{"id":7684,"date":"2025-12-17T16:23:18","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T15:23:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.icatmar.cat\/the-report-on-the-state-of-recreational-marine-fishing-in-catalonia-in-2024-is-now-available\/"},"modified":"2025-12-17T16:52:43","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T15:52:43","slug":"the-report-on-the-state-of-recreational-marine-fishing-in-catalonia-in-2024-is-now-available","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.icatmar.cat\/en\/the-report-on-the-state-of-recreational-marine-fishing-in-catalonia-in-2024-is-now-available\/","title":{"rendered":"The report on the state of recreational marine fishing in Catalonia in 2024 is now available"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Recreational marine fishing in Catalonia is growing in participation but reducing total catches in 2024.<\/h3>\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.icatmar.cat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/ICATMAR_Report_MRF_2024_v5.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The latest ICATMAR report on the state of recreational marine fishing in Catalonia <\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">shows an increase in the number of recreational fishers in 2024, with an estimated 52,200 participants, representing a 6.7% growth compared to the average for the 2020\u20132023 period. Despite this rise in participation, the study indicates a decrease in the total extracted biomass, which drops from an estimated 940 tonnes per year in 2020\u20132023 to approximately 851 tonnes in 2024.<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p>The report confirms that recreational marine fishing continues to be a highly seasonal activity, concentrated mainly between May and September. However, in 2024 there was an increase in activity during the winter months, particularly in boat fishing and spearfishing.<\/p>\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Regarding catches, species from the sparid family, such as gilthead seabream (<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sparus aurata<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">) and seabreams (<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Diplodus spp.<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">), remain the main target group for recreational fishing. Each fishing modality, however, shows distinct patterns:<\/span><\/p>\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Shore angling focuses mainly on gilthead seabream, seabreams, and European seabass (<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dicentrarchus labrax<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">).<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Boat angling stands out for the capture of pelagic fish such as little tunny (<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Euthynnus alletteratus<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">) and cephalopods such as cuttlefish (<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sepia officinalis<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">) and squid (<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Loligo vulgaris<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">).<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Spearfishing maintains a significant presence of species such as dusky grouper (<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Epinephelus marginatus<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">) and common octopus (<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Octopus vulgaris<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">), in addition to sparids.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<p>Overall, in 2024 a reduction in catches was observed in boat angling and spearfishing, while shore angling shows slight increases in some coastal areas.<\/p>\n\n<p>The data also reveal that most recreational catches continue to be retained, with percentages close to 88%, and that catch-and-release practices still have a very limited presence. These results reinforce the importance of considering recreational fishing in stock assessments and fisheries management, especially in the context of marine resource sustainability.&#13;\n<\/p>\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Finally, ICATMAR highlights that five consecutive years of data collection have made it possible to consolidate a robust time series on recreational marine fishing in Catalonia. This continuity is key to improving the reliability of estimates and advancing towards informed decision-making based on co-management and the integration of recreational fishing into marine governance policies.<\/span>&#13;\n&#13;\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The full report is available at <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.icatmar.cat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/ICATMAR_Report_MRF_2024_v5.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">this link<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> or in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.icatmar.cat\/en\/publications\/\">publications<\/a> section.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.icatmar.cat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG_9378-768x1024.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7672\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1;object-fit:cover\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.icatmar.cat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG_9378-768x1024.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.icatmar.cat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG_9378-225x300.jpeg 225w, https:\/\/www.icatmar.cat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG_9378-1152x1536.jpeg 1152w, https:\/\/www.icatmar.cat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG_9378-1536x2048.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/www.icatmar.cat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG_9378-scaled.jpeg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Source: Marta Pujol Baucells<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Recreational marine fishing in Catalonia is growing in participation but reducing total catches in 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":7673,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[196,161],"class_list":["post-7684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-catalunya-en","tag-pesca-marina-recreativa-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icatmar.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icatmar.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icatmar.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icatmar.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icatmar.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7684"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.icatmar.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7684\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7685,"href":"https:\/\/www.icatmar.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7684\/revisions\/7685"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icatmar.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icatmar.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icatmar.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icatmar.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}