PERCEBES meeting at the University of Vigo

PERCEBES aims to provide ecological, genetical and socioeconomic information about stalked barnacles (Pollicipes pollicipes), in an attempt to promote a sustainable extraction of the resource across the South of Europe. The project started in 2017 and it will come to an end during the 2020, when a stakeholders meeting will be held in Asturias (coordinators of the project) to share the results with managers, fishers and NGOs from France, Spain and Portugal.

Last week, researchers coming from Brittany (France), Aveiro and Sines (Portugal) and Oviedo (Spain) met at the University of Vigo to discuss the final steps of the project and plan the stakeholders meeting scheduled for February 2020. Experts working on the genetics, larval dispersal, ecology and socioeconomic aspects of the fishery put together their work and discussed the best ways to share their findings with the scientific community and stakeholders. As part of her PhD, Alba is participating in the ecological and economical aspects of the project. Alba is constructing a bioeconomic model for the fishery in Galicia, with the support of SFG (University of Santa Barbara California) under the supervision of Christopher Costello. She also participates in the ecological part of the project through a human exclusion experiment and a maturity and recruitment analysis of the species in Galicia. In addition,  and taking advantage of the connections done throughout the project, Alba has conducted a review of the different management practices currenty in place for the fishery in Europe – a piece of work presented last october at the International SSF congress in Thailand. From FOL we are happy to be part of PERCEBES and excited to keep up our work to help achieve a sustainable harvest of the resource across Europe!