Information sources of knowledge based economic development for fisheries in Turkey

Fishery is a very important sector in Turkey due to economic, geographic, traditional, and cultural conditions. The sector has being one of the four sub-sectors of the agriculture till recent year when the Ministry of Food, Agriculture, and Livestock separate Fishery as an independent sector. The coastal areas, the amounts of lakes and rivers have been very important for fishery supplies in Turkey. Although Turkey has big potential fishery sector, the production commonly survive as traditional practices. Information sources of fishery sector, water resources, and ecological issues come from master-apprentice connections. The objective of this study is to share information sources of knowledge, science, and technology where stakeholders can reach or create Knowledge Based Economic Development (KBED) in the sector. As a result of the study, the stakeholders of fishery in Turkey as well as in the other countries obtain information sources of fishery from the study where knowledge is shared.


INTRODUCTION
Fishery sector has always been very important activity in coastal areas due to economic, geographic, traditional, and cultural factors.Therefore, in Turkey, as in many other countries, the most intensive users of coastal zone have been fishermen (Unal, 2006).Fishery being one of the four sub-sectors of the agriculture in Turkey.It has been vital importance in contributing beneficial nutrition for human beings, providing raw material for the industrial sector, creating the employment possibilities and high potential for export.Turkey, with its favorable geographic position between the Black Sea and Mediterranean Sea, has access to the fish resources of both water bodies.The country is also endowed with rich inland waters and rivers with significant capture fishery and aquaculture potential (Anonymous, 2008a).Turkey has high potential about catching and growing aquaculture products.But it has not been successful to raise the value of the potential.
Turkey is a country that's surrounded with seas three size of it such as Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea, Aegean Sea and Marmara Sea.In addition that Marmara Sea has an inside sea property.Also the amounts of lakes and rivers have been very important for fishery supplies (Tasdan et al., 2010).Total fish production of Turkey is 653,080 tons according to the 2012 fishery statistics.Of the total, 68.2 % is obtained from the marine fisheries, 6.2% from island and 25.6% comes from aquaculture (Anonymous, 2011).Although Turkey has big potential fishery sector, the production commonly survive as traditional practices.Knowledge Based Economic Development (KBED) of the sector has not been created yet.Information sources of fishery sector, water resources, and ecological issues come from masterapprentice connections.The information sources and connection within them are weak to trust in.The objective of this study is to share information sources of knowledge, science, and technology where stakeholders can reach or create KBED in the sector.As result of study, the stakeholders of fishery in Turkey as well as in the other countries obtain information sources of fishery from the study where knowledge is shared.

Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock
The Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock (MFAL) is the main state organization responsible for fisheries (including aquaculture) administration, regulation, protection, and promotion and technical assistance through Directorate General of Fisheries and Aquaculture (DFA)."According to the issue No. 27958 of the Official Gazette published on 8 of June in 2011, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MARA) has been reconstituted as the MFAL while the department of fisheries, previously named for directorate-general, has been reconstituted as the DFA" (Can and Demirci, 2012) (Anonymous, 2008b).The main duties of DFA on fisheries are to: (1) Determine and to promote the main issues of fishing and aquaculture both in marine and inland water systems for sustainable fishing and aquaculture, (2) Make up issues to establish, to operate and to control fishing ports and fishing infrastructures, (3) Protect fisheries resource, to determine marine protected, production and aquaculture areas, and making provisions to protect those areas from harmful activities, (4) Set up legislative issues for import and export fisheries product, (5) Conduct facilities that are aimed to improve and to enhance of fisheries and aquatic resources.(6) Make provisions for inputs that are needed to improve the production of fishing and aquaculture resources.(7) Set up the legislative issues that are connected to areas where fishing and aquaculture activities are held.To determined the characteristics and conditions of the limits of production tools and their usage and renting bases.(8) Prepare and implement research projects relating to improving of fishing and aquaculture production, (9) Set up an information network related to fisheries, fishing and aquaculture activities (Can and Demirci, 2012).

Ministry of Development
The objectives of fisheries management policy in Turkey used to be set up by State Planning Organization (DPT) till 2011 when the Ministry of Development established in Turkey.Managing fishery resources in a sustainable way is the main objective of the fisheries policy.Therefore, region-based preliminary fisheries plans have been designed.The objectives set out for these plans include rebuilding of depleted stocks, long-term resource management, introduction of fishing rights and sustainability of fishing opportunities for fishermen.The Ministry of Development prepares long-term development plans and annual programs conforming to the targets determined by the government.To this end, it coordinates the activities of ministries and public institutions concerning economic, social and cultural policies in order to ensure efficient implementation and advices the government on fishery policy issues.A special Committee for each sector including the stakeholders from fishery and aquaculture gathers every year during the preparation of the Development Plans, and serves as a platform for The Ministry of Development to consult.During the development of the latest development plan, the 9 th five year development plan covering the period between 2007 and 2013, the Committee for Fisheries mainly focused on sustainable exploitation of resources, integration of environmental considerations to fishery and institutional restructure for the adoption of the common fishery policy (Can and Demirci, 2012).

Fishery port offices
Turkey has a large number of fishing ports and the MFAL has traditionally not had a presence (office) in any of these ports.The need to strengthen fisheries protection and control was identified as an important priority.For this purpose, Fishery Port Offices were established in 2006 with 30 ports.All of them will also eventually be linked through the computer-based FIS to Provincial Offices and Headquarters of the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock in Ankara.The port offices have been operating since the beginning of 2007.These offices are an important aspect of improved fisheries management in Turkey.They will serve to improve the collection, checking and the use of information on the quantities and species of fish landed, and helping to improve compliance with national regulations related to grading and marketing of fish and fishing vessel licensing.A permanent presence in these ports will also help the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock to investigate fishing offences and take appropriate enforcement action.There will also be an additional benefit for the industry in facilitating easier communication with government officials, enabling more effective communication of industry concerns and needs (Can and Demirci, 2012).

Other organizations
Fisheries production data are gathered and evaluated by the State Statistics Institute in collaboration with the MFAL.The institute uses a complete questionnaire method for large scale fishermen, and sub-sampling for small scale fishermen.The Under Secretariat of Foreign Trade of the Prime Ministry is the other public organization which regulates fish exports and imports regime.The Agricultural Bank of Republic of Turkey and Under Secretariat of the Treasury operate credit and incentive schemes to support the fisheries and aquaculture sectors.The Scientific and Technical Research Council also plays an important role organizing and subsidizing research activities.The Export Promotion Centre of Turkey, which is the only public organization in this field, acts as an intermediary in establishing business contacts between foreign importers and Turkish exporters to develop and to promote Turkish fisheries exports (Duzgunes and Erdogan, 2008).

Universities
Nationally, there are many universities with a fisheries faculty or vocational school, or a fisheries department within an agriculture faculty (Table 1).All fisheries faculties and schools consist of three main departments: aquaculture, capture fisheries and processing, and science.

Cooperatives
Cooperatives have great importance in countries, where small holdings prevail.Since small holdings prevail in Turkish agriculture and fisheries sectors, cooperatives are of vital importance.Most of the cooperatives in Turkey are operating in their small and local markets (Unal et al., 2009).Cooperatives in the small-scale fisheries sector are a way of maximizing long-term community benefits to deal with the threats of fisheries mismanagement, livelihood insecurity and poverty-harsh realities for many of the world's small-scale fishers.Communities with successful community-based organizations are better off than those without (Ostrom, 1990).Cooperatives can: (i) increase fishers' pricenegotiating power with market intermediaries, help stabilize markets, improve post-harvest practices and facilities, provide marketing logistics and information, and facilitate investment in shared structures such as ice plants and fish processing facilities; (ii) increase market competition by setting up auctioning systems; (iii) use their greater negotiating power to make cost-saving bulk purchases of fishing gear, engines, equipment and fuel and to advocate with government; (iv) facilitate microcredit schemes for fishers, to reduce their dependency on intermediaries and give them greater freedom in selecting buyers (Anonymous, 2009a).In 1980, there were 229 fishery cooperatives with 14,750 members in Turkey, and 96 of these cooperatives were on the sea coast (Hazar, 1990).In 1992, while there were 8,020 agricultural cooperatives, only 262 fishery cooperatives existed in Turkey (Cikin and Kizildag, 1997).Both number of cooperatives and members have increased in 2009.According to MFAL, there are 528 fishery cooperatives with a total of 28,455 members and 12 fishery cooperatives associations and 1 central union of fishery cooperatives associations (Anonymous, 2012) (Table 2).

Information sources for the development of fisheries sector in Turkey
Information is a basic and fundamentally important element in any development activity.The value of information lies in its ability to affect a behavior, decision, or outcome.Information is an essential ingredient in agricultural development programs (Ozowa, 1995).Fisheries and aquaculture information is produced in different institutions.Much of information is published by commercial publishers and the cost is high and increasing.Efforts such as Access to Global Online Research in Agriculture (AGORA), Health Inter Network Access to Research (HINARI) and Online Access to Research in the Environment (OARE) alleviate the prohibitive costs of access for developing countries (Anonymous, 2009b).Much regional fisheries information is also published as grey literature by intergovernmental organizations such as the Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism, Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency, Secretariat of the Pacific Community, Network of  and 4 show lists of some international and national available information sources on fisheries, aquaculture and aquatic sciences.

CONCLUSIONS
The Fishery sector has always had a very important activity in coastal areas of Turkey.
Therefore, in Turkey, as in many other countries, the most intensive users of coastal zone have been fishery industry sources.The country is also endowed with rich inland waters and rivers with significant capture fishery and aquaculture potential.Although Turkey has big potential fishery sector, the production commonly survive as traditional practices.Knowledge Based Economic Development (KBED) of the sector has not been created yet.The stakeholders of fishery have to reach the source of development for fishery where KBED may create.MFAL, Ministry of Development, Fishery Port Office, Cooperatives, Universities, and Companies are main stakeholders of the sector.Also, national and international available information sources about fisheries as web site are very good source of information.It is necessary to convert information data to knowledge where KBED created in the sector.

Table 1 .
Academic institutions of fisheries or marine science faculties.

Table 2 .
Regional unions of fisheries cooperatives in Turkey.

Table 3 .
International available information sources about fisheries.