Anchovy stock depleting in Black Sea, expert warns

ISTANBUL

A fishing ban should be implemented as the stock of anchovy in the Black Sea has reached the depletion stage, an expert has warned.

Fishermen in the Black Sea ports, where nearly 75 percent of the fisheries in the country are located, set out to sea on Sept. 1.

They were foreseeing plenty of bonito in the new fishing season, with the number of anchovies declining as they started to move to Georgia in recent years, according to the sector representatives.

Noting that the anchovy stock in the Black Sea has reached the depletion stage, Mehmet Aydın, a professor from Ordu University, said, “The main reason for the decrease in stocks is the anchovy massacre in Georgia. Our fishing boats go to the Georgian border and catch very small anchovy there.”

There is currently a stock of anchovy with an average size of 7-8 centimeters, he said.

Of the 100 kilograms of fish caught, 10 kilograms come to the counter, while 90 kilograms are dumped into the sea dead, the expert noted.

Strict measures are needed, also in other countries with coastlines on the Black Sea, in order to protect anchovy stocks, he warned, adding, “We have to put a stop to this massacre by providing a joint consortium. Anchovy fishing should be banned for at least a month.”

“Both those who keep anchovies and those who sell them don’t like their size,” fisherman Burçin Doğan said. “We don’t want to sell in a small size either, but we have to because we have to pay for the employees who work for us.”

The Agriculture and Forestry Ministry temporarily banned anchovy fishing in most of the Bosphorus and the Black Sea last year due to the increase in the rate of those under 9 centimeters in length.

Türkiye’s anchovy exports declined by 50 percent in September-October compared with the same period of last year due to warmer weather and more bonito population in the seas.