Body size overlap in industrial and artisanal fisheries for five commercial fish species in the Mediterranean Sea

Abstract

In this study we present the length frequency distributions of Boopsboops, Mullus barbatus, Scomber japonicus, Spicara smaris and Trachurusmediterraneus caught with different gears (trawls, purse-seines, beach-seines,gill nets, trammel nets and longlines) in Cyclades during 1995-2000. Trawls generallycaught the smallest sizes for four out of the five species studied (i.e. B.boops, M. barbatus, S. smaris and T. mediterraneus) and purse-seinescaught individuals with intermediate sizes between those caught with trawls andsmall-scale gears. For S. japonicus, gill nets caught smaller individualsthan those caught with purse-seines and trammel nets. The same general patternwas also observed comparing the seasonal length frequencies of the three mostabundant species (i.e. B. boops, T. mediterraneus and S. smaris).Generally, trawls caught immature individuals when compared to small-scale gearsand the vast majority of the individuals caught by all gears (with the exceptionof trammel nets for M. barbatus) was smaller than the optimum exploitation size,indicating that the gears examined are not appropriate for the sustainable exploitationof these resources.