Spatial and temporal Adaptations of a traditional Mediterranean fishery facing Regional Change (SACOLEVE)

Sub title: Combining history and ecology to study past, present and future of sponge harvesting

The production of Mediterranean bath sponges collapsed during the past century as shown by Tunisian catches which went from 163 tons in 1920 down to 9 tons in 1988 (Josupeit, 1990). Another illustration is given by the well-known sponge fishing island of Kalymnos which lost about 90% of its active fishermen population in a century between 1858 and 1967 (Bernard 1967, Valla, 2012). For what reasons a Mediterranean traditional fishery once prosperous did dramatically decline? What part of the decline can be attributed to the decline of the bath sponge stock and what to a decreasing number of fishermen? How can this decline of the sponge fishery be related to changes in uses, overfishing, disease outbreaks triggered by climate events? How did sponge fishermen adapt to these Regional Changes in the past? What is the future of such a fishery? What kind of guidelines can we provide for this fishery facing the on-going Regional Change?

This project addresses these questions by looking through ecological and historical windows into past evolution of the sponge fishery, chosen here as a model of traditional fishery which suffered good number of upheavals over the last three centuries. The overarching aim is to propose a management strategy for traditional fisheries that will allow attaining eco-durable practices in the current environmental, socio-economic and geopolitical contexts.