The losses caused
Apulian mariculture is facing an increasingly serious challenge, with the growing and invasive presence of cormorants Along the regional coasts, this is causing significant damage to farms and compromising the economic sustainability of businesses. Coldiretti Pesca Puglia reports that predation by these birds causes losses ranging from 25% to 50% of fry stocking, depending on the location of the farms, the season, and the farming techniques used. In light of this situation, Coldiretti Pesca Puglia has formally requested intervention from the Regional Councilor for Agriculture, Francesco Paolicelli, and the Director of the Sustainable Development and Protection of Forestry and Natural Resources Section, Domenico Campanile. The initiative calls for the implementation of compensation or financial compensation measures for affected businesses and for cormorant predation to be recognized as a legitimate cause of production loss, including under regional, national, or EU financial instruments. At the same time, the association calls for the establishment of a technical committee with industry representatives to identify structural and management solutions to mitigate the phenomenon, compatible with environmental regulations and the protection of biodiversity.
The number of wintering cormorants
Each cormorant consumes over 10 kilograms of fish per month, over 300 grams per day, and during its predatory activity, it also leaves injured fish, posing a risk of spreading disease and parasites. The number of wintering cormorants has increased approximately twentyfold over the last twenty-five years, paralleling and closely correlated with the exponential growth of breeding populations in central and northern Europe. The presence of cormorants is now widespread along the entire coastal region and inland in Puglia. Fishermen report an increasingly difficult situation in the province of Bari, both in the south between Mola di Bari and Torre a Mare and in the north between Giovinazzo and Bisceglie, on the coast of Taranto, in the Varano Lagoon, on the Capaccio del Celone dam in Lucera, near the Lago Salso marshes in Manfredonia, in Gallipoli, and along over four hundred kilometers of the regional coastline.
Risk of pathologies
The damage is not limited to direct fish mortality on farms, but also causes chronic stress in the animals, slows growth performance, increases the risk of disease, and damages nets and containment structures. All of this leads to increased management costs and a drastic reduction in profit margins for companies, highlighting how these losses are not the result of poor management but rather of external factors related to protected wildlife, for which operators lack truly effective tools despite the adoption of deterrent systems.
Fish species in danger
The impact doesn't just affect the most valuable fish species, as cormorants also feed on the forage species that should be their natural diet, further burdening the marine ecosystem and the fishing industry. For fish farmers and professional fishermen, the reduction in catches represents the greatest economic impact, while for recreational fishermen, the risk is linked to the progressive depletion of fish stocks due to reduced natural production. Protecting Puglia's fish farms, an integral part of the regional blue economy, is crucial to ensuring the sector's economic and employment sustainability. Coldiretti Pesca Puglia is available to provide technical data, analytical estimates of losses, and detailed reports from the affected facilities to support timely and targeted intervention (source: Coldiretti Taranto).
You May Also Like ..
