4. Country examples: Croatia 3
4.2 CASE STUDY: THE SAVA RIVER FISHING AREA WITH COMMERCIAL AND RECREATIONAL FISHING
The Sava River Basin is a major drainage basin of Southeastern Europe and one of the most significant sub-basins of the Danube River Basin. Its total area equals 97 713 km2, which represents 12 percent of the total Danube Basin area. The moderate climate of the northern hemisphere prevails in the basin. The average annual air temperature for the whole basin is 9.5 ˚C. The mean monthly temperature in January falls to about 1.5 ˚C, while in July it can reach almost 20 ˚C. The Sava River is formed by two mountainous streams – Sava Dolinka and Sava Bohinjka. From their confluence at Radovljica (Slovenia) to its mouth to the Danube, the Sava River is 945 km long, being the third longest tributary of the Danube. Together with its longer headwater, the Sava Dolinka River measures 990 km. The Sava River represents the richest water in the Danube tributary. Having the long-term average discharge at the river mouth of about 1 700 m3/s, it contributes almost 25 percent to the Danube’s total discharge. The basin hosts the largest complex of alluvial wetlands in the Danube Basin and large lowland forest complexes. It is unique for some of the floodplains still being intact, thus supporting biodiversity and flood alleviation.
There are 167 protected areas in total, including six Ramsar sites, eight national parks, as well as numerous important bird and plant areas, protected areas at the national level, and Natura 2000 sites (Komatina and Grošelj, 2015). Fish and lamprey fauna of the River Sava catchment consists of 74 species, 5 of which are considered alien species (Simonović et al., 2015).
The historic importance of the Sava River has been focused on commercial and recreational fishing as a basic source of good quality food for local inhabitants (Piria et al., 2019). Due to damming, water quality degradation and huge hydromorphological changes from the beginning of 20th century, the structure of dominant species changed which affected commercial fisheries (Simonović et al., 2017; Piria et al., 2019). From the 19th century, commercial fish records were occasionally recorded in national technical journals, but the first systematic data collection only began in 2006. Recreational fishing was very well developed in the 19th and 20th centuries in the Sava River as was the relevant national legislation, but data collection only started in 2006 – the same year as for commercial fishers.
4.2.1 Data collection
Data provided by the Ministry of Agriculture were collected from 2006 to 2017 for commercial fishers and for recreational fishing from 2008–2017. All restrictions and regulations for commercial and recreational fishers are under the unique legislation previously described. Catch per unit effort (CPUE) were calculated by total annual catch (kg) per one commercial fisher.
4.2.2 Catch by commercial fishers
The number of licences issued to commercial fishers each year by the Ministry of Agriculture was under the maximum permitted number (Table 7). The number of prescribed licenses is indicated in Chapter 4.6.
Data collected in logbooks sent by the license owners was under the total catch quota (Table 8).
The data shows that for the 2015 and 2016 fishing seasons, the average total annual catch was 8 530 kg.
However, in 2017 the total annual catch was 5 459.50 kg, 3 070.50 kg lower than the average catches two years before. Also, the percentage of total permitted catch quota from 2007–2017 is between 9.38 and 27.57 percent. It is likely that fishers do not register and do not report the real annual catch.
Data analysis of licenses issued in 2017 show that 17 licenses were issued by the Ministry but only 11 licensees sent their completed logbooks (Table 9). Also, total catch data is not realistic. This data confirms that commercial fishers do not report real catch or do not report any catch.
Table 10 shows the total annual catch, catch per important fish species (kg), catch per unit effort (CPUE) and number of commercial fishers for Sava River for the period 2005–2017. Also, carp catch for the period 2005 to 2017 and catch of other species from 2010 to 2017 is presented. According to this data, it is clear that CPUE in general is decreasing. Common carp and bream are the most important species for commercial fishers in this region. Catch of both species are decreasing, e.g. catch of common carp was 199.60 kg which means that each fisher caught only 11 kg of this
TABLE 8
Total annual catch and percentage of total permitted catch quota of commercial fishers on the Sava River from 2007–2017
Year Catch/kg % of total permitted catch quota
2007 6 113.10 14.28
Number of commercial fishers and total catch by fishing zones in 2017 for the Sava River
ZONE S1 S2 S3 S4 S1/S2* S2/S3* S3/S4* Total
No. license 5 1 6 2 1 1 1 17
Total catch (kg) 2 180.5 5.0 1 579.0 865.0 266.0 119.0 445.0 5 459.5 No. completed
logbooks sent 4 1 1 1 1 1 1 11
*beneficiary possesses license for two fishing zones.
TABLE 7
Number of licences issued to commercial fishers for the Sava River fishing area from 2006 to 2017
TABLE 10 Total annual catch, catch per important fish species (kg), catch per unit effort (CPUE) and number of commercial fishers at the Sava River for period 2005–2017 Year Number of given licenses Total catch
CPUE
Common carp European catfishZanderPike Common brStarletTenchIdeAsp eam Other indigenous fish Non- native fish
200585866.40733.3094.32 200695642.46626.9453.01 200786113.12764.1441.20 2008711804.71686.3979.03 200964015.90669.3227.00 201098188.95909.88349.20459.70220.60168.004312.400.000.00295.00170.002214.0030.00 201173832.70547.53314.50398.00219.7072.50877.0014.000.00248.0041.501174.00473.00 201294464.10496.01998.00654.30196.30128.504212.501.000.00387.0044.002486.00754.00 20139------------- 20141511015.50734.37632.00209.00310.20672.302796.5011.002.00330.00467.004540.501047.00 2015168668.77541.80275.50424.00454.00623.202138.50168.500.00359.50281.503351.00593.00 2016178392.00493.67412.00436.50204.00241.001639.50110.501.00527.50285.504298.50236.00 2017175459.50321.15199.60237.90119.00374.001153.004.000.00354.00127.002716.00175.00
species (5 specimens). Tench, species characteristic for backwaters, was not recorded in commercial fishers’ catch. Increased catch of starlet was recorded. However, anglers from Slovenia in 2015 accidentally released alien Siberian sturgeon (Piria et al., 2018), and this could be a possible reason why this catch increased. Commercial fishers can barely distinguish between these two sturgeon species.
4.2.3 Catch by recreational fishers
In 2017, at the Sava River fishing area, 51 owners of fishing rights were recorded. Data about the number of anglers and logbooks was returned by only 44 owners. In total, 11 590 anglers with a total catch of 206 252.85 kg was recorded in the Ministry of Agriculture and Croatian angling association for 2017. The number of recorded anglers in the same fishing area from 2008 to 2017 decreased by more than 2 000 anglers (Figure 12).
The catch for recreational fishers from 2008–2017 indicates common carp and gibel carp as the main caught species (Figure 13).
4.2.4 The co-existence of recreational and commercial fisheries
Data collected about Croatian inland fisheries are not very reliable but some important trends can be noted. For example, anglers in the Sava River deliberately catch a higher percentage of common carp, northern pike, and non-native species (grass carp and gibel carp), than commercial fishers (Figure 14). Commercial fishers mostly catch common bream (Treer and Kubatov, 2017).
Treer and Kubatov (2017) concluded that fishing with nets, artisanal fishers differ from anglers in two major ways: they are less selective and they catch bigger specimens.
According to official data, the existing ratio between recreational and artisanal fishers in the Sava river sections does not negatively affect each other’s or overall fishing.
FIGURE 12
The number of anglers and the annual catch per angler (kg) in the Sava River fishing area from 2008 to 2017 year
Source: Ministry of Agriculture.
13784 13354 13030 13779 12681 12497 12990 10876
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
No. anglers
Year
Cathc per angler (kg)
No. angler Catch per angler (kg) No.angler
4.3 CASE STUDY: SOCIO-ECONOMIC VALUATION OF RECREATIONAL AND