Page 170 - 7. State Of Environment Report Of Türkiye

2020 364,400 2,848,969,147 421,411 10,859,581,980 785,811 13,708,551,127
2021 328,158 3,614,712,762 471,686 18,482,440,710 799,844 22,097,213,472
2022 335,003 6,931,545,030 514,805 42,047,980,280 849,808 48,979,325,310
2023 420,527 11,346,867,112 556,287 67,295,413,500 1,010,346 78,642,280,612

When the production figures are analyzed, it is seen that anchovy, sardine, horse mackerel, bo-
nito and sprat constitute the majority of the fish species fished in the seas throughout Türkiye.
In the period after 2000, 40-75% of the annual Seafood fishing production has been anchovy
fishery, which varies from year to year but constitutes a very large portion. When the seas of
Türkiye are evaluated among themselves, the Black Sea constitutes the most important fishing
area of Türkiye. In 2023, 75.2% of the aquaculture production was obtained from the Black Sea.
Therefore, it is of great importance to know the structure of the stocks of commercially impor-
tant species in the Black Sea and to identify possible problems in advance.

C.1.3.2. Environmentally Responsible Programmes at Seas

MoAF In 2014, the “Project for Cleaning the Seas from Abandoned Fishing Gears” was put into
practice by MoAF in order to clean the fishing gears that were forgotten or abandoned in the
seas and inland waters of Türkiye and abandoned in the seas due to ground structure, weather
conditions, net overlap or usage errors and similar reasons during aquaculture, which are called
“ghost nets” among the people, and to reduce the negative impact in this direction by raising
public awareness.

Within the scope of the activities, firstly, the locations of the lost nets were determined regu-
larly through the interviews with the fishermen and the notifications provided, and the ghost
fishing gears were removed from the places where they were found with the participation of
the relevant NGOs, fishermen, municipalities participating in the studies, universities and some
companies. Our activities, which were initially carried out in the seas, have been expanded to
cover our inland waters.

Within the scope of the said project, an area of 310 million square metres has been scanned sin-
ce 2014 and 1,050,000 square metres of ghost nets and 52,000 pieces of other fishing gear have
been removed from our waters. Within the scope of the ghost net project, 3.5 million aquatic
organisms have been prevented from dying, approximately 3.2 million nets cleaned from our
aquatic environments so far and approximately 300 thousand baskets/fish pots /traps. In order
to increase the awareness of fishermen, citizens, relevant official institutions / organizations and
non-governmental organizations against ghost fishing gears, awareness trainings were organi-
sed in Ankara, Konya, Van, Elazığ, Samsun, Isparta, Eskişehir, Bursa, Muğla and Antalya provinces
selected as pilot provinces under the coordination of the General Directorate of Fisheries and
Aquaculture with the organisation of Provincial Directorates of Agriculture and Forestry.

Artificial reef applications are implemented in many parts of the world in order to support sus-
tainable aquaculture production and biodiversity increase. In this context, within the scope of
the Burhaniye Artificial Reef Project, which was initiated in cooperation with the Burhaniye
Chamber of Commerce in Balıkesir Province in 2021, a total of 500 reef blocks were released into
the sea in 2022 and 2023, 796 reef blocks were released in an area of 22 ha in Erdemli District
within the scope of the “Mersin Artificial Reef Project” in 2022, and 485 reef blocks were relea-
sed in Karataş District of Adana Province within the scope of the “Karataş Artificial Reef Project”.

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