Ka?-Kekova Special Environmental Protected Area has fisheries that are small-scale, done in an extensive range and with traditional methods. In the last 20 years, the decline in fish stocks has been due to overfishing and illegal fishing, moreover competition and habitat decline threats due to the increasing number of alien species has been added in the last ten years. Since there has been a lack of enforcement, ?No Fishing Zones?, declared in 2012, have been ineffective. Fish biomass research, done by the Mediterranean Conservation Society in 2019, has shown that there is no significant difference between the protected and unprotected areas. Following this, MCS has initiated the enforcement step (a ranger and a ranger boat in the area), with the support of the public institutions, in September 2019. The fact that most of the No Fishing Zones in the Ka?-Kekova SEPA are much smaller than 4 squarekilometers, a value determined by the MedPAN scientific committee to be the minimum size of a No Fishing Zone in the Mediterranean, does not facilitate the fish stocks to increase sufficiently.

The species that have increased the most in the last five years include puffer fish, Lagocephalus sceleratus, lion fish, Pterois volitans, and Pterois miles, squirrel fish, Sargocentron rubrum, and cornet fish, Fistularia commersoni, have started to make up the majority of the caught fish. Although, all of these species, except for the puffer fish, are edible; none of them are sold by the cooperatives and discarded by the fishermen. The consumer does not recognize these fish species, except for the puffer fish, and does not have any information about their edibility and the taste. The introduction of these species to the economy, their recognition by the customers and the determination of their population levels in the ecosystem are the main components of the project.

The project will also fulfill the spatial planning approach of the Blue Economy with the activities of implementing additional No Fishing Zones. Additionally, it also targets other Blue Economy activities; e.g. preventing illegal fishing and implementing sustainable fishing activities, decreasing climate change effects on coastal and marine areas on local communities with fisherwomen, and marine life preservation.