On the 4th of January, the Government of Portugal approved the Co-management Plan for the Harvesting of Goose Neck Barnacles (Pollicipes pollicipes) in the Berlengas Natural Reserve.
This approval follows the official establishment of the Co-management Committee for the harvesting of Goose Neck Barnacles (Pollicipes pollicipes) in the Berlengas Natural Reserve (BNR), in which several MARE researchers take part. This is the first fishery Co-management Plan of a Co-Management Committee to be approved and published in Portugal.
Management goals and measures to the harvesting of this natural resource in the Berlengas Archipelago, located in the area of the Berlengas Biosphere Reserve classified by UNESCO in 2011, are defined in this Co-management Plan for the harvesting of Goose Neck Barnacles in the BNR.
Amongst these management measures are the countering of illegal sales, the reduction of the management and monitoring spacial scale, the development of strategies for a more careful harvest, minimizing waste and the catch of smaller goose neck barnacles, and the monitoring of goose neck barnacle abundance, resorting to technology such as drones.