Evaluation of the first period buy-back program for fishing vessels in Turkey

It is an obligation for the fisheries management to prevent overfishing by keeping a balance between the fish stocks and fishing capacity. Regulating the numbers and fishing capacities of fishing vessels have a significant role in providing this balance. The Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock initiated a program to set a balance between the fish stocks and fishing effort by providing support at a certain level for the owners of the fishing vessels, lengths of which are twelve meters or above and who have a certificate of approval for fishing. The program was started for withdrawing fishing vessels with the purpose of protecting the fish stocks, exploit them in a sustainable way and decreasing the fishing pressure on the stocks through the "agricultural support" which was published in the Official Gazette dated 7 May 2012 and numbered 28285. The aim of this thesis is to reveal the results of the related program. Therefore, a telephone survey was applied to 76 fishermen determined among 364 fishing vessels, which had been bought in the program, through the simple random sampling method. Buy-back programs have been implemented in the world for 44 years. However, first generation buy-back program was started in 2012 in Turkey; the second generation buy-back program was put into practice in 2013; the third and forth two was put into practice in 2014 and 2016 respectively. In total 407 fishing vessels applied to the first generation buy-back program. Among these, 364 fishing vessels that suit the buy-back criteria were bought back. When the applications made are grouped based on the traffic plate codes, most of the applications were received from Marmara Region with 181 fishing vessels (44.5%). 104 fishing vessels (25.5%) from the Mediterranean, coast of Turkey 68 (16.7%) from the Aegean and 54 (13.3%) from the Black Sea applied to the program. A total of 323 (88.7%) of the vessels benefiting from the program consisted of small-scale fishing vessels within the size group of 12-20 m, and 41 (11.3%) of them consisted of large-scale fishing vessels in the size group of ≥ 21 m 33 (9%) of 364 fishing vessels benefiting from the program were made of sheet iron and 331 (91%) of them were wooden vessels. About 62.1 million TL in total was spend in the support and 19.5% of 1,868 fishing vessels with a lenght above 12 m were removed from the fleet. 11 of these vessels were granted to provincial directorates as control vessels, and 18 of them were granted to universities as research vessels. The remaining 335 vessels were subjected to the process of decomposition in Izmir Aliağa Ship Dismantling Facilities of Machine Chemistry Industry Institution. The average age of the fishers participating in the study is 50±12 and their average experience is 33±12 years. The main profession of 91% of the fishers is fishing, 91% of them found the program beneficial and 95% of them think that the program should continue. 37% of the fishers participating in the program use trawl nets, 24% purse seine, 22% gill nets and 17% more than one fishing tools. 40% of the fishers stated that they want to quit fishing as it became unprofitable. This is followed by the will of retirement with 15%, and thinking that the program is an appealing opportunity. 68% of the fishers stated that they are satisfied with the value given by the state to their vessels, 12% stated they are partly satisfied, and 20% stated that they were not satisfied. 61% of the individuals who gave their vessels stated that they will continue working in the fishing industry, and 17% of them stated that they will buy a new fishing vessel. 45% of them are fishers who already have a second vessel and gave the inactive or unprofitable vessels they had to the buy-back program. As a result, this study on the evaluation of the fishing vessel buy-back program is important that it does not only provide information on decreasing the fishing capacity and fighting with overfishing, but also contributes to the better understanding of the sector, development of appropriate policies and the better management of the fisheries. The lessons lesrnt from this program will help planning future buy-back programs in a better way. The new generation buy-back programs to be held should also be investigated, and the results should be assessed both comparatively and all programs together. The consideration of these results by the fisheries management authority will contribute to the better management of Turkish fisheries and the sustainable use of fishing stocks. Keywords: Fisheries buy-back programs, Fishing vessels decommissioning, Reducing fishing capacity, Reducing fleet capacity.