Local MSP approach towards sustainable development of Malaga Bay (SW-Mediterranean)

Abstract

One of the main objectives of sustainable fishing development is the sustainable biological, economic and environmental exploitation of living resources (CFP, 2013). For this reason, the breeding areas of target species are of special importance. The Bay of Malaga (southern Spain) has been identified as a breeding ground for several target species (Baro et al., 2015; Muñoz et al., 2018), however, the cumulative risk analysis suggests the need to reduce fishing trawling by a factor of 30-60 times (Muñoz et al., 2018) to achieve a habitat recovery time sweep index (SPR) less than or equal to 1, and thus guarantee habitat recovery. Based on information from Baro et al. (2015) and Muñoz et al. (2018) the Bay of Malaga has been proposed by the FAO as an Essential Fish Habitat due to (i) its importance for breeding and (ii) the need to reduce the high pressure of fishing in the area to maintain ecosystem services, such as the support service (providing living spaces for plants or animals and conserving a diversity of them, that constitute the basis of all ecosystems and their services) and the provisioning service (Muñoz et al., 2018; GFCM, 2019). In order to achieve sustainable exploitation of living resources, a conflict analysis among the uses of the sea space was carried out and alternative blue economy approaches applied to the Bay of Malaga are suggested