Good Practice Short Stories

FLAG supports the setting up of an organisation to encourage and facilitate job sharing between local oyster farming activities and the fishing sector.

Oyster farms on the Leucate lagoon are regularly affected by toxic phytoplankton, leading to economic losses, especially during the high season around Christmas. In search of a solution, shellfish farmers teamed up with a biotech start-up to test a new, quick and easy way to detect toxic marine microalgae and anticipate its proliferation.

In Olbia, the northern area of Sardinia, the shells of mussels are no longer considered waste. With the help of the FLAG, local students and teachers are using crushed shells to create useful objects of all sorts, from moulds created by 3D printing.

West FLAG supports business development among some of the most marginalised and remote communities in the country, including offshore islands and native Irish speaking communities where a seaweed company has grown from one to four employees.

Ģirts Purviņš is the owner of GP Trading Ltd. and an experienced freshwater and saltwater fisherman. With the support of his local FLAG he has diversified his activities and the area’s tourism offer.

Having declined from 1000 oyster farms in 1970 to just 300 in 2015, the Bassin d´Arcachon FLAG area has seen the number of oyster farmers stabilize, thanks, in part, to work with 13 different schools to take pupils out on oyster boats to see what it means to be an oyster farmer.

Playa del Aguilar is a renowned beach and highly attractive touristic point on the Asturian coast. The village triples its population over the summer months, from 5 000 to 15 000 and the sandy beach and modern seafront are visited daily by thousands of tourists, summer residents and locals. However, in the vicinity of the beach, there are few restaurants or shops where tourists can buy ready-made food.

The Tirschenreuth FLAG region may have a long history of small family-owned aquaculture ponds but aquaculture did not always have the standing it enjoys today. The thousand-year-old tradition was almost forgotten when the FLAG took action to restore its cultural significance in the area.

One of the main needs identified by the Galati FLAG in their fisheries area was to strengthen the linkages between fishermen and the younger generation. Indeed, fishermen believed it important to ensure that traditional fishing know-how and their passion for the profession were passed on to the next generation.

In recent years, the Aberdeenshire fishing community has seen a sharp increase in migrant labour, working both at sea and in the processing sector, in particular from the Philippines, Ghana and Eastern Europe.