Page 15 - HimesAH(2003)

Small-Scale Sicilian Fisheries 403

zone covers 30% of the island’s waters, and that competition has increased between
boats in the islands and those that come from mainland Sicily to fish in the reserve. In
order to regain the support of affected local fishers, reserve managers should work to
mitigate these complaints by listening to the fishers’ ideas concerning improved man-
agement and engaging them in future management.

Self-Identified Sources of Conflict within MPAs. A final consideration when considering
the effectiveness of an MPA is the analysis of the problems and conflicts that local
stakeholders perceive when the MPA is created and during its management. A recurrent
issue in local management is conflict between stakeholders and how to address those
conflicts (Sandersen & Koester, 2000). During this survey, fishers in both reserves iden-
tified conflicts and problems that they perceive between different resource users in the
area and general resistance to the reserve itself.

Fishers from all sites surveyed indicated that there are too many recreational fishers
and a lack of regulations that apply to them. Over the past decade, the number of recre-
ational and artisanal fishers in the Gulf and Egadi Islands has substantially increased,
placing growing pressure on the fishery resources and creating animosity between the
artisanal and recreational fishers (Dr. Fabio Badalamenti, personal communication, 2001).
Increasing numbers of recreational and artisanal fishers paired with a lack of proper
management and increased enforcement within the reserve has resulted in fewer fish for
both groups to harvest. Consequently, the central objectives of the reserve management
plan to protect local biodiversity and augment local fisheries are not being met.

The other nemesis of the artisanal fishers is the trawling fleet. Very few of the
trawlers that actively fish in the EIMR are officially registered in the Egadi Islands.
Most come from Trapani, Marsala, and Palermo, all located on the mainland of Sicily.
In the Gulf of Castellammare, illegal trawlers come from areas both outside of the Gulf,
for example, illegal trawlers from Palermo, and from within the Gulf, such as illegal
trawlers from Castellammare del Golfo and Terrasini. Due to a lack of enforcement in
both MPAs, these trawling vessels are constantly seen in violation of the regulations by
local fishermen and other stakeholders. On many occasions in the EIMR, trawlers will
come within 300 m the shoreline, consequently interfering with dive sites and destroy-
ing fishing gear set by artisanal fishers (personal observation; Dayton et al., 1995; Jennings,
Kaiser, & Reynolds, 2001). Artisanal fishers are consequently angered that there is not
enough enforcement of the “no trawling” regulation. This lack of enforcement, paired
with increased competition by recreational fisherman, could be significant contributing
factors to the declining fish catch for artisanal fishers in the EIMR.

However, in both MPAs, the majority of fishers claimed that they would not turn in
someone who is in violation of the regulations. With this problem, fishery management
has become partly ineffective simply because of the fishers themselves: the illegal fish-
ers as well as the ones unwilling to speak up about the illegal activities of their friends.
Local fishers are afraid to report illegal trawlers in their MPAs because they are afraid
that increased regulation and enforcement will negatively impact them in the future. In
order to bypass this problem, MPA managers could adopt a more community-based
approach to educate the fishers and assuage their fears. Moreover, managers could har-
ness the fishers as regulatory agents, using their constant presence on the water to moni-
tor and report any infringement of regulations.

EIMR fishers identified a number of additional problems including decreasing amounts
of fish in the reserve, the absence of local fish markets, poor quality of the port, and
difficulties in finding appropriate fishing grounds since most of them are closed to fish-
ing. This last problem can be attributed to the placement of zone boundaries throughout
the reserve. Favignana is surrounded by the least intrusive zones of the reserve where