FISHING TOURISM IN GREECE

The Maritime Affairs, Islands and Fishing ministry intends to advance a regulation that will allow fishing tourism by professional fishing boats.

Determination of the terms and conditions for the implementation of such a regulation are currently underway, and the target is to reinforce the incomes of fishermen on the one hand, and to provide interested parties (tourists, travel agencies, etc) more forms of alternative tourism in the new tourism season. 

Fishing tourism is part of the wider framework of marine eco-tourism, and may also include the boarding of non-crew individuals on fishing boats for recreational and tourism purposes, accommodation and general provision of specialized tourism services related to fishing and fish-farming, and services related to traditions and customs. 

The development of fishing tourism is viewed as an opportunity for professional diversification that aims at boosting the rebirth of coastal communities and fishermen who are facing financial problems due to a reduction in their incomes and in traditional fishing activities.

Further, fishing tourism may also serve as a tool for increasing public awareness on the environmental problems and principles of sustainable growth to both sides involved: to tourist agents and their customers, and to fishermen and tourists. (ANA - MPA) 

Currently a fishing licence is required for any individual aboard a fishing boat, however large or small. The licence applies to the individual rather than the boat so individuals are currently not allowed to even go along for the ride without holding a licence.

Though both fishing and ecotourism obviouslydepend on the ecosystem, it does not follow that they make use of the samecomponent of the ecosystem as a production factor: increasing fish biomass does notnecessarily attract tourists. It probably does in places, like coral-reef areas (Dixon etal. 1993), with a high potential for recreational activities such as scuba diving andsnorkelling (though, in this case, other factors are to be considered, like fishassemblages, presence of emblematic species, or types of fishing and their impact onCAN ECOTOURISM BE AN ALTERNATIVE? 99fish behaviour). In other places, the link between fish abundance and ecotourism isindirect, taking the form of a biological interaction between fish and other speciesthat are attractive for tourists, like seabirds or marine mammals (Boncoeur et al.2002). This feature probably fits better to the case of the Saloum delta, whereimportant populations of birds attract tourists. However, in this place, the mostdirect link between fish abundance and tourism is sport fishing. This activity, justlike any other kind of fishing, is by itself extractive, and the reference to ‘no-kill’practices certainly cannot be taken as a guarantee that it has no impact on fishresources (extended to marine ecosystems, a similar caveat applies to allegedly‘non-extractive’ activities like scuba diving or snorkelling). Under suchcircumstances, it would be necessary to replace the one-way externality of ourmodel by a mutual externality between the two industries, each of them negativelyaffecting the other by its impact on fish resources (just like individual fishermen dowhen they harvest the same stock). However, the assumption of a one-wayexternality may be kept as an approximation if the impact of industry 2 on fishresources is significantly lower than that of industry 1, for the same level of incomegenerated. Empirical evidence seems to back this view: the level of resource rent bykg of fish harvested is usu