(ANSAmed) - ROME, 02 NOV - "Atlas" is a report which "for the first time" maps areas permanently closed to trawling in the Mediterranean and investigates such activities in the area.
    Atlas (https://atlas.medseaalliance.org/), published ahead of the annual session of the General Commission for Fishing in the Mediterranean (Cgpm), to be held in Tirana, Albania, on November 7-11, shows the presumed and confirmed violations of trawling in protected areas in which it is permanently banned. It was presented by members of the Med Sea Alliance, a movement created in 2020 to gather NGOs and other groups of civil society that work to improve the health and productivity of the Mediterranean Sea.
    Atlas shows over 350 areas of the Mediterranean permanently closed to trawling, mapped by MedReAct and uses data, algorithms and models developed by Global Fishing Watch to evaluate potential violations. During the period of January 2020-January 2021, Atlas documented data by Global Fishing Watch, presumed trawling activity in 35 protected areas of the Mediterranean, by some 305 fishing vessels, for a total of 9,518 days of presumed fishing. Atlas moreover illustrates, based on a research conducted by MedReAct on data reported by the media and national control authorities of Italy, France, Spain, Turkey, Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco, some 170 infraction cases confirmed between January 2018 and December 2020 regarding Italy, Turkey, France, Algeria and Morocco. In the overall number are included violations concerning Italy, "the only country in Europe that provided clear data and which between January 2018 and June 2021 registered 85 punished infractions, including 80 in areas where fishing was restricted, set up by Cgpm and five in protected marine areas". For the alleged infractions in 178 Italian areas closed to trawling, the analysis carried out by Atlas highlighted possible activities of illegal fishing in 14 protected areas by presumably 114 fishing vessels from 2020 to 2021. (ANSAmed)