With the Mediterranean Sea serving as a hotspot for exploring marine wildlife, providing coastal countries with their source for fishing and livelihood for the local fishers, the ecosystems have been overwhelmed to the point of being overfished. With this, has also led to the widespread extinction of endemic marine species in the Mediterranean Sea and has therefore threatened the fishing communities long term, that depend on its marine life as its source for food and income. When Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) were established as a way of protected the endangered species, it caused much backlash from these communities as it limited their opportunities to fish. The FishMPABlue 2 project was initiated as a result of this, and was implemented by local stakeholders that brings together local government clusters, MPAs, local stakeholders and fisheries in order to involve everyone that would be effected by this change and keep them up to speed. The result of this project has allowed fishing grounds to recover from being overfished, and the local fishers serve as the surveils of the fishing grounds which in turn allows them purpose and employment. This cooperation could pave the way for other positive changes to occur between local communities and government projects, along with working together to restore environmentally degraded areas.
Photo by: Nick Karvounis
