FOL participates in a workshop about co-management in small scale fisheries in Baiona (Spain)

When it comes to harvesting Stalked Barnacles, La Anunciada de Baiona is one of the main fisher guilds in Galicia, counting with 50 on foot fishers and more than 30 boats dedicated to the resource.  As in the other galician fisher guilds, barnacle harvesting is carried out as a co-management system between fishers and fishing authorities. This systems allows the development of annual exploitation plans designed by the fishers that need to be validated by the Administration before any extraction starts.

Last Thursday WWF Portugal and Oceano Azul organized a workshop in Baiona to talk about the galician co-management system and how it was first implemented during the 90’s. The workshop was organized under the umbrella of the project co-pesca, which aims to conduct a pilot study to test co-management in the Stalked Barnacles fishery of the Berlengas Natural Reserve (Portugal). Among the fishers and scientists that participated in the event it was our team member Alba Aguión. Alba is conducting a PhD on the implications of Climate Change on Stalked Barnacles management, so the meeting enables her to understand how the managements works from the really inside. Alba also had the chance to talk to the sector about what they think there are the greatest challenges the fishery will face under a changing climate.