Development and Perspectives for Community-Based Management of the Goose Barnacle (Pollicipes Pollicipes) Fisheries in Galicia (NW Spain)

Abstract

[Abstract] The goose barnacle, "Pollicipes pollicipes", is an intertidal cirripede that lives attached to rocks on very exposed shores, forming dense aggregations. It occurs in the northeast Atlantic (from 48 to 14◦N). Commercial fisheries have been developed in several countries, but except for a short-lived local consumption, most of the production is traded in the Spanish market, where the price can reach ?80/kg in first-sale auctions. This species shows a strong spatial structure, constituting metapopulations with local adult populations sharing a common larval pool. Advection of larvae depends largely of oceanographic conditions that govern larval transport and survival. In Galicia (NW Spain), the regional government regulations promote a co-management system between fishers’ organisations (“cofradías”) and the fisheries authority through territorial user rights for fishing (TURFs). Since 1992, the exploitation is granted to “cofradías” after presentation of an annual plan of exploitation and management, where fishing (daily allocation of effort, maximum individual quotas and area of exploitation), surveillance and the commercialisation processes are established. The recent implementation of a geographic information system (GIS) designed for the management of Pollicipes in Galicia will allow for new ways to improve the elaboration and control of management plans by fishers’ organisations using a combination of the available statistical data and computer-based methods. The system, including databases and software for the visualisation of geographic information, was designed for independent use in each “cofradía” or in a network, and its results are accessible in a web site (http://sigremar.cesga.es)