SOS for turbot in Black Sea

published on 4/6/12 2:50 PM

Photo: wikipedia.org

Not so many are the fish species of economic importance in the Bulgarian Black Sea. After the disappearance of the mackerel in the 1960s, the three most important commercial species have remained the Black Sea turbot, Black Sea anchovy and sprat. But their population has recently decreased dramatically. Out of these three species, fishermen catch, when they are lucky of course, a few additional species of tasty fish like belted bonito, sea mullet, shad Black Sea, horse mackerel, mullet or priestling. But nowadays they ever more rarely get caught in their nets.

For some time now the European Commission has imposed on Bulgaria and Romania restrictive quotas for turbot and sprat. However, the biggest problem of fishing in the Black Sea is that the other coastal countries, which are not EU member states, have no such restrictions and that fact puts Bulgaria and Romania in a great disadvantage. Using precisely this argument the two countries succeeded in avoiding the reduction of their quotas last year as EC insisted. The truth is that 85 percent of turbot catch is made by Turkey, 10 percent by Bulgaria and Romania, and only five percent by the rest of the countries. Currently the permitted quota for turbot catch by EC is 43.2 tons per year for Bulgaria and Romania.

In the meantime, scientists from the Institute of Oceanology, the Institute for Fish Resources and the Institute of Biodiversity at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences sounded the alarm that even these limited quotas for catch of turbot may lead to its extinction in the very near future. According to their studies, the past five years saw a ten-fold decrease of the stocks of this most important export fish for Bulgaria. The current stocks of turbot in our waters is estimated at a modest 180 tons. The situation is really more than critical. For this reasons, several environmental organizations, including For the Earth and Greenpeace-Bulgaria support the demand of scientists for the introduction of at least a one-year moratorium on turbot fishing in the 12-mile zone, where it sprawns. The same position has been adopted by the Ministry of Environment and Water of Bulgaria.

"From 2010 until now, the population of turbot has shrunk two times and this is very scary news because turbot is a major commercial species, said for Radio Bulgaria Denitsa Petrova from Greenpeace-Bulgaria. “Moreover, the turbot is a predator and maintains the equilibrium of the ecosystem in the Black Sea. If it disappears, which may happen in the coming years there will be other negative consequences. This is why really needed tough measures are needed. Back in the 1960s, the Black Sea mackerel disappeared as a specie and never returned to the Black Sea. The turbot may share the same grim fate in a year or two if nothing is done now. Its population has declined drastically but what is more worrying is that it is with a modified structure. Older individuals in adulthood are hardly ever met. There are mostly small-sized and young turbot still unable to reproduce. This is why, the scientists not only support the one-year ban, but some of them propose at least a three-year ban on the catch of turbot to be introduced which will allow the fish to sprawn. This will help the turbot to "fill the ranks", so to speak. All this is also in view of protecting the interests of fishermen. Because if there is no fish, there will be no fishermen."

The urgent request for a temporary ban on turbot fishing is backed up by associations of smaller fishermen, but faces opposition from the larger commercial fishing vessels. They fear that if they are not present on the turbot market for a year, they will lose in the competition with Turkey, which will continue to fish commerially and will therefore reduce the population of turbot. Another problem for this valuable fish is the poaching with bottom trawls, banned in Bulgaria.

This is what Denitsa Petrova says on this issue:
"The turbot is a demersal fish and much of it dies in such fishing practices as poaching with bottom trawls which are prohibited by law, but the authorities seem to turn a blind eye. If you go to the port of Varna, you can see these trawls, which appears to be tolerated by the authorities. I myself am from Varna and I get sick to watch how the population of a fish species is left to disappear without thinking at all what happens to our Black Sea in the long run."

To the claims of the large commerical fishing companies that the chief culprit for the disappearance of turbot in the Black Sea is Turkey, Denitsa Petrova responds the following:
"The stocks of turbot, which inhabit the Bulgarian coast are our reserve and it does not migrate. So we are responsible for its storage or destruction, which is a pending threat. I hope we won’t have talk about the disapperance of Black Sea turbot a year from now."

English version: Delian Zahariev

По публикацията работи: Maria Dimitrova

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SOS for turbot in Black Sea

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