Conference paper
Strategic plans for the development of Croatian mariculture
Ivan Katavić
Abstract
As Croatia has ambitions to join European Union, this means necessity to implement EU technological and environmental standards. No doubt that the most important sectors for economic development are and will be tourism, services, fisheries and mariculture. This means increased demand for sea food, greater pressure on the environment, more pollution and consequently more conflicts among various coastal users. Conflicts between tourism and mariculture are expected to be very pronounced as the tourists are extremely sensitive to environmental problems that may be generated by overfeeding, noise, bad smell and an aesthetic problem (visual pollution) in the cases when mariculture projects are badly managed and wrongly sited. It must be made very clear at the very early stage that a comprehensive coastal zone plans must be worked out in order to define areas for the various economic activities, including mariculture itself.
Long-term strategic goal is to bring Croatia among leaders in fish and shellfish production, to be able to operate as efficiently as their international competitors, whose mariculture production will be meeting the highest environmental and quality standards. The plan is to increase annual production of finfish from 3.000 to 10.000 MT and of shellfish from 2.500 MT to 20.000 MT. The increase of finfish production will require among others at least 40 million fingerlings and 25.000 MT of fish feed. The conventional marketing channels should be developed, especially at the wholesale level. Under the same policy, an important social aspect should not be neglected; in addition to 1.300 direct jobs created, there will be at least 3 to 5 times more non direct employees. Development of such a mariculture concept may provide a multifunctional linkage with tourism and create possibilities of implementing mariculture-based tourism.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
8485
URI
Publication date:
26.2.2004.
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