There has been an obvious reduction of fish species in the Adriatic if today's species are compared with those of ten, 20 or 30 years ago, experts warn.
"The entire Croatian fishing industry depends on small blue fish," says Dr. Alen Soldo of the University of Croatia. "If there were no small blue fish, the fishing industry could face a collapse."
He said hake and Norway lobster are the most endangered by commercial fishing, adding however that overfishing is not the only factor contributing to the problem.
"Commercial fishing is definitely endangering some fish species, but pollution and global warming are also contributing to the effect," he said.
Due to global warming, the average temperature in the Mediterranean will increase by 1.2 degrees Celsius, Soldo said, but added that the actual changes cannot be predicted at the moment.
"Commercial fishing might change in a few years or a few decades and other fish species may move into the Adriatic while others would leave due to warming," Soldo said. "In fact, some species have already moved into the Adriatic and others have left for colder waters."
Inadequate fish species monitoring contributes to the issue, Soldo said. "We know that mostly sharks and ray are endangered. They did not have a natural enemy, but their fishing overexploitation could allow for a fast reduction of these species. Since there is no proper monitoring of fishing quotas in the Adriatic, we are not able to say much about whether tuna fish are endangered. However, we know that Croatian fisheries can fish less than 900 tonnes of tuna a year," he said.
According to the head of Croatia's Fishing Authorities, Ivan Katavic, the country has 3,692 commercial fishing ships and boats that catch 52,000 tonnes of small blue fish annually. Croatia also exports 6,700 tonnes of tuna to Japan per year, as well as 108m euros worth of fish to Italy, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia.
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