The position and importance of Sinop in the Black Sea fisheries

Abstract

Located in the northernmost part of Türkiye and situated on the Boztepe Peninsula, Sinop has a surface area of 5.791 km2. Sinop is one of the smallest provinces of Türkiye and covers approximately 0.8 percent of Türkiye's surface area. Sinop Province is one of the regions with the highest fish outflow in the southern Black Sea coast of Türkiye where the most intensive fishing is carried out. There are many fish meal-oil factories, aquaculture processing and utilisation facilities and cold storages in Sinop due to intensive fishing and production. Due to the potential of Sinop's fisheries, the biggest export income is also provided from here. There are also dam lakes with large water surface area in Sinop Province. An intensive amount of aquaculture is carried out from these dam lakes. In addition, Sinop coasts are seen as the most suitable conditions in the Black Sea Region as a new and strong alternative attraction centre for aquaculture facilities. Especially after 2018, serious aquaculture activities are carried out on the east coast of Sinop and there are many project applications for new potential areas on the west coast of Sinop. Anchovy, Atlantic bonito, horse mackerel, whiting, bluefish, flathead grey mullet, red mullet, shad, garfish, and turbot are among the most fished economic species on the coasts of Sinop. In the inland waters of Sinop, the most caught fish species are carp and pike. The only species produced in the inland waters of Sinop is rainbow trout. The production of trout as trade name Turkish Salmon started in 2018 on the coasts of Sinop and continues and peaked in 2022 with 17,332,975 kg. Exported to 48 countries, Turkish Salmon was 45,548,737 kg in January-November 2022 and this rate increased to 57,211,587 kg with a 26% change in January-November 2023. Sea bass was only farmed in cages on the coasts of Sinop in 2019 and 2020. Except for 2021, veined Rapa whelk have been caught from the coasts of Sinop for the last 10 years. Veined Rapa whelk meat is exported to USA, Korea, China, Japan, Taiwan, and Singapore. Operculum of veined Rapa whelk is exported to S. Arabia and Libya countries. Sand mussel from the Sinop coasts was caught only in 2022. With the newly planned marine aquaculture capacities on the coasts of Sinop, its contribution to Turkish aquaculture production continues to increase. This table shows that Sinop is one of the leading provinces of Türkiye in terms of aquaculture processing facilities.