In this paper, we employ a “doughnut” economic approach to comprehensively assess the state of the purse-seiners fisheries sector in the northwestern Mediterranean Sea. The analysis identifies several instances of ecological overshooting and shortages in basic social needs, indicating that the current situation is, in many respects, far from being in a secure, ecologically safe, and socially just space. It demonstrates that the necessary transition to achieve a sustainable sector is not solely a technical or financial issue; it also requires sufficient social capabilities to lead and manage the process, taking into consideration the social context in which it would occur. Our assessment indicates the need for urgent action and an overarching transition plan that includes an ecosystem-based fishery management plan, including commercial and social plans. The study showcases that this approach is useful in providing valuable information to support the transition of fisheries toward sustainability. Moreover, utilizing this non-fisheries-specific framework can facilitate the participation of fisheries expertise in broader discussions about the socioeconomic and ecological changes needed to achieve a post-growth-oriented blue economy

FR was supported by Ramón y Cajal program (Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, RYC2020-030078-I). This study is a contribution to SEINE-ETP project (Ocean Stewardship Fund MAVA Grant). The authors acknowledge partial funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 grant agreement No 101059877 (GES4SEAS). This work acknowledges institutional support of the “Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence” accreditation (CEX2019-000928-S) to the Institute of Marine Science (ICM-CSIC)

32 pages, 4 figures, 1 table, supplementary material.-- Data Availability: Data/code sharing is not applicable to this article because no data and code were analyzed in this study

Peer reviewed