Welcome to the first in a new blog post series, in which we take a tour of the different streams of work that make up CIBBRiNA and the dedicated people behind them. We begin with Arantza Murillas, Principal Researcher at AZTI and co-lead of our work alongside Sebastián Villasante (University of Santiago de Compostela).
1. What is your work for CIBBRiNA about, and why is it needed?
It’s about achieving a holistic approach to evaluating potential measures to minimise bycatch. Specifically, we want to understand what the social, economic, and environmental impacts will be of such measures. That means answering questions such as “How will this affect fishers’ wellbeing?” or “Will this help fleets to retain vessels?”, not just “Will this reduce bycatch?”.
When it comes to issues such as reducing Endangered, Threatened and Protected (ETP) species bycatch, fisheries management has traditionally focused on technical aspects (e.g. excluder panels in nets) and environmental impacts, using ecological and cost criteria to guide decisions. Yet the inclusion of social and economic factors – such as livelihoods, cultural values, and fairness (or perceptions of fairness) – is increasingly recognized as essential to ensuring that fisheries are both environmentally and socially sustainable. What this means for CIBBRiNA is that we will be able to better understand which mitigation measures are not only most likely to reduce bycatch of ETP species, but are also most likely to be adopted by fishers.
2. How did you end up working on this topic?
It was thanks to mussels! My first job after university was with a high-profile bank in Bilbao working with financial commodities, after which I moved to Vigo University where I partly focused on Galician mussel commodity markets. This was my first introduction to the fishing sector and marked the start of my journey of moving from financial markets to fish markets and ultimately to my current work focusing on the marine environment. I have seen how the discipline of environmental and fisheries economics has progressed fast in the last two decades, moving from traditional cost-based analysis into more complex market- and non-market-based evaluations of marine ecosystem services to inform cost-benefit analyses, while also considering fishers’ incentives.
3. What is your CIBBRiNA work currently focused on?
We are developing a series of theoretical frameworks, which we will then apply in CIBBRiNA’s case study fisheries. These frameworks will cover how the following incentives may encourage adoption of mitigation measures:
- Ecosystem services which have economic or other kinds of value for fishers (e.g. habitat for commercial fish species).
- Social incentives (good practices and capacity building).
- Market access (e.g. through ecolabelling).
- Market incentives (e.g. subsidies, bonds, and taxes).
- Fishing opportunities.
4. What has been the most memorable moment in your career so far?
Becoming the first female economist working for AZTI will always be memorable to me, especially now, two decades later, when the team of economists has expanded and the social sciences have become far more integrated into AZTI’s work. I’ve also been pleased to see the growing interest from policymakers in incorporating economic and social aspects as part of the decision-making process for fisheries and ocean management, from local to EU level.
5. What are you hoping to have used your work theme to achieve by the end of CIBBRiNA?
We want to have delivered a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis which will set out the trade-offs – i.e. the different advantages and disadvantages – of each mitigation measure in the toolkit that CIBBRiNA will produce. This analysis will be considered alongside the other key incentives I mentioned earlier, such as fishing opportunities and market access. The result will be that fishers, policymakers, and other key marine stakeholders will have a clear understanding of which mitigation measures may be best to adopt in different fisheries across Europe.
6. Indulge us and imagine that your work theme is an ETP species. What species would it be, and why?
A loggerhead or green turtle! Like all other sea turtles, both these species are incredibly versatile – in much the same way that our work stream is holistically handling a diverse range of economic, social, and environmental aspects.