An overview of bottom trawl selectivity in the Mediterranean Sea
LUCCHETTI; A.; VIRGILI; M.; VASAPOLLO; C.; PETETTA; A.; BARGIONE; G.; LI VELI; D.; BR?IC; J.; SALA; A.;
In the Mediterranean Sea, where bottom trawling for demersal species is the most important fishery in terms of landings,
around 75% of the assessed fish stocks are overfished. Its status as one of the world’s most heavily exploited seas and the one
subject to the highest trawling pressure has become a global concern. An extensive overview of bottom trawl selectivity studies
was performed to assess the sustainability of this fishery in the Mediterranean. The selectivity parameters were collected from
93 peer-reviewed publications from 10 countries, totalling 742 records and 65 species. Our review highlighted that i) the catch of
the bottom trawls commonly employed in the Mediterranean, although they comply with current codend mesh regulations, still
includes immature individuals of 64-68% of the species investigated, and individuals under the minimum conservation reference
size (MCRS) of 78% of the species investigated, and that ii) the MCRS set for 59% of the species analysed is well below their
length at first maturity and is therefore ecologically inadequate. Although square-mesh codends are slightly more selective, the
models developed herein demonstrate that improving size and species selectivity would require considerably larger meshes, which
may significantly reduce profitability. The urgent need to mitigate the biological impacts of bottom trawling in the Mediterranean
should be addressed by promoting the adoption of more ecologically sustainable fishing gears through the introduction of more
selective meshes or of gear modifications.
2021 - Journal article
Mediterranean Marine Science (Online) 22 (2021): 566–585. doi:10.12681/mms.26969
Keywords: Selectivity; Bottom trawl; Sustainable fishery; Demersal fish; Mediterranean Sea.