Industrial blockade
Marine ecosystems are collapsing and small-scale fishers are disappearing. Experts said wrong incentives and weak oversight are exhausting the seas and leaving small fishers poorer each year.
Ebru Çelik
World Fisheries Day in November is passing amid a worsening crisis in Turkey. On one side are rapidly depleted fish stocks and collapsing biodiversity, on the other fishers on the coast struggling to make a living. The unchecked growth of the industrial fleet, wrong incentives, incomplete scientific data and weak oversight together are making both the seas and small-scale fishing unsustainable.
BIODIVERSITY IS COLLAPSING
Marine biologist Assoc. Prof. Cem Dalyan reminded that biodiversity is the basis of a healthy ecosystem and described the destructive impact of industrial fishing: “The impact of traditional fishing is limited but trawling and especially purse seining cause heavy damage to marine biodiversity. The pressure of our purse seine fleet is even greater than that of our trawl fleet. Technological advances make it easy to locate fish which rapidly depletes stocks. At this rate fishing will become unsustainable in the near future.”
For Dalyan the solution is to limit industrial fishing by area and season, close some regions completely and support small fishers. Dalyan said: “Trawlers usually operate in waters deeper than 50 metres on sandy or muddy soft seabeds. Trawling is not possible on rocky areas because nets would be damaged. Once damage is done the impact on diversity in that area remains relatively limited. Purse seining can be used almost everywhere. It can go below 50 metres and can be used in critical habitats and in areas with seagrass. The ability to locate fish easily thanks to technological advances may seem like an advantage for fishers but it causes stocks to fall fast and pushes fishing to an unsustainable point in the near future. Preventing this despite the fishers is not easy.”
Dalyan continued: “As stocks fall fishers will no longer make profit and a return to small-scale fishing will be unavoidable. Yet the rapid loss of stocks also harms small fishers and sharply reduces economic efficiency. All stakeholders using the ecosystem small fishers, large fishers, consumers need to be informed. Examples around the world need to be explained more and the fishing community needs to become more aware because we need fishers with higher awareness.”
THEY CATCH IN ONE NIGHT WHAT WE CATCH IN A MONTH
Mehmet Ali Kocaoğlu, a small-scale fisher from the Mediterranean, said: “The cost of going out to sea has risen a lot. Everything has become more expensive. Home, fuel, school. Most of the time what we catch is not enough for us to get by. Industrial vessels take in one night the amount of fish we catch in a month. They work with such powerful nets and sonars that competing is impossible for small fishers. This work is no longer done by labour but by technology and we do not have the strength to enter that race. Our children will not take over this work because this profession no longer has a future. If the state does not protect small fishers there will be no small boats left on the Mediterranean coast in 5 to 10 years. This is not only about fishing but also about the end of coastal culture.”
THE RESULT OF WRONG INCENTIVES
Marine biologist Assoc. Prof. Ahsen Yüksek said one of the country’s biggest problems is weak management, adding: “In Turkey marine research does not get enough funding. Even though fish stocks are falling we do not know the answer to the question ‘how much stock is there of each species and how much can be caught’. Our legislation looks great on paper but there is no implementation. We cannot even properly track where the fish landed in Gülpınar Port comes from whether from Marmara or the Black Sea. This lack of records makes management impossible.”
According to Yüksek incentives given for years expanded the industrial fleet and weakened small fishers. Yüksek said: “While agriculture was not supported fishers were constantly supported with loans and the fleet grew. The seas cannot carry this fleet. Large vessels head to neighbouring seas from Georgia to Africa’s coasts,” adding that the coastal ecosystem cannot bear this pressure. Yüksek continued: “Without planning of fishing grounds, expanding protected areas and monitoring systems at EU standards the crisis will deepen.”
Note: This article is translated from the original article titled Endüstriyel abluka, published in BirGün newspaper on November 21, 2025.
