Experts inspect 400 of Türkiye's fishing harbors

ISTANBUL

The Scientific and Technical Research Council of Türkiye (TÜBİTAK), has conducted a study on 400 fishing harbors across the country, revealing that the primary issues identified by experts include the lack of income attributed to illegal construction and shelter problems.

In line with the request of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, General Directorate of Fisheries and Aquaculture, TÜBİTAK initiated a study to determine the problems of fishing harbors. Within the scope of the study, in which 400 shelters in Türkiye were examined, fishermen in the shelters were interviewed.

İsmail Önden, the chief expert at the TÜBİTAK Institute of Industry and Supply and Administration, shared the results of the study at the Fisheries and Aquaculture Research Commission.

Önden underlined that the most common problems are the inability to rent the shelter, administrative operating problems, security problems, and illegal construction.

“There are deficiencies related to the infrastructure and superstructure of the shelters; there are issues such as disruptions in fishing activities, insufficient capacity, incidents and theft, affecting product quality,” he said.

“These problems seem to be mostly related to infrastructure and superstructure, but it is clear that the real problem is in the system. Because some shelters have very serious income generating functions. Half of our studies have been completed. With these findings, we will put forward the next policy and road map,” he added.

"Normally, there are 384 fishing shelters, but when we look at the total coastal structures, there are over 500 coastal structures. Some of these are unregistered, some are natural harboring points. We chose 400 of the most important ones and started to work on them,” Önden stressed.

"We have compared them with world examples, we have completed our comparison with 30 countries, we have completed the data analysis, and now we are coming to the stages of revealing the problems, solutions, their costs and budgetary road map," he noted.

A statement from the Aegean Exporters' Associations has underscored Türkiye's prowess in aquaculture exports, revealing a total of $1.404 billion for the 10-month period of 2023.

Sinan Kızıltan, Chairman of the Sector Board of the Turkish Aquaculture and Animal Products Exporters' Associations, has unveiled the industry's remarkable performance and set a 2024 target that will escalate from the current year-end projection of $1.7 billion to an ambitious $2 billion.