Improving the ecological efficiency of the bottom trawl fishery in the western Mediterranean: it’s about time!

The improvement of fishing technology has been detrimental to the sustainability of fisheries, which is particularly clear for the bottom trawl fishery. Reducing its environmental impact is a key point for the development of a more sustainable fishery. The present work analyzed different possibilities to mitigate the impact of gears on the seabed and to increase the efficiency of the bottom trawl fishery of the Western Mediterranean. The analysis of three experiments showed that innovative technical and regulation measures can lead to benefits such as the reduction of fishing effort, the improvement of the cost-benefit relation and the reduction of the direct impact on the seabed and the indirect effect on the ecosystems through reduce discards and the emission of CO2 into the atmosphere. After years of studies focused on improving the sustainability of this fishery, it's about time to turn this improvement into realityPreprint1,86

N90, a Diversity Index Sensitive to Variations in Beta Diversity Components

Species diversity in a community is mainly related to the number and abundance of species that form it. N90 is a recently developed diversity index based on the results of the similarity percentage (SIMPER) analysis that represents the number of species contributing up to ninety percent of within-group similarity in a group of samples. The calculation of N90 is based on the Bray–Curtis similarity index and involves the number of species and abundances in a group of samples. We have explored the properties of N90 compared to other alpha, beta and gamma diversity indices and to beta diversity measures accounting for nestedness and turnover. We have used a non-real data set to compare the values of all indices with N90 and two real data sets of demersal fish communities along large and short depth gradients with higher influence of turnover and nestedness, respectively, to correlate the same indices with N90. The sensitivity of N90 to reductions in the frequency of occurrence and the evenness of the distribution of species abundances among samples allows the detection of diversity loss due to the fishing-induced retreatment of species populations to localities presenting the most favorable ecological conditions. This property, both in the identification of species replacement and species loss through SIMPER analysis, make N90 a useful indicator to support the Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries within the current context of global changeEn prens

Libanon : Heiße Spuren im „Mordfall Hariri“?

The teleosts Chelidonichthys cuculus, Trigloporus lastoviza, Serranus cabrilla and Trachinus draco, are important by-catch species, in terms of landed biomass and commercial value, from the continental shelf bottom trawl fishery off the Balearic Islands (western Mediterranean). The main biological parameters of these species were calculated from monthly biological samplings, and were used along with three years pseudo-cohorts (2008-2010) obtained from monitoring on-board of the bottom trawl fleet, to assess their exploitation level through Virtual Population Analysis (VPA) and Yield per Recruit (Y/R) analysis. Time series of fishery independent indicators based on MEDITS surveys data such as the evolution of the abundance and biomass, the distribution range, and the Conservation Status of Fish b (CSFb), were also analyzed. All four species analyzed showed growth overfishing. The reductions of the fishing effort required to reach the Y/RF0,1 reference point were lower, 66-73% depending on the species, to those reported for the target species M. merluccius (87%), but higher than that reported for M. surmuletus (53%), in the study area in the period 2000-2010. The abundance and biomass, and the distribution range did not show any trend for the period 2001-2011, whereas the CSFb showed signs of recovery that may be due to the displacement of the trawl fishing effort from the shelf to the slope during the last decade. Our results underline the necessary incorporation of monitoring and assessment of by-catch species to the management of fisheries as their populations can show a more pronounced overexploitation than target ones

Discards reduction of non-commercial benthic species from a simple net modification

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Diamond vs. square mesh codend in a multi-species trawl fishery of the western Mediterranean: effects on catch composition, yield, size selectivity and discards

Selectivity studies usually describe the effects on target species, whereas information on by-catch and discards is scarce. Nevertheless, large quantities of undersized individuals and invertebrates are discarded in the Mediterranean multi-species bottom trawl fishery. The present work analyses the data from two surveys carried out on the shallow and deep continental shelf (50–78 m, and 147–189 m, respectively) off the Balearic Islands (western Mediterranean). In these surveys, the traditionally used 40 mm diamond mesh codend and an experimental square mesh codend were used under commercial conditions. Catch composition, yields, size selectivity of both target and by-catch species, and discards were compared between the two mesh types. The mean selection length (L50) clearly increased for most species when using square mesh, escaping many more individuals under their minimum landing size. Yield of Spicara smaris was significantly lower by using the square mesh, changing the composition of the retained catch. Escapement ratio and economic loss were significantly higher with square mesh, although economic loss was almost negligible for both meshes on the deep continental shelf. The use of square mesh significantly reduced the discards of algae in the shallow waters and fish on the deep continental shelf. The results confirmed that square mesh codend reduces the fishing pressure on small specimens as well as the impact of trawling on the ecosystem. These benefits would not lead to a reduction of the yields neither of the main target species, the fishes Merluccius merluccius, Mullus surmuletus, Zeus faber, and the cephalopods Loligo vulgaris and Octopus vulgaris, nor of the rest of commercial categories, except for Spicara smarisPublicado

Short spatio-temporal variations in the population dynamics and biology of the deep-water rose shrimp Parapenaeus longirostris (Decapoda: Crustacea) in the western Mediterranean

The deep-water rose shrimp Parapenaeus longirostris is a demersal decapod crustacean that is commercially exploited by trawl fleets. The present work compares its population dynamics, biology and condition in two locations (southern and north-western Mallorca in the Balearic Islands, western Mediterranean, separated by a distance of 120 km) with different environmental conditions and explores the relationships between the species and certain environmental factors. Six multidisciplinary bimonthly surveys were carried out during 2003 and 2004 in these two locations (between 150 and 750 m depth) in order to collect data on the demersal species with bottom trawl, the hydrography (temperature and salinity) with CTD casts, and trophic resources (zooplankton in the water column and suprabenthos with Bongo net and Macer-GIROQ sledge respectively) and sediments with a Shipeck dredge. The trawl fleets from both locations were monitored by monthly on board sampling and daily landings obtained from sales bills. Additional data was obtained from other trawl surveys. Temporal differences were detected both annually, with a decreasing trend over the last years in species abundance, and seasonally, in the biological indexes analysed. Bathymetric differences were also found in abundance, mean length, sex-ratio and condition of females. There were clear differences between the two locations studied, with higher abundance, condition and mean length and a lower length at first maturity for females in the north-western location. Trophic conditions could act as a link between geo-physical and biological changes. These short spatio-temporal differences could be due to the higher productivity found at this location, with higher density of preferred prey for the studied species together with adequate seafloor topography, sediment composition and hydrographical characteristicsPublicado

Three small-scale fisheries based on the island of Majorca (NW Mediterranean)

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Stock boundaries for fisheries assessment and management in the Mediterranean: the Balearic Islands as a case study

The stock concept plays a pivotal role in fisheries assessment and management. Stocks are defined according to biological, geographical, economic or socio-political factors. The General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) has established thirty management geographical sub-areas (GSAs) based on political and statistical considerations rather than biological or economic factors. Here, we present our view on the main biological and ecological aspects that should be considered for delineating different management units in the Mediterranean. We focus on the Balearic Islands (GSA05) as a case study highlighting its specificities compared to the adjacent coast of the Iberian Peninsula (GSA06), but the approach could be generalized to the problem of identifying stock boundaries in other areas. The work is based on published information from different marine disciplines such as geomorphology, ecology and fisheries, combined with the analysis of new data coming from official fishery statistics and scientific surveys. This approach avoids the important draw¬backs (inconclusive results, high costs) of other time-consuming techniques used in stock identification, such as genetics. According to the information presented, we conclude that GSA05 should be maintained as an individualized area for assess-ment and management purposes in the western MediterraneanPublicado