Overfishing in the Mediterranean Sea

What is the source about, or what is the author’s point?

This article explores the reasoning behind the decrease in fishing units between 1995 and 2016. In this time period, there was a thirty percent decrease in the number of active fishing units. The fishing vessels' productivity peaked between the 1980s and 1990s. Once the fishing companies realized they had overfished the waters, they tried to manage the population of the fish through fisheries but they had already begun to see the consequences. The article states, “The failure of fisheries management in the Mediterranean has negative consequences on local economies because these fisheries are producing lower rents than what would be possible at levels of exploitation compatible with MSY and also on marine ecosystems (among other: negative impacts on marine food webs, marine mammals, sharks or seabirds , and the seafloor)” (Maynou 2020). The MSY refers to the maximum sustainable yield, which is the largest amount of fish that can be caught while maintaining a sufficient long term supply.

Up to the year of 2006, fishing vessels were monitored by the European Union Regulation, which regulated how long vessels were able to fish, but were not limited to a certain amount of fish. At the end of each day, the fish would be sold at a daily auction. Fishing vessels are divided into five subcategories based on where they fish, what they fish for, and the size of their boats. The names of these five categories are, otter bottom trawlers (OTB), purse seiners (PS), small scale coastal fishing (SSCF), surface longlines (LLD) and bottom longlines (LLS) (Maynou).

According to the chart from, “Evolution of fishing capacity in a Mediterranean fishery in the first two decades of the 21st c.”, between the year 2000 and 2018, the total number of active fishing vessels decreased from 894 to 518. There were a variety of reasons vessels decided to leave, loss of revenue, destruction to marine life, lack of investment, and stricter regulations.  The reason the majority did decide to stay in the business is because of the large income the business owners had.

How does this specific source contribute to your research? What did you learn from it?

A main topic of this course focuses on why people do what they do, based on their surroundings. This article does that very thing. The goal of the article is to understand why different companies chose to stay or leave the fishing market over the start of the 21st century. Many factors played a role in these fishermen’s decision making, like less fish in the ocean, stricter regulations, and evolving competitors. Understanding why these fishermen made the choices they made displays that the fish population in the Mediterranean Sea is not in equilibrium, it is actually struggling to survive. This also relates to the topic of this course because of human-environment interaction. The fish themselves are undergoing a significant loss in population, due to people.

What is the source about, or what is the author’s point?

This article is about the importance of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), and displaying an overview of the fishing history in the Mediterranean. The CFP is a set of rules/regulations that manage the fishing fleets in the Mediterranean. The article focuses on two main fisheries, the fishery for sardine and anchovy, and the fishery of Nephrops. The fishery of sardine and anchovy is one of the most studied fishers in the Mediterranean and have begun to help the situation through following the rules of the CFP. Nephrops and many other fisheries have been a victim of the falling stocks regarding the fishing market and have had a substantial loss in revenue.

The reason for the current situation is a product of the history of fishing in the Mediterranean. The Adriatic Sea, the sea to the east of Italy, is a great example of what the fishing industry has done to the Mediterranean. Thousands of years ago this sea flourished with a large variety of marine life. With all of the problems facing the countries over the many years to come, settling of fishing regulations did not seem to be high on their agendas. Between all the surrounding countries there were no agreements on how or where to fish. Now the sea is suffering, with its main losses in anchovies and sardines.

Since the beginning of the CFP in 1982, it has had a hard time regulating all the different fisheries. In 2014, the CFP underwent a new reform as an attempt to solve its flaws. The new revisements seem to be working but the article believes more should be done. The article states, that the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean, GFCM, should, “ improve by all means its framework, and establish a revision process of all the assessments carried out, in a stepwise manner, from the input data to the final advice, to involve external experts from all around the world.” (Piera 2017). In 2016, The GFCM did reduce the legal amount of anchovy and sardine vessels can catch, but there is still a long road ahead to get back to a sustainable sea.

How does this specific source contribute to your research? What did you learn from it?

This relates to the topic of the class because a large part of geography is studying the part to see why the future is the way it is. This article did a similar thing regarding the Adriatic and Mediterranean Sea. Understanding the past, the politics, the fishing strategies, the competitors, and the ocean life, gives people more knowledge about the present and how to improve the current situation.

What is the source about, or what is the author’s point?

The WWF Mediterranean Marine Initiative is designed specifically to try and create sustainable fishing practices in the Mediterranean Sea. They work with other companies to try and show the public all of the risks involving unsustainable fishing. It is important to understand tackling this issue requires support from three different continents, North Africa, Europe, and the Middle East, which is one reason solving this is so complex.

One species the WWF Mediterranean Marine Initiative focuses on is the BlueFin Tuna. The Bluefin Tuna were pushed to the brink of extinction due to the amount of fishing that they endured in the Mediterranean Sea. As a predator towards the top of the food chain, Bluefin Tuna are an essential part of the sea’s ecosystem. Due to their massive amounts of meat, weighing around 525 pounds, the Bluefin Tuna were one of the most targeted fish in the Mediterranean. In 2006, experts predicted the extinction of Bluefin Tuna in the Mediterranean.

The WWF Mediterranean Marine Initiative partnered with other companies to campaign for the tuna, knowing that this could be the chance before they go extinct. Their goal was to persuade the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, ICCAT, to put up stronger regulations to protect the fish, and it worked. Now the WWF tags and tracks the tuna to learn migration habits to see how else they can support the recovery of the species.

How does this specific source contribute to your research? What did you learn from it?

Understanding migration is a large part of geography. Understanding why species travel is critical knowledge required to understand the space and the species itself. The WWF also had to understand the migration of a species, similarly to geologists. In order to help them grow their population back to a sufficient level, which is still going on today, the scientist had to understand what the fish needed to succeed. 

What is the source about, or what is the author’s point?

The article starts by explaining to the reader the importance of healthy marine ecosystems. It states some interesting facts to display the uniqueness of the Mediterranean Sea. One of the facts was that the Mediterranean is home to up to 18% of the sea life in the world, while only being 0.82% of the ocean’s surface. They also state all of the unique and important biomes this body of water provides to sea life.

The article explains to the reader why fishing at a sustainable level ends up being cheaper for everyone involved. Their research suggests that if the fish population recovers, the annual amount of fish that can be caught will be over 2 million tons more than what is currently being caught. Right now, fishing companies are acquiring too many fish to let the population go back to what it could be, which is detrimental to both the ecosystems, and the people. Letting the sea recover would ultimately benefit both parties.

After explaining why the sustainable level for fishing is beneficial, the article introduces the MedFish4Ever Declaration. The MedFish4Ever declaration is signed by all of the countries to cooperate and develop sustainable fishing over the next ten years. The article states, “The MedFish4Ever Declaration is without doubt a great step forward in guaranteeing the future of the Mediterranean Sea, above all bearing in mind the decline of numerous species.” (Chaparro 2021).

How does this specific source contribute to your research? What did you learn from it?

This relates to the topic of the class because it displays the struggle between humans and sea life. The introduction to this course states, “topics that demonstrate how a geographic perspective can enhance our understanding of human behaviors and relationships, with each other, other organisms and the planet.” This article correlates closely to the last part of that quote. The relationship between other organisms and people is an important one that is necessary to grasp in order to comprehend the entire situation.

What is the source about, or what is the author’s point?

The objective of including this source is to lay out a detailed description of the MedFish4Ever declaration. The main goal of this document is to outline the declaration for the public to understand. Their goal is to, “regulate harvesting and end overfishing, illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and destructive fishing practices and implement science-based management plans, in order to restore fish stocks in the shortest time feasible, at least to levels that can produce maximum sustainable yield as determined by their biological characteristics.” (European Union 2022). Using a declaration with regulations that are more distinct will give the Mediterranean Sea a much higher chance of success.

How does this specific source contribute to your research? What did you learn from it?

The source contributes to the research because it gives a much clearer understanding of what the MedFish4Live declaration consists of and what it is trying to accomplish. Understanding this is key to understanding what the current situation is like in the Mediterranean. Using the knowledge gained from earlier research in the story map, readers can now compare this declaration with earlier regulations to paint a clear picture of what works and what does not work when regulating fishermen.

What is the source about, or what is the author’s point?

This source is about who contributes to the microplastics in the Mediterranean Sea, and how much plastic has accumulated total. The main countries that are focused on throughout this paper are Italy, Spain, Greece, France, Croatia, and Turkey. The point the authors are trying to make is that in order to save the Mediterranean Sea, urgent action needs to be implemented. The article states, “The estimated loss due to this marine litter is € 61.7 million every year which is due to the reduction in seafood demand regarding the concern on the quality of fish and other seafood items.” (Sharma 2022). The plastic waste going into the Mediterranean is affecting sea life and putting a large category of Europe's food source at risk.

How does this specific source contribute to your research? What did you learn from it?

This article displays what the sea life in the Mediterranean Sea already has to deal with. When overfishing is placed on top of this it is shocking to see how strong the Mediterranean Sea is in order to be able to maintain any environment at all with all of these obstacles. The Mediterranean Sea is a massive body of water, and extremely important to Europe’s economy and diet, and it is suffering. Saving the Mediterranean is important because it means a reliable food source, which is why it is so important to stop the plastic waste from going into it.

What is the source about, or what is the author’s point?

This research paper summarizes the fish counts in the Mediterranean Sea. It begins by discussing the recent improvements towards restoring the marine populations. It goes on to discuss that the northeastern areas of the Mediterranean have more data than most of the other parts, and throughout the paper they are going to try and find out as many unknowns as they can. In order to do this they created simulations of each specific species to try to grasp a better understanding. The study focuses between 1999 and 2010, with a goal of seeing where we are currently at and what the future will look like.

The results suggest that the situation when this study took place was not satisfactory. The article states, “This meta-analysis of the temporal development of 42 Mediterranean fish stocks covered a 21-year period (1990–2010) to reveal that the poor current state of most stocks, which has also been identified by other recent studies [8, 10], is just a snapshot of a steadily deteriorating trend.” (Vasilakopoulos 2014) Although this is not completely up to date, this paper is still important for understanding the problem.

The paper ends by saying that the CFP can do much more to stop this deterioration. It also states that there are other seas around the world that are having similar issues due to lack of data. The paper hypothesized that their finding could also be beneficial to these seas. The paper’s tone is very direct and urgent, and ends by saying, “fish stock decline reversals in the developed world should leave no room for complacency.” (Vasilakopoulos 2014).

How does this specific source contribute to your research? What did you learn from it?

This research paper relates to the class in many different ways. The most clear way is that geography needs data to find answers. Knowing the actual numbers can explain what the problem is, how intense the problem, and how the problem can be resolved. The research paper did all of those things successfully. Another way this relates to the class is because the results could be able to help other areas of the world. Understanding what we did at one place and knowing what needs to be done to fix it could be translated to other places with similar situations.