Along with the potential aquatic life in the Samsun sea, and inland waters, 2343 families, from east to west, provide it their livelihoods by fishing activities (KKGM,2010). While the fishing sector has an important place for Samsun province, it has come to the point of extinction as a result of the succession of man-made and natural-made negative factors in the sector over the years.
The uncontrolled growth in trawler fishing, which is the cornerstone of Samsun fisheries sector, both damaged the sector and the natural cycle had hard-to repair wounds over the years. As mentioned before, in the last 30years, the 300% growth of Samsun trawler fishing fleet is an example of thr uncontrolled growth which is mentioned. The trawler fisherman, who went hunting with the newly acquired technology sheet metal tind, went after the fish, and, so to speak, began to look for a hole in the fish to escape from the fisherman. Although restrictions were imposed on the trawler at certain points, the fisherman didnot take the restrictions into account and treated the sea the mercilessly in the fishing race. The target species , which we use the term our national fish for Samsun Sea, turbot, red mullet, haddock and strugeaon have the reached the point of extinction. These species, which are expressed the tons of fishery records, are auctioned daily in Samsun fish market, while some species are now almost never seen.
The difficult dayys of trawler fishing, which formed the roof of the Samsun fishing industry, had begun with the 1980s. The mile limit, which was brought to hunting in 1988, put the Samsun trawler fishermen in a difficult situation. Samsun Fish Dealers- Holders and Mobile Tradesmen Asociation supported Samsun trawler fishermen in the decision aricles in the 1988 meeting on this issue: “Aricle 3; ıt was unanimously decided to focus on the ban on our fish keepers and trawlers and to conduct research on this issue by the board of the directors of the association.”
As a result of the overgrowth of the trwler fishing fleet, which constitutes of the basic fabric of Samsun fisheries, in the terms of capacity and power since 1980, and the fishing carried out without complying with the fishing rules, by the end of the 1990s, the existing the demersal fish stocks have reached a level that cannot carry this fishing capacity anymore.
At this point , at the end of the 2000s, thes demersal fish stocks have reached the level of collapse (Gümüş,2011:6).
The known fact of our age, global warming and in the parellel with the destruction or displacement of the heat values of the habitats and food chains of the species, have created conditions that are difficult to repair. In the last 20-30 years, the settlement of the species that have not been seen for centuries, which are described as invasive, and the free mixing of chemical factors into the water and then into the sea has accelerated this extinction. Intensive agricultural practices of Samsun hinterland with the 1980s, there was an explosion in the production of synthetic fertilizers and excessive unconscious use of fertilizers wastes Yeşilırmak and Kızılırmak basins; fertilizers and chemical industry wastes were reaching the Black Sea through these two rivers. Until yesterday, Samsun’s direct release of all kinds of sewage waste into fresh water and sea water without any purification industrial waste was another negative factor.
The fish fauna was the most obviously affected by change of the ecosystem of Black Sea in last20-25 years, while 26 species were hunted in the Black Sea between 1960-1970, this number decreased to 21 in the 1980s.
It is a pity that the first trawler boat masters that were floated in the Samsun Sea in the 1950s thought that Samsun was a very ideal hunting ground for trawling. They were right too; Samsun sea was so untouched and fertile that those who first started trawling were thinking what to do with so many fish when they pulled out the bags and emptied them. Once upon a time, the fishermen who saw this abundance worked hard to own a trawler, and they became trawlers. Now with in the scope of the “Settlement Warrant No 2012/51 to be made to those who take fishing boats out of fishing” published in the Offical Gazete dated June 19th 2012 and numbered 28328, the fishing boats will enter the in such a race have become competitive with each other in order to sell their fishing boats. Human may say “what a kind of contradiction is this!” by itself. Someting is over… was it the sea over? Or ıs it the hope that cannot be repaired again? The fisherman always expected from the sea. Found or dinnot find what he expected. But one was the certain that the sense of hope for tomorrow between the sea and fisherman. Always, the sea has been a mother to the fisherman. There was always something good or bad. Up to here…
