1 SPAIN- METHODOLOGY AND USE OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC INDICATORS FOR MANAGING

1. From a socio-economic perspective, fishing is becoming a more complex activity nearly all over the world. This is a result of the interrelation of different groups of fishermen with sometimes conflicting interests, valuable but limited resources, and a huge consumer market in which demand exceeds supply by far. This delicate situation usually requires management decisions2. Any decision, even if this is one of non-intervention, may give rise to a number of problems. 2. For this reason, managers need objective arguments to support their decisions. Economic indicators are a part of these objective arguments. However, having reliable economic indicators is neither easy nor immediate. It often happens that access to the data necessary for constructing the indicators is very difficult. The methods used by researchers for data collection never coincide with each other, and even some data have never been compiled. 3. We are going to try to show in this analysis some of the synthetic indicators that can be used for the control of the fishery’s activity, which methodology we can use for obtaining them and finally the utility that they can offer the administrator. This exposition is a kind of synthesis of the work done in the frame work of the Socio-economic Subcommittee of Scientific Advisor Committee of General Council of Mediterranean Fisheries by some Spanish and Moroccan researchers3