TOTAL PROJECT COST – €300.000

IN PROGRESS

• Alliance with other foundations:Marilles Foundation, Blue Marine Foundation, Ibiza Preservation Foundation, Mallorca Preservation Foundation and Conservation Collective.
• Project Duration: 3 years
• Area of Interest: Sea

Menorca Preservation, Marilles Foundation, Blue Marine Foundation, Ibiza Preservation Foundation, Mallorca Preservation Foundation and Conservation Collective have joined forces to carry out a study that will allow us to have a more defined picture of what kind of infractions occur in the Balearic Islands with fishing sector and its commercialisation.

Goals:

• To promote the responsible supply of Balearic seafood products to the Balearic Islands market.
• To promote improvements in the fisheries of the Balearic Islands.
• To reduce illegal fishing in the Balearic Islands.
• Coordinate the Calant Xarxes alliance to align objectives, find synergies and exchange knowledge among its members.

The Balearic Islands have one of the best conserved marine environments in the Mediterranean, 20 percent of the Balearic Sea and 40 percent of the inland waters are under legal protection and these marine protected areas have begun to restore fish stocks. There is a growing awareness among consumers about the provenance of the fish on their plate and an increasing demand for high quality, local seafood products that are sustainably caught. However, only 10% of the fish and seafood on the market in the Balearic Islands is local.

In addition, the Balearics have a relatively small fishing fleet that incorporates pioneering practices. This creates the potential to become a leader in marine conservation; however, challenges remain.

In 2020 Ibiza & Formentera Preservation, Mallorca Preservation, Menorca Preservation, Marilles Foudnation, and the English Conservation Collective and Blue Marine Foundation joined forces to fund a qualitative study of the situation of illegal fishing in the Balearic Islands. As a result, the Marilles Foundation developed the study Illegal Fishing in the Balearic Islands, Diagnosis and Solutions which shed light on fishing practices in the Balearic Islands.

The results of the IUU fishing study, followed by the workshops held in 2021 provided a diagnosis of the problem and the interventions needed to address it. The problem of illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing is prevalent in all four islands, with a small but significant number of professional and recreational fishermen, as well as restaurants and traders, regularly committing infractions, compromising efforts to move towards marine conservation and sustainable management of the fishery resource.

By fostering collaboration between fishermen’s associations, government agencies, NGOs, marine biologists, restaurants, fishmongers, distributors and consumers, the Calant Xarxes alliance initiatives aim to establish an interconnected ecosystem to preserve marine resources, cultivating a legacy of environmentally conscious practices for future generations.