Abstract
The island of Cyprus has been divided since 1974 into the Turkish Cypriot north and the Greek Cypriot south. Here, we have reconstructed the total marine fishery removals for the island in its entirety, and then for each side. Cyprus’s total marine fisheries catches were reconstructed for the 1950–2010 time period by estimating all fishery removals, including unreported commercial, subsistence and recreational catches, and major discards. These estimates were added to the ‘officially reported’ data, as represented by data submitted by countries to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Such data were submitted by the south, but were absent from the north for years following the 1974 partitioning of the island. The total reconstructed catch for 1950–2010 was nearly 243,000 t, which is 2.6 times the 93,200 t officially reported by FAO on behalf of Cyprus. The unreported components consisted of nearly 57,000 t of large-scale commercial landings, 43,000 t of small-scale commercial landings, 11,000 t each for recreational and subsistence landings and nearly 28,000 t of discards. Improving the accuracy of fishery statistics by accounting for all removals is fundamental for better understanding fisheries resource use thus increasing the opportunities for sustainable development through enhancing fisheries management capacity.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
These data are from records held in the Ministry of Animal Husbandry, and E. Sinay, who has long worked for the ministry personally contacted the former operator of the purse seiner on our behalf to verify the catch composition.
The Behavioural Research Ethics Board (BREB) from the University of British Columbia provided guidance of the survey structure (H13-00012).
To approximate this, in 2013, B.A. Çiçek visited over 8 recreational fishing shelters to approximate what percentage of registered vessels actively fish recreationally.
As of late 2013 in the south, there were only two active bottom trawlers and no active purse seiners in operation.
References
Anon, (Ed.). (1951). Colonial Annual Reports (Cyprus 1946–1950). London: His Majesty’s Stationary Office.
Anon, (Ed.). (1960). Colonial Annual Reports. London: His Majesty’s Stationary Office.
Belhabib, D., Koutob, V., Sall, A., Lam, V. W. Y., & Pauly, D. (2014). Fisheries catch misreporting and its implications: the case of Senegal. Fisheries Research, 151, 1–11.
Benli, H., Cihangir, B., Katagan, T. (2003). The bio-ecological properties of the surrounding waters of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Translated from Turkish report titled ‘Kuzey kıbrıs deniz alanlarının biyoekolojik araştırmaları’. (pp. 90). İzmir: Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi.
Brouwer, S. L., Mann, B. Q., Lamberth, S. J., Sauer, W. H. H., & Erasmus, C. (1997). A survey of the South African shore-angling fishery. South African Journal Marine Science, 18, 165–177.
Çiçek, B. A. (2011). Artificial reefs in North Cyprus: An opportunity to introduce fishermen to sustainable development. In S. Bortone, R. P. Brandini, G. Fabi, & S. Otake (Eds.), Artificial reefs in fishery management (pp. 141–153). Florida, USA: CRC Press.
Cisneros-Montemayor, A. M., Cisneros-Mata, M. A., Harper, S., & Pauly, D. (2013). Extent and implications of IUU catch in Mexico’s marine fisheries. Marine Policy, 39, 283–288.
DFMR (2011). Annual Report 2010. Department of Fisheries and Marine Research (pp. 18). Nicosia, Cyprus.
EastMed (2010). Report on the technical meeting on the Lessepsian migration and its impact on eastern Mediterranean fishery. Scientific and Institutional Cooperation to Support Responsible Fisheries in the Eastern Mediterranean (pp. 140). Athens, Greece, December 7–9, 2010: FAO.
European Union (2007). Pilot study report on the evaluation of discards of the Cyprus fishery. As part of Cyprus’s national fisheries data collection programme (pp. 41): EU Data Collection Regulation (DCR) No 1543/2000, No 1639/2001 and No 1581/2004.
FAO (2010). The state of the world fisheries and aquaculture 2010. (pp. 218). Rome, Italy: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
FAO (2012). The state of the world fisheries and aquaculture 2012. (pp. 230). Rome, Italy: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
Fodera, V. (1961). Report to the government of Cyprus on fishery development possibilities. Expanded program of technical assistance (pp. 82). Rome, Italy: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
Garcia, S., & Demetropoulos, A. (1984). Management of Cyprus fisheries. (pp. 51). Rome, Italy: FAO Fisheries Report.
Garibaldi, (2012). The FAO global capture production database: a six-decade effort to catch the trend. Marine Policy, 36, 760–768.
Hadjimichael, M., Bruggeman, A., & Lange, M. (2014). Tragedy of the few? A political ecology perspective of the right to the sea: the Cyprus marine aquaculture sector. Marine Policy, 49, 12–19.
Hadjistephanou, N., & Vassiliades, L. (2004). The present status of fishery and information system in Cyprus. MedFisis Technical Document, 4.2(GCP/INT/918/EC—TCP/INT/2904/TD-4.2), 59.
Kacowicz, A. M., & Lutomski, P. (Eds.). (2008). Population resettlement in international conflicts: A comparative study. Lantham, MD.: Rowan & Littlefield Publishers Ltd.
Mastrandrea, M., Field, C., Stocker, T., Edenhofer, O., Ebi, K., Frame, D., et al. (2010). Guidance Note for Lead Authors of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report on Consistent Treatment of Uncertainties. IPCC Cross-Working Group Meeting on Consistent Treatment of Uncertainties,Jasper Ridge, CA, USA, 6–7 July 2010 (pp. 7): Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Nader, M. R., Indary, S., & Boustany, L. (2012). The Puffer Fish Lagocephalus sceleratus (Gmelin, 1789) in the Eastern Mediterranean. Eastmed Technical Documents 10 (pp. 41). Athens, Greece: FAO.
Papadakis, Y., Peristianis, N., & Welz, G. (2006). Divided Cyprus: modernity, history, and an island in conflict (pp. 256): Indiana University press.
Pauly, D. (1998). Rationale for reconstructing catch time series. EC Fisheries Cooperation Bulletin, 11(2), 4–7.
Pauly, D. (2006). Major trends in small-scale fisheries, with emphasis on developing countries, and some implications for the social sciences. Maritime Studies (MAST), 4(2), 7–22.
Pawson, M. G., Tingley, D., Padda, G., Glenn, H. (2007). EU contract FISH/2004/011 on Sport Fisheries (or Marine Recreational Fisheries) in the EU. (pp. 242). Suffolk, UK: Cefas.
Rousou, M. (2009). Non-commercial marine invertebrate discards of small-scale coastal fisheries: a case study in Cyprus (Levantine, Eastern Mediterranean Sea) (pp. 69). MSc, University of Plymouth.
Schiller, L., Alava, J., Grove, J., Reck, G., & Pauly, D. (2014). The Demise of Darwin’s Fishes: Evidence of fishing down and illegal shark finning in the Galápagos Islands. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems. doi:10.1002/aqc.2458.
Solsten, E. (Ed.). (1993). Cyprus a country study (4th ed.). Washington: US Government Printing Office.
Sumaila, U. R., Khan, A. S., Dyck, A. J., Watson, R., Munro, G., Tyedmers, P., et al. (2010). A bottom-up re-estimation of global fisheries subsidies. Journal of Bioeconomics, 12, 201–225.
Sumaila, U. R., & Pauly, D. (2006). Catching more bait: a bottom-up re-estimation of global fisheries subsidies. Fisheries Centre Research Reports (pp. 121). Vancouver, BC: Fisheries Centre, University of British Columbia.
Swartz, W., Sala, E., Tracey, S., Watson, R., & Pauly, D. (2010). The spatial expansion and ecological footprint of fisheries (1950 to present). PLoS One, 5(12), e15143.
Ulman, A., Bekişoğlu, Ş., Zengin, M., Knudsen, S., Ünal, V., Mathews, C., et al. (2013a). From bonito to anchovy: a reconstruction of Turkey’s marine fisheries catches (1950–2010). Mediterranean Marine Science, 14(2), 309–342.
Ulman, A., Çiçek, B., Salihoglu, I., Petrou, A., Patsalidou, M., Pauly, D., et al. (2013b). The reconstruction and unification of Cyprus’ marine fisheries catch data, 1950–2010. (pp. 72). Vancouver: Fisheries Centre Working Paper #2013-09, Fisheries Centre, University of British Columbia.
Zeller, D., Booth, S., Davis, G., & Pauly, D. (2007). Re-estimation of small-scale fisheries catches for US flag island areas in the Western Pacific: the last 50 years. Fishery Bulletin, 105, 266–277.
Acknowledgments
We thank everyone in both halves of the island who contributed valuable knowledge and insight to this study. Particular thanks go to Ercan Sinay (Department of Animal Husbandry, TNRC), and Netice Yildiz for her assistance with the history of the island. We thank the Sea Around Us, a scientific collaboration between the University of British Columbia and The Pew Charitable Trusts, for funding A.U., D.P. and D.Z.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Appendix
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ulman, A., Çiçek, B.A., Salihoglu, I. et al. Unifying the catch data of a divided island: Cyprus’s marine fisheries catches, 1950–2010. Environ Dev Sustain 17, 801–821 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-014-9576-z
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-014-9576-z
Keywords
Profiles
- Daniel Pauly View author profile