Ünal, Vahdet Ege Üniversitesi - Su Ürünleri Fakültesi, Turkey , Göncüoğlu, Huriye Ege Üniversitesi - Su Ürünleri Fakültesi, Turkey , Sarı, Hasan M. Ege Üniversitesi - Su Ürünleri Fakültesi, Turkey

Prospects, problems, and further projects of inland fishery cooperatives in the Aegean Region (Turkey)

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Turkey has quite large inland water ecosystems including streams (178.000 km), lakes (900.000 ha), dam lakes (228.621 ha) and ponds (Cirik ve Cirik, 1999) where have vital importance considering living aquatic resources and habitats. Within these resources, the commercially important fish species are important source of income for the fishermen who are members of cooperative. Today, 524 fishery cooperatives are active in marine (34%) and inland waters (66%) in Turkey. Only 13% of inland fishery cooperatives are active in Aegean Region. Within this study, Telephone survey was conducted with the heads of inland fishery cooperatives (22) which are located in Aegean Region (İzmir, Manisa, Muğla, Afyonkarahisar, Denizli, Aydın, Kütahya) to put forward the potential of inland fishery cooperatives via analyzing their characteristics, activities, problems and future projects. It was determined that 41% of cooperatives have future plans to improve the effectiveness of cooperative. Inland fishery cooperatives with high membership rate (94%) and considerable number of fishermen (1,835) in Aegean Region must be considered carefully to understand the importance of crucial inland fishery not only in the region but also in all over the Turkey.

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Cooperation , Inland fishery , Fishery co , operatives , Fishermen organizations

Ege Journal Of Fisheries an‎d Aquatic Sciences

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