This study analysed Spanish fishermen's preferences regarding
the possibility of introducing fishing rights to manage the European
fisheries, and compared the results obtained with international
evidence. The results obtained in the Spanish case show that the
fleet segments most in favour of implementing ITQs correspond to
the industrial fisheries. This could be because these fleets fish for
marine resources which, in the main, have historically been the
subject of catch restrictions and they likely have a greater financial
capability to participate in a possible market of rights which enables
them to increase their fishing possibilities through the
acquisition of more rights. The exception to the latter corresponds
to the coastal trawl, which shows a greater preference for a system
based on non-transferable multiannual effort. The explanation
could lie in the fact that part of this fleet operates in a mixed fishery
whose main target species in Atlantic waters (Southern hake) has
been subjected to a recovery plan over last five years and, therefore,
to a relatively low TAC with respect to the fleet's historical catches.
This has forced it to cut short the fishing seasons as TAC set by the
European Council for these waters has been reached. In the case of
the part of trawl fleet that operates in Mediterranean waters, the
result could be put down to the fact that its vessels are smaller and
bear more similarities, therefore, to the artisanal fleet. Furthermore,
the more artisanal fisheries (small-scale, gillnets, longline) are also
more in favour of a system of individual effort, transferable or
otherwise. This can be explained due to the extremely wide variety
of target species these fleets fish for and, in turn, the lower number
of species subject to TACs, especially in the case of the artisanal
fleet, both in Atlantic and Mediterranean grounds.