Presentation
History
The Gabinete de Economía del Mar was formed in May 1992 inside the Departamento de Política Económica y Estructura Económica Mundial of the Universidad de Barcelona. On June of that year was established an Agreement with the Secretaria General de Pesca Marítima that recognised it as a consulting organism in the fishery economy field. In January 1993, the GEM organized the Primer Encuentro de Economistas de Pesca, which had the support and participation of the SGPM and the Instituto Español de Oceanografía. On that meeting the various participants shared information about the development of their researches. Over this base was passed to examine the research and teaching in the fishery economics at a National and European level.
There were considered the critical points of the fishery activity, the socio-economical needs, the possibilities about recovering the rents and the reduction of the impact on employment. From this analysis it was agreed on the researching priority themes, defining in great lines the bases of the work that has been done in the Bureau.
1. Commercialisation and valorisation: improving the commercial structures, improving the distribution and presentation of the product, make the commercialisation process more dynamic, reduction of losses in distribution, reduction of the time between captures and consumption, defence of the origin denominations, reduction of discards, etc.
2. Management of the resource: fishery and aquaculture methods of management and administration. Local management versus ITQ, models adapted to the artisanal fisheries versus models applicable to industrial fisheries, compared effects. Bioeconomical Models. Real effects of the administration measures (standing or projected). Value of the fishing rights. compared studies of legislations, control mechanisms and grade of performance.
3. Socio-economical impact studies: Restructuring measures effects, rationalisation or readjustments of the fishing activity at the local, regional, national or international level, with especial focus on the employment. Paliatory measures on the short and medium term. The study of the socio-economical impact of the technological change. Economical descriptive studies of the sector. Optimisation socio-economic of the public resources employed on the fishing activity.
4. Fleet profitability: administrative management of the fishing companies, accountancy analysis, relative weight of the expenses in oil, work, credit, etc. Cost-benefits analysis of the introduction of technological changes. Effects of the fishing regulation in technological change. Cost studies about the changes in size of the sector.
5. International cooperation: possibilities of the development of fishing joint ventures, studies about the viability, formation projects, economic viability of technology transference projects. Assessment and technology exportation.
6. Statistics: Design of the information needs for the economical analysis. What, how, where and for what of the data recompilation for economic use.
After that meeting, the GEM turned into an Interuniversity Research Centre, with who have collaborated different research teams working on fishery economics from Spain. From the operative point of view, the GEM was doted with the necessary means to assure its work from a structural point of view. So was established a convocations information centre, and a database about the institutions related to the research field (companies, research centres, administrations, etc.); statistic information (result of an inventory of the disposable information sources outside the GEM at national and international level: FAO, Eurostat, OCDE, etc.); documents, studies and monographs.
The GEM works under an self-financing scheme about the developed works. Ramón Franquesa is the director of the GEM.
Activities
The labour developed since 1992 is large. It can be found on the pages projects a larger explanation of the labour developed by GEM. We are just going to show here the most characteristics aspects of our work.
A central aspect of the work developed has been done under the OECD Fishing Committee frame, international organisation of economic analysis formed by the most developed countries. As a technical support to the Spanish administration, the GEM has prepared various studies since 1992 for the Fishing Committee of this organization.
On the other hand, there have been developed ambitious research projects financed by the EU. With the research "Quantitative analysis of the relations which condition the North-Occidental Mediterranean fishing system", it was the first time that a Spanish economic research team directed an European project in the fishing field. The project, most known by "HEURES", has accounted with the participation of seven centres of four different countries. Its aim was to study the fishing gears with a higher economic weight on the Northwestern Mediterranean Sea. In the frame of this work it has been developed an important database and an informatic simulation program . Furthermore, the development of the project has allowed developing an interdisciplinary activity inside the country between GEM, IEO and ICM-CSIC. The evolution of these first models have turned out to the MEFISTO model. A very usefully model, not only for researchers but also for anyone related to the sector. You can find more information on this model at www.mefisto.info
Since February 1997 it has been developed the subject "Economía y Gestión de la Actividad Pesquera" aimed to university students of economy, law, social sciences and biology. Finally, jointly with the CIHEAM, the Secretaría General de Pesca Marítima of Spanish Government and the Project FAO-COPEMED, was initiated the International Master in Fisheries Economics and Management. This Master is addressed to provide adequate capacities to their students in fisheries resource management capacities. It is expected that the Master also allows to reinforce the links between the present and future researchers, and between researchers and managers of different countries.
Another relevant aspect in the Spanish Mediterranean level has been the contribution to the formation of the Foro Científico about the Spanish fishing in the Mediterranean Sea, promoted both by the Instituto Español de Oceanografía and the Instituto de Ciències del Mar (CSIC). The creation of the Foro answers the need of the existence an stable frame of interdisciplinary scientific communication where it can reviewed all the research done, recommended new research lines and where the conclusions and recommendations can be drawn to the administrators in order to provide them with the largest amount of information for the decision process. Constituted at the end of March 1996, the Foro enables the debate in which biologists, economists and sociologists can analyse the problems of research and fishing management at the Mediterranean Sea on a Spanish level. The Foro is organized as a Red Temática de la Comisión Interministerial de Ciencia y Tecnología, with the aim to promote the stable communication between scientific with the administration and the fishing sector, worries, analysis and points of view. It works with annual plenums and various work teams (socioeconomy, resources, statistics, etc.), permanently connecting the researchers through an e-mail list.
The GEM participates in the Asociación Europea de Economistas de Pesca (EAFE), funded in 1989, with the aims of promoting the cooperation in economic research in the fishery and aquaculture field and to serve as an agglutinating instrument of information, additionally of being a channel with other disciplines. The Eighth Conference of the EAFE was celebrated in 1996 in Barcelona, organized by the Gabinete de Economía del Mar. In it participated expertises of 17 countries, including the presence of scientific from non-European Mediterranean countries as a way of promoting cooperation and the share of ideas. On the various themes talked in the conferences, aquaculture, management and bioeconomical; the GEM assured the presence of Spanish works. With the support of the Secretaria General de Pesca Marítima of the Ministerio de Agricultura, Pesca y Alimentación the GEM published the acts of the Congress.
The experience since 1992 allows to view that the Spanish research teams, if doted with an adequate coordination, are in full conditions to compete at European level. In this sense, using the structure of the university has been a great target, instead of creating a new centre for pure research. Effectively, the high-specialised character of the research ambit of the fishery economics does not bind the investigation with the teaching, as it can be used its resources in a more integral way. Furthermore, the connection to the universities allows to reduce fixed costs, a better use of the administrative structures already existing and adapt in a more flexible way to the demands of personal and material. This way, the institutionalisation of a research centre at the university level allows to incorporate young people in formation to concrete projects of the teams, enabling the formation of intermediate boards in fishery economics induced.