Climate changes, so what?

Tourism and Fishing Culture will suffer says European report on climate

Fishing off Cesana

A temperature increase between 2.2° and 3°C is the forecast in a new European report presented to the Commission. The highest increase will be the result of a laissez-faire attitude, while the 2.2° will be the result if drastic reductions in energy consumption take place.

Even the low estimate is predicted to have devastating consequences for Southern Europe where droughts, heat waves, floods and wilting crops offer a horrifying future outlook. One of the economic results will be a drastic reduction in the traditional tourism to the Southern shores of sand and sea, shifting the focus towards Northern Europe. Another consequence may be a serious change of the living conditions in many small villages and fishing communities constituting the backbone of the Mediterranean. Already the migration from the coastal villages and into the cities is destroying the traditional local fabric in Southern Europe, but temperature changes like the ones predicted will accelerate this trend.

A sea of waste 
A special set of problems is facing the Mediterranean.  Even only minor increases in the average temperature are expected to seriously damage the living conditions, not least by the sea. Very minor changes in the average temperature of the Mediterranean will mean that a number of species of fish may exterminate or be forced to migrate into the Atlantic. From a historical and ecological point of view this will have enormous repercussions.

Greek coastline
One case is Greece. The country may boast of the largest coastline in Europe. Traditionally the population lived primarily at the natural harbours and inlets and gained their income from fishing and since the 70’s from tourism. Between 6 and 7 % of the total economy is generated by tourism. Recently there has been a move from mass-tourism to a more sophisticated form of cultural travelling focused on history, gastronomy and blue-water sailing. Currently the coastal areas are being developed in order to accommodate the growing fleet of yachts that need to be moored. The question is however: Who wants to sail the blue sea if no fish may be caught except salmon farmed in and imported from Norway and found in the freezer? 

Mediterranean fishery - and Aquaculture
Already the situation is appalling. During the last decade the fishery yield in the Mediterranean stagnated between 1.5 and 2 million tonnes. Many stocks are already fished to the limits of what can be termed reasonable, so the prospects don’t look good for the Mediterranean fishing industry. In many places coastal fisheries also suffer considerably from local marine pollution. The Mediterranean fishery primarily supplies ‘pesce azzurro’, or ‘blue fishes’, mass species such as sardine, anchovy and mackerel. However, demand is increasingly for high-quality species - among them sea bass and sea bream. The low catch figures for these species is by no means capable of meeting the demand and more than 90 per cent of the sea bass and sea bream on the markets today come from aquaculture. Approximately 50% of all fish sold on the world market stem from aquaculture.

In Europe aquaculture is primarily salmon and sea bream plus mussels and oysters. So even though 150 edible species are estimated to swim the sea around Greece, only 60 of these are considered commercially interesting. And only two or three types are generally served at the more anonymous Greek Taberna, one of which is the sea bream or sea bass, that stems from the farms specifically catering for this market.

Loss of knowledge 
One of the more obscure consequences of this development is that the old fishing methods in the Mediterranean are quietly being lost forever. Fishermen specialising in the locally inherited crafts traditionally caught the many species in diverse ways with special equipment. Nowadays young people are leaving their local communities resulting in a loss of this intangible heritage. Although this is well known, it does not seem to be high on the research agenda to systematic collect and document these fishing techniques.

Especially museums - http://www.fimus.dk/GFhn/gfhn.htm  - catering for the history of fishery seem to be a Northern European speciality, whereas in Southern Europe it seems to be at the most small local collections stemming from a local teacher or librarian and exhibited privately. These questions have been discussed in the European Parliament this autumn, but no action has so far been taken.   

Read more:  

European Parliament Report on the protection of the European natural, architectural and cultural heritage in rural and island regions  Link