Launching the new project PERCEBES

Alba and Elena travelled to Sines, south Portugal, for the first meeting of the Biodiversa Project PERCEBES. A group of experts from Portugal, France and Spain met together at the CIEMAR lab to coordinate the ongoing research on the goose barnacle (Pollicipes pollicipes) fishery, in this new project lead by Jose Luis Acuña from the University of Oviedo.

The PERCEBES project focuses on spatial co-management of the small scale fishery of goose barnacle, and aims at finding solutions for sustainable management by combining hydrodynamic modelling, experimental work and bio-economic modelling. This fishery is associated with high economic profits and supports many livelihoods along the Atlantic Arch region. Since biology features such as larval connectivity, growth or natural mortality of gooseneck barnacles are still unexplored, there is a lot of uncertainty in relation to the optimal management strategy for the fishery

In this first two-day workshop in Portugal researchers realized important differences in this fishery among regions. While recreational fishing is allowed both in France and Portugal with a per person restriction, only commercial fishing is allowed in Spain and is highly regulated. A system of TURFs has been implemented in Galicia and Asturias for the last two decades, with open access patches in the case of Asturias.

Experiments and models will help us understand how connected the populations are and how management can be improved with the best science base. Results from different countries will allow us to compare biological characteristics such as recruitment or growth, as well as finding optimal management rules.