Chapter 23
New Equipment and Technologies Used
for Rapa Whelk Harvesting at the Romanian
Black Sea Coast
George T ¸ iganov, Cristian-Sorin Danilov, Magda Ioana Nenciu,
Eugen Anton, and Aurel Na ˘stase
Abstract An invasive species, the rapa whelk (Rapana venosa Valenciennes,
1846) was reported for the first time in the Black Sea in 1946 in the area of the
Novorossysky Port, and, at the Romanian coast, back in 1963. Due to its excellent
gourmet properties, rapa whelk has become the target of exploitation at an industrial scale for operators carrying out fishing activities at the Romanian coast.
Initially, the R. venosa population was exploited only with the help of divers, by
manual harvesting, but currently, starting with the second half of the year 2013, as a
result of the authorisition in the fishing sector of the beam trawl, rapa whelck
harvesting is being accomplished by both techniques: manual, by divers, and
mechanised, by beam trawl. The legalization of beam trawl fisheries resulted in
the implementation of changes in the structure of the fishing fleet (increasing the
number of vessels with lengths greater than 12 m) and equipping these vessels with
facilities/equipment adequate for a combined fishing: stationary (gillnets, goby
pots, longlines etc.) and active (pelagic trawl, beam trawl etc.).
Keywords Black sea • Rapana venosa • Beam trawl • Gillnets • Pelagic trawl
23.1 Aims and Background
After a decreasing trend during 2002–2010, when it dropped from more than 2000 t,
in 2002, to 1390–1940 t, during 2003–2006, and below 500 t during 2007–2009,
reaching a minimum value in 2010/258 t, in the past years the total catches of
Romanian Black Sea fisheries have recorded an increasing trend, namely 568 t, in
G. T ¸ iganov (*) • A. Na ˘stase
DDNIRD – Danube Delta National Institute for Research and Development, 165 Babadag
Street, Tulcea, Romania
e-mail: gtiganov@alpha.rmri.ro; george.tiganov@ddni.ro
C.-S. Danilov • M.I. Nenciu • E. Anton
NIMRD – National Institute for Marine Research and Development “Grigore Antipa”, 300
Mamaia Blvd, Constanta, Romania
© Springer International Publishing AG 2018
C.W. Finkl, C. Makowski (eds.), Diversity in Coastal Marine Sciences, Coastal
Research Library 23, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-57577-3_23
397
New Equipment and Technologies Used
for Rapa Whelk Harvesting at the Romanian
Black Sea Coast
George T ¸ iganov, Cristian-Sorin Danilov, Magda Ioana Nenciu,
Eugen Anton, and Aurel Na ˘stase
Abstract An invasive species, the rapa whelk (Rapana venosa Valenciennes,
1846) was reported for the first time in the Black Sea in 1946 in the area of the
Novorossysky Port, and, at the Romanian coast, back in 1963. Due to its excellent
gourmet properties, rapa whelk has become the target of exploitation at an industrial scale for operators carrying out fishing activities at the Romanian coast.
Initially, the R. venosa population was exploited only with the help of divers, by
manual harvesting, but currently, starting with the second half of the year 2013, as a
result of the authorisition in the fishing sector of the beam trawl, rapa whelck
harvesting is being accomplished by both techniques: manual, by divers, and
mechanised, by beam trawl. The legalization of beam trawl fisheries resulted in
the implementation of changes in the structure of the fishing fleet (increasing the
number of vessels with lengths greater than 12 m) and equipping these vessels with
facilities/equipment adequate for a combined fishing: stationary (gillnets, goby
pots, longlines etc.) and active (pelagic trawl, beam trawl etc.).
Keywords Black sea • Rapana venosa • Beam trawl • Gillnets • Pelagic trawl
23.1 Aims and Background
After a decreasing trend during 2002–2010, when it dropped from more than 2000 t,
in 2002, to 1390–1940 t, during 2003–2006, and below 500 t during 2007–2009,
reaching a minimum value in 2010/258 t, in the past years the total catches of
Romanian Black Sea fisheries have recorded an increasing trend, namely 568 t, in
G. T ¸ iganov (*) • A. Na ˘stase
DDNIRD – Danube Delta National Institute for Research and Development, 165 Babadag
Street, Tulcea, Romania
e-mail: gtiganov@alpha.rmri.ro; george.tiganov@ddni.ro
C.-S. Danilov • M.I. Nenciu • E. Anton
NIMRD – National Institute for Marine Research and Development “Grigore Antipa”, 300
Mamaia Blvd, Constanta, Romania
© Springer International Publishing AG 2018
C.W. Finkl, C. Makowski (eds.), Diversity in Coastal Marine Sciences, Coastal
Research Library 23, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-57577-3_23
397