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Following the announcement from the International Union for Conservation of Nature putting grouper fish on their Red List of endangerment level, the fishing, capturing, boat fishing, bringing to the shore, moving, and selling of groupers within the borders of all national waters of Turkey will be outlawed.
The Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock has published two announcements: “Announcement (2016/35) Concerning Commercial Fishing Practices” and “Announcement (2016/36) Concerning Recreational Fishing.”
According to these announcements, between the dates of September 1, 2016, and August 31, 2020, all forms of grouper fishing has been outlawed.
In order to enforce the plans whose aim is to improve the documented decreasing numbers of grouper stock, a 1,113 Turkish Lira (336 euro) fine will be given to those who do not follow the orders.
WWF: The decision is very appropriate
World Wide Fund for Nature - Turkey (WWF -- Türkiye) Nature Conservation Representative Yaprak Arda said the decision was very appropriate and that the WWF would support it. He also said:
“Grouper is a dual-sex fish. They are female until 12 years of age and male after that. Because of this, there needs to be no fishing until grouper get to their reproductive age.
“The law before this had outlawed the hunting of groupers smaller than 45 cm, but because this rule wasn’t followed a more serious enforcement was put into place.
“If we don’t want this fish that is so important to the Mediterranean and the local economy to go extinct, we need to obey this order strictly and give allow the fish to reproduce.”
“For a long time groupers has been considered to be numerous and illegal fishing as well as pollution have caused the grouper population to come to an at-risk level.
“Future grouper generations are dependent on protecting the environments they live in and following the rules.” (EKN/KT)
* WWF-Turkey has been doing research on the Mediterranean coast since 2000. Since 2014, it has been working to establish a sustainable tourism agreement in the Kaş-Kekova Specially Protected Environmental Region by working with centralized management, fishers, diving teams and tour boat owners to protect wildlife like groupers and seaweed.
