Socioeconomics effects of the landing obligation enforcement: lessons from a Galician trawlers fleet (NW Spain)

The European Commission (EC) has recognised discards as one of the major challenges facing the Community fishing fleet. The obligation to land all regulated catches has been proposed as a mandatory and essential measure to minimise discarding practices. This paper analyses the economic consequences of enforcement of the Landing Obligation (L.O.) for the Spanish trawler fleet in Iberian Waters. A representative number of in-depth interviews were carried out with ship owners and skippers of the fleet in question, to identify the envisaged operational and logistic problems on board and in port arising from the L.O. Furthermore, the current economic performance of the target fishing companies was analysed using the Input-Output methodology to identify their most significant activity costs. The combination of both research techniques enabled the evaluation of the potential consequences of the new L.O., concluding that, although it will generate minor positive and negative economic impacts, the main issue stems from the loss of quota. Some recommendations, including complementary measures to improve the implementation of the new rule, will be made