Italy I2 Socio-economic Profile


1 Italy : I2
1.1 Overview

The area defined as Italy I2 covers the Italian coastline from   Friuli-Venezia Giulia in the North to Pulglia in the South.

There are 6,704 vessels in the Adriatic fleet ,which represents 41% of the national total and 106,437 GRT  ( about 44% of the total gross registered tonnage of the Italian fishing fleet).

The Adriatic fleet is distributed evenly along the coastline, the greatest fleet numbers are found in Venezia  with 866 vessels (107,43GRT) and Bari with 654 vessels (19,996 GRT). Together with the regions of Ferrara and Foggia these four regions account for 42% of   the regions vessels and 43% of tonnage.  The I2 fleet comprises of a wide range of vessels types,  these are a) bottom trawlers,  1,070 vessels  39,450 GRT b) small scale fishery  2,841 vessels 8,424 GRT c) multipurpose 1,784 vessels, 29,595 GRT, with mid water pelagic trawlers having 10.2%  and dredge  7.6% of area's GRT.  Together these vessels landed  255,445 tonnes of fish in 1997, which represented 58% of the national total and was valued at 700,600,000 ECU.  Total landings were made up of  91,000 tonnes of demersal fish,  72,000 of 'other pelagics', 52,000 of molluscs,  17,000 of crustaceans and 23,387 tonnes of clams.

1.2 Coastal Fishing Employment

Employment in the Adriatic Fleet totals 16,939 fishers located along the entire coastline.  The NUTS 3 regions of Venezia with 2,306 fishers and Bari with 2,510 predominate in terms of employment numbers. As on the Tyrrhenian coastline the level of education is fairly low and all the fishers are registered as men and as full time workers.

1.3 Processing Employment

The total number employed in the processing sector was 2,400,  many of these workers are part time,  20%  of the total are women part time workers and 8%  of the total are men part time workers.  The larger concentration of fishers were in the region of Veneto, where 266 were based in the Venezia and 221 in Verona.  The region of Puglia in the South had an even distribution of processors but none of the NUTS 3 regions had more than 100 employed in processing.

1.4 Vessel Construction And Repair

There are 790 people employed in the vessel construction and repair sector, of which the majority are men (96%).  Ship building is mainly concentrated in the Northern Adriatic.

1.5 Marine Aquaculture Employment

There were considerable numbers employed in the aquaculture sector.  In total there were 5,578 people which represented 64% of the national total.  Production of eels, sea bass and sea bream is largely concentrated in the Northern regions of Friuli Venezia Giulia, Veneto and along the Po river and provides employment for 1,602 (Veneto), 1,598 (Emilia Romagna) and 1,110 (Puglia) persons. Mollusc production, mainly clams and mussels involves farming by more traditional methods and is concentrated in Trieste and in the Gulf of  Taranto.

1.6 Inland Fishing Employment

There are 1,088 people employed in inland fisheries.  90% of whom are located in the regions of Trentino Alto Adige, Friuli Venezia Giulia and Veneto.  The vast majority are employed on small family run trout farms.  There is some inland fishing of carp, tench and eel with a yearly production of 27,810 tonnes.