1)Fish card
The increased sensitivity of citizens towards the management of natural environments stems from the observation that nature and the environment are goods that belong to everyone and that as such should be carefully preserved for future generations.
It is a common opinion that the protection of ecosystems must be guaranteed by the Public Administrations in charge and that it is effectively implemented through the integration of scientific knowledge and the active and responsible collaboration of citizens.
This attitude is basically the only way to achieve the goal of a correct man-nature relationship based on the precise acquisition of the mechanisms that regulate ecosystems and the widespread dissemination of all knowledge to achieve effective awareness.
With this in mind, the Provincial Administration of Vicenza is also moving, based on the powers conferred on it by state and regional laws, in recent years it has undertaken a series of initiatives aimed at acquiring knowledge on the main ecosystems in order to better define the integrated management programs.
In the field of fisheries, the Agriculture and Hunting Department began in 1984 a collaboration with specialized ichthyologists coordinated by the Institute of Biology of Padua (now Department of Biology) with the aim of acquiring detailed information on the morphology of the surface hydrographic network, on the quality of the flowing waters, on the composition and structure of resident fish populations, with the specific objective of obtaining a technical-scientific instrument for the management of fish fauna.
The prudent and rational management of the fauna of the water is the only guarantee to be able to reconcile the needs of the fishing world and the need for conservation of natural fish populations.
This management approach takes the form of the implementation of the Fish Charter which, as defined by the official document drawn up by the Italian Association of Ichthyic Acque Dolci (AIIAD) in 1993, is a tool for the rational management of fish fauna and fishing activities.
A rational management based on quantitative scientific technical evaluations, verifiable and improvable over time is considered rational.
From this point of view, the detailed knowledge of the environmental characteristics of watercourses, the distribution and consistency of fish populations and finally the consistency of the fishing pressure is of fundamental importance.
A Fish Charter can be articulated on two levels: the first, more general, is applied on large territories and involves the acquisition of data on the natural characteristics of the basins and the riverbeds, on the quality of the water and on the distribution of the fish fauna.
The second level, more specific, provides for the detailed characterization at basin level of the environmental characteristics of watercourses, the quantification of the anthropic effects, the specific study of the structure and dynamics of the fish populations and the assessment of fishing pressure.
On the basis of the collected data it is possible to rationally face management problems related to demographic trends of fish populations, the modalities and the quantification of repopulations and in general the problems related to fishing activity.
The Province of Vicenza, one of the first in Italy, has already implemented and implemented the second level Fish Charter in the mountainous areas of the territory and with this further contribution it is preparing to redesign the ichthyofaunistic management in the remaining part of the territory. The effort to collect all the basic ecological parameters was great, but the active collaboration of the Vigilance Agents and the local fishermen associations, allowed the work to be carried out with efficiency, speed and coordination.
In the end, the resulting technical-scientific contribution can find an adequate application in the waters of the provincial territory in order to rationalize the operations of management of the fish fauna making compatible the fishing levy and the potential of the aquatic ecosystems.
