There is high foreign and local demand to join the co-management plans; all plans have a waiting list to issue new licenses. In the interviews, stakeholders stated global and local measures had to be taken to control fishing effort. This concurs with the measures adopted Akt inhibitor by the DGPM; fishers must have completed 20 days at sea in the previous campaign and be active members of an Asturian cofradía to renew their

license. The cofradías have also established their own criteria in accepting new fishers, the Cabo Peñas plan members unanimously decided to only allow one new member for every three that leave the plan and others set a moratorium on issuing new licenses until they reach their target size. According to the focus groups, the fishers perceive their opinion on management guidelines is valued

and enforced. The joint approach to control fishing effort in Asturias can only be possible through a co-management system. Moreover, this approach also aids in including the fishers in the management process and generates a sense of empowerment. One of the main concerns expressed by fishers during the focus groups was the presence of poachers who exploit their TURFs, particularly during the closed season or in banned areas. The DGPM finances one surveillance officer per management plan who works a daily shift. Due to the surveillance effort several poaching cases have been documented and sanctioned by local authorities. However, according to the resource users many cases go unpunished or receive relatively small Epacadostat cell line fines. Fishers expressed a sense of entitlement, characteristic to exclusive rights systems, and saw an imminent need to protect their resource. Thus, in Cudillero-Oviñana, Luarca and Puerto de Vega all members have agreed to personally carry out a few days of surveillance in special interest areas. In the interviews and focus groups multiple resource users expressed concern to the constraints in compatibility between target species. The gooseneck barnacle fishery is legally compatible Sinomenine with shellfish pot, eel fishing

sieve and hook and line fishing. However, compatible gears can vary among plans. Nonetheless, to exploit incompatible resources, those that require passive-fishing gears such as gillnets and trammelnets, the fishers must resign their license for the rest of the fishing campaign. During the focus groups fishers that belong to a professional fishing vessel conveyed the most apprehension towards these measures, they generally only work for the first half of the campaign (October–December) and then depart to other fisheries. This generates a partition of gooseneck barnacle fishers into two groups, professional fishers and autonomous fishers who do not belong to a professional vessel and only have an individual license, with different exploitation seasonality.