{"id":5425,"date":"2016-12-14T09:42:44","date_gmt":"2016-12-14T08:42:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cienciagandia.webs.upv.es\/en\/?p=5425"},"modified":"2016-12-14T09:47:01","modified_gmt":"2016-12-14T08:47:01","slug":"tourism-comes-to-the-rescue-of-valencian-artisanal-fishing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cienciagandia.webs.upv.es\/en\/2016\/12\/tourism-comes-to-the-rescue-of-valencian-artisanal-fishing\/","title":{"rendered":"Tourism Comes to the Rescue of Valencian Artisanal Fishing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Coastal artisanal fishing is a vital economic activity for a large number of families along the Valencian coast<\/strong>, and marks the character of our fishing villages.\u00a0 The importance of fishing is apparent in the local gastronomy, with dishes such as the “fideu\u00e0”<\/strong> from Gandia or the “arroz a banda”<\/strong> from many towns in Alicante, as well as in local traditions, such as the celebration of the “Virgen del Carmen”<\/strong> festivities. And we must not forget that it is also key to the conservation of marine and coastal ecosystems<\/strong>, since fishermen know their environment and are primarily interested in its protection.<\/p>\n

In recent years, however, the sector has been losing steam and for this reason,\u00a0 institutions such as the European Union<\/strong> are searching for solutions to ensure its survival. Tourism can play a key role in protecting and revitalizing the fishing sector. According to Luis Miret<\/strong><\/a>, professor at the Universitat Polit\u00e8cnica de Val\u00e8ncia<\/strong> (UPV), an activity such as fisheries-related tourism<\/strong>, that lets tourists experience artisanal fishing on the boat itself alongside the fishermen, is nothing new, “since tourists have always come and taken rides on fishing boats.” However, health and safety regulations effectively ended this practice and now the it is the administrations themselves that want to promote it.<\/p>\n

For Enrique Ferrer<\/strong>, secretary of the Fishermen’s Association of Gandia, fishing tourism and fisheries-related tourism can be key<\/strong> to the sector and therefore they have been working for some time with the UPV and the City of Gandia to study its feasibility and the way of implementing it. Enrique Ferrer and Luis Enrique Miret claim that several Italian cities such as Genoa, or Spanish regions such as the Balearic Islands, are already developing initiatives that combine fisheries-related tourism that combine activities such as dolphin watching with eating some ‘arrocito’ right on the boat.<\/p>\n

CAMPUS GANDIA, MEETING POINT FOR THE STAKEHOLDERS<\/p>\n

To address the synergies between tourism and fishing<\/strong>, the Campus Gandia of the UPV has organized two activities that bring together public administrations, the industry and society in general.The coordinator of both forums was the UPV research professor, Paloma Herrera<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The first of the activites was the seminar titled “Artisanal Fisheries.Diversification of Fishing Activities”<\/a>, whose objective was the evaluation of courses of action that should be set into place in the short and medium term in the area of \u200b\u200beconomic diversification of artisanal fisheries, according to Paloma Herrera<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Listen to the report on research in Artisanal Fisheries<\/strong> at the Campus:
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