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The Montgó-Dénia Scientific Station against illegal and excessive fishing

November 22 from 2021 - 10: 07

The coordinator of the Montgó-Dénia Scientific Station and professor at the University of Alicante, Cesar Bordehore participates, together with more than 250 researchers from 60 countries, in a global initiative to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) related to fishing. Specifically, SDG 14.6 on "Combat Illegal and Excessive Fishing".

This SDG states that "By 2020, prohibit certain forms of fisheries subsidies that contribute to overcapacity and overfishing, eliminate subsidies that contribute to illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, and refrain from introducing new fisheries subsidies. this nature, recognizing that the negotiation on fisheries subsidies within the framework of the World Trade Organization must include special and differential, appropriate and effective treatment for developing and least developed countries ".

Although we are already in 2021, with a delay due to the stoppage due to the pandemic, a large group of researchers, led by Dr. Rashid Sumaila, professor of Fisheries Economics at the University of British Columbia, among whom is the professor Cesar Bordehore, published on October 28 a letter in the prestigious scientific journal Science where it was indicated the need for the World Trade Organization to seriously address fisheries subsidies, avoiding those that favor fishing overexploitation and consequently the reduction of catches, and on the contrary, the funds were rationalized and supported at an economic level sustainable and local fisheries.

This initiative joins a first letter also published in Science on June 4, and where the coordinator of the Montgó-Dénia Scientific Station, along with 20 other researchers from around the world, including Professor Sumaila, asked the UN for a greater protection of biodiversity in international waters and fishing grounds, many of which are overexploited.

As a result of this second publication in Science and of the importance of the initiative, of global significance, some of the participating researchers met with the Director General of the WTO, Okonjo-Iweala, on November 5. At this meeting, the WTO Director-General was receptive and sensitive to the issue and has shared this letter with WTO Members and noted that it is a clear reminder to Members of the need to conclude these lengthy negotiations on the fisheries subsidies and help prevent the depletion of marine fish stocks and biodiversity. This aspect will be discussed at the WTO's Twelfth Ministerial Conference (CM12), which begins later this month.

Throughout this academic year, several work meetings will be held at the Montgó-Dénia Scientific Station with the presence of some of the signing researchers, from different countries, in which aspects related to fishing effort and the regeneration of fishing grounds will be discussed. . "It should be noted that the best way to ensure the future of fishing is, on the one hand, by adapting the fishing effort to the natural regeneration capacity of the fishing grounds and, on the other hand, by creating protected marine areas of sufficient size," they warn from the Station .

Marine Observatory

In relation to this need to establish protected marine areas where no extractive, professional or recreational activity is carried out, the Scientific Station requested a project from the Generalitat call "Think in Azul" of the Ministry of Innovation, Universities, Ciencia y Sociedad Digital, to establish a marine observatory on the coasts of Oliva, Dénia and Xàbia, and where it is intended to study the convenience of expanding the Cabo de San Antonio Fishing Reserve from the current 250 ha (with only 150 ha. of integral reserve) to about 1.400 ha, as well as the Tabarca Marine Reserve, in Alicante-Santa Pola. This expansion would mean an improvement in professional catches outside protected waters, as well as promoting diving as a recreational activity with high added value and a seasonal adjustment to tourism.

In this proposal, coordinated by the Scientific Station, both researchers from the University of Alicante, as well as the Polytechnic University of Valencia, the Miguel Hernández University, the Jaume I University of Castelló and two reference centers in marine studies of the CSIC (Center of Estudios Avançats de Blanes and IMEDEA, of Palma).

With these initiatives, the Montgó-Dénia Scientific Station consolidates its capacity to generate science both with international repercussions and linked to the knowledge of the territory of the Marina Alta.

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