescouldhelp understandingwhether
the
and how foreign product affects national production, as
forfrozenproducts. Italian
Studyfocusedonthesmall scalefisherycouldhelpinbet-
ter quantifying the importance of cephalopod for small, waters
localentities and help in supporting futuredecisionsand
strategies,asforfresh productsand highvaluedspecies.
Additional information from national research projects
(e.g.nationaltrawlsurveys)analysedbymeansofdiffer-
entmethodologies,includingnewapproaches(e.g.Jereb
Fig. 6.Comparison between PESTAI(1982)and IREPA(2002)analysesof
cephalopod landings(%)in relationtotheothermainfisheryresources.
Fig.6.Confrontofraleanalisi PESTAI(1982)eIREPA(2002)deicefalopo-
disbarcati, in relazione % con lealtrecategoriedi pescato.
etal.,2005), andcombined with environmental informa-
tion could help understanding the situation of the re-
sourceat sea.
Acknowledgements
Fig. 4. Cephalopod landings by main fishing system in the years 1999-
2002 (IREPAdatabase).
Fig. 4. Cefalopodi sbarcati per metodo di pesca negli anni 1999-2002 We heartily thank Maria Cozzolino (IREPA Institute)
(bancadati IREPA). and IREPA for their total support and efficient coopera- 1 1 5
/
fiori, without which the present study would not have
beenpossible. Also, our deep thanks go to the colleague
and friend Nando Cingolani for his critical reading of
the draft manuscript. Last but not least, our thanks to
Rafael La Perna for his help in the illustrations editing.
Finally, we acknowledge that this work was performed
within the E.U. Research ProjectCEPHSTOCK (Cephalo-
pod Stocks in European Waters: Review, Analysis, Assess-
ment and Sustainable Management), Concerted Action
2002-05.
Patrizia References
Jereb AA.W., 2003. Economic Assessment of European Fisheries.
& Annual Report. European CommunityConcertedAction Q5CA
- 2001 - 01502. Within RTD Programme "Quality of the Life
Sabrina
andManagementofLivingResources".
BazigosG.,CingolaniN.,CoppolaS.R.,LeviD.,MorteraJ.
Agnesi & Bombace G., 1984. Studio di fattibilità per un sistema di
rilevazione campionaria delle statistiche della pesca (PES-
TAI). Parte I - Statistiche sulla Flottiglia da Pesca. Quaderni
dell'Istituto Ricerche Pesca Marittima, Ancona, 4 (1), suppl.:
1-358.
Cingolani N., Coppola S.R. & Mortera 1986. Studio di
fattibilità per un sistema di rilevazione campionaria delle
statistiche della pesca (PESTAT). Parte II - Statistiche sulle
CattureesulloSforzodi Pesca. Quadernidell'IstitutoRicerche
Pesca Marittima, Ancona, 5 (1), suppl. (Ia e 2a Parte): 1-279 +
1-753.
FAO, 2004a. Fishstatplus (v. 2.30). GFCM (Mediterraneanand
Black Sea) captures production (1970-2002). www.fao.org/
fi/statist/fisoft/fishplus.asp.
FAO,2004b.Fishstatplus(v.2.30).Commoditiestradeandpro-
duction(1976-2002).www.fao.org/fi statist/fisoft/fishplus.
asp.
IREPA, 2002. Osservatorio economico sidle strutture produttive
della pesca marittima in Italia: 2001-2002. Irepa Ricerche, 343
PP-
Jereb R, Cucce; D., Giordano D., Maiorano P. & Ragonese
S., 2005. Using historical series of trawl surveys data to in-
vestigatecephalopods: a new method ofexploratory analy-
sis. BiologiaMarinaMediterranea,12(1):526-530.
Lavororicevuto il 1.3settembre2005
116 Lavoroaccettato il 22luglio2009