16 December 2011 Problems Over fishing and pollution in the Black Sea. There was a fluctuation in fisheries production of Turkey between years. The reason for the fluctuation was found in the much-reduced catches of anchovies and horse mackerel in the Black Sea. The reasons for the sharp fluctuations have been difficult to determine because little is known about the dynamics of either the anchovy or the horse mackerel shoals. Similarly, it has been stated that horse mackerel stocks have suffered from over-fishing, with a fishing season lasting for nine months (Akca et al. 2006). In addition, all other economic fish species are under pressure from over fishing (Anonymous 2004). In recent years, there has been an increase in the abundance of jellyfish in the Black Sea. Other reasons given are the increasing number of jellyfish in the Black Sea, raising level of pollution and the other effects of the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl (Muthoo and Onul, 1996). Therefore, Black Sea countries signed a strategic action plan aiming at pollution prevention. Marketing problems. In Turkey, nearly all freshwater fish and more than 75 percent of marine fish are consumed fresh. In addition, two-thirds of total fish production is sold direct to wholesalers and slightly more than 1 percent of sea fish are sold to the canning industry. According to Akca et al. (2006) the most important problem during catching, storing and marketing is the insufficient cooling chain. This is a problem in the storage of fishery products for future consumption. For instance, in 2004, 97.34 percent of the fishing vessels (total 17,696) did not have any deep freeze depots. In 2008, the number of fishing vessels without a deep freeze capability was 16,266 and only 895 fishing vessels had deep freeze. In addition, in the same year, 16,786 fishing vessel were without an ice machine and only 375 fishing vessels had an ice machine (Anonymous 2008). Other marketing problems are: - There have been fluctuations in fish catch and prices between years, - Aquaculture of aquatic products is low, - Wholesaler markets of fish are not suitable for EU standards, - There has been a difference in the sale statistics of fish and other aquatic products. - Problems in processing and preservation of fisheries products, - No studies have been carried out on the organic production of water products, - Marketing and variety of fishery products have not been increased very much and fish consumers have not been informed enough on fish consumption and new fish products. Lack of trained staff for fish farms. In Turkey, there are many fishery colleges, faculties and research institutes. For example, there are 25 fishery colleges throughout Turkey. More than one thousand students enroll to these education associations every year and they graduate from these training centers as technicians. Fishery faculties accept approximately five hundred students to fishery courses. In addition to these, many people are trained at Fishery Research Institutes organized by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs via short-term courses (Akca 2006). However, the number of trained staff to work in practical fish farms is not adequate. This situation causes problems for fish farms starting production and all production of water products. Moreover, in general, both inland and marine fisheries work is carried out in rural areas where social life is not very active. This has a negative effect on keeping experienced staff in fish farms for a long time (Akgün 2004) because they wish to promote themselves to more better jobs. Problems in getting credit for fishery investment. Fishery sectors in Turkey were supported by several international funds. Between 1991 and 2000, US$2.5 million in donation aid was granted by the Government of Japan, which was accessed through the World Bank. A number of studies were conducted by international specialists, including site selection for marine aquaculture farms, inland water surveys stock assessment, aquaculture legislation and a marketing study for current and future opportunities for both domestic and export markets. In addition, the French Government invested US$100,000 for lake fisheries studies and NATO provided some studies to investigate anchovy stocks in the Black Sea. Funds were provided by the Italian Government to promote sea bass and sea bream culture in Turkey. In addition to these, international funds mainly the Agricultural Bank, some private banks and Agricultural Credit Cooperatives have provided credit to small, medium and big enterprises to make investments in fishery sector at low interest rates (Akca et al. 2006). However, in general, the credit and research budget of Turkish Government for fishery investments are not sufficient. Therefore, reproduction, genetic and bio-molecular research carried out to increase fishery production is very limited. Small capacity firms do not prefer to take credit from the banks because of the high interest rates and want to establish units with the capabilities they have. Another problem in getting credit for fishery investment is the insurance assurance request of the banks. In general, banks request a few times higher insurance assurance than credit value (Akgün 2004). Environmental and technological problems. In Turkey, marine farms were set up at the beginning in the protected shallow bays due to lack of awareness of their environmental impact and technological and financial insufficiencies. As a result of this, they caused visual and organic pollution of the water and bottom sediment in the vicinity of the cages. In addition, conflicts occurred between aquaculture and other users and these conflicts had negative effects on aquaculture production. The most common conflicts occurred with environmental protection, tourism, recreation, urbanization, archaeology and navigation (Atay et al. 2000, Akca 2006, Yavuzcan et al. 2010). Because of the rapid development of the aquaculture sector in Turkey, various problems emerged between the aquaculture and tourism sectors because the regions of aquaculture production are appropriate for the tourism sector and the cur- (Continued on page 69)
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