CROATIA
Cooperative enters Fisheries Improvement Project with a view to achieving sustainable practices
Looking for ways to access demanding markets The Omega 3 ďŹ shing cooperative was the ďŹ rst in Croatia to be recognised as a producer organisation as deďŹ ned by the EU policy on the Common Organisation of the Market. Today it has a processing and distributing facility for the ďŹ sh caught by its members which amounts to about a ďŹ fth of the total Croatian catch of small pelagics.
D
amir MiĹĄlov is a fisherman and a president of the supervisory board of the Omega 3 Fishing Cooperative located in the fishing town of Kali on the island of Ugljan. He has a long history as a fisherman having spent 18 years in the Pacific fishing for yellowfin tuna before returning to Kali.
Small pelagics are the main target species Members of the cooperative fish primarily for small pelagic species (sardine and anchovy). The cooperative was founded by fishermen in 2008 and today consists of 17 members who own a fleet of 22 purse seine vessels. Mr Miťlov himself owns a 25-meter purse seine. Each vessel has a full-time fishing crew of 8 to 9 people, so the cooperative employs some 200 people in total. A couple of vessels from the fleet fish exclusively for the tuna farming industry which uses small pelagic fish as feed for the tuna. The total annual catch by the cooperative’s members amounts to about 20 of the Croatian small pelagics’ catch, or some 64.000 tonnes in 2018. In Croatia, purse-seines targeting small pelagic fish account for the bulk (more than 75) of catches. Omega 3 was the first cooperative in Croatia to acquire the status of 34
Damir MiĹĄlov spent 18 years fishing yellowfin tuna in the Pacific before returning to Kali and becoming president of the Omega 3 fishing cooperative.
a producer organisation, a body officially recognised by the EU that is responsible for the day-today management of fisheries and plays an important role in running the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy and the Common Organisation of the Market.
Fisheries Improvement Project is step towards sustainability The cooperative has its own production facility, freezer warehouse, and 11 trucks that are used to transport fresh fish. The modern
technology used in the production facility was supported by the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund 2014-2020. In June 2017, jointly with WWF Adria and the Croatian Directorate of Fisheries, Omega 3 signed a memorandum of understanding to join the Adriatic small pelagic
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