The “Conference for the fishing inspectors” is an annual event organized by the Croatian Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.
This closed event is intended specifically for those involved in inspections at sea: officials from the Ministry of Fisheries, as well as from the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, who are members of the Coast Guard and Maritime Police. The conference was also attended by representatives from EFCA, the European Fisheries Control Agency.
During the conference prof. Alen Soldo from the University of Split held a presentation on the goals of the LIFE EUSHARKS project and educated fishing inspectors on species identification.
Only a small group of sharks and rays are still allowed to be fished in Croatia, as many are already strictly protected species under the Nature Protection Act, while others are forbidden to be fished by several fishing legislation acts. Thus, a particular issue is the identification of the species as, out of 60 species in the Adriatic, not many have very easily recognizable characteristics. Therefore, it is of paramount interest that persons involved in enforcing legislation, and those are primarily fishing inspectors, are well educated in species identification.
