SACOLEVE: A program on spatial and temporal adaptation of a traditional mediterranean fishery facing regional change: combining history and ecology to study past, present and future of sponge harvesting
Résumé
The production of Mediterranean bath sponges collapsed during the past century as it is shown by Tunisian catches which went from 108 tons in 1920 down to 9 tons in 1988. 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. For what reasons a Mediterranean traditional fishery once prosperous did dramatically decline? What part of the decline can be attributed to the lessening 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? To answer these questions, SACOLEVE looks 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 overreaching aim of this program 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.
La production des éponges commerciales méditerranéennes s’est effondrée au cours du siècle dernier, à l’image de la production tunisienne qui est passée de 108 tonnes en 1920 à 9 tonnes en 1988. Un même phénomène peut être observable sur l’île de Kalymnos (Dodécanèse), où le nombre des actifs employés dans cette pêche a baissé de 90% entre 1858 et 1967. Pour quelle raison cette pêche traditionnelle méditerranéenne a-t-elle connu un déclin aussi dramatique ? Quelle est la part dans cette évolution de la surpêche et des changements globaux ? Ces pêcheries ont-elles encore un avenir ? Le programme SACOLEVE propose une approche intersectorielle de cette thématique, dans le cadre d’une étude socio-environnementale de cette ressource spécifique.