Descripció preliminar de la pesqueria de l’escamarlà (Nephrops norvegicus) en el mar català

Abstract

Fishing in Catalonia has great historical, cultural and economic value where the Norway lobster, Nephrops norvegicus, is a highly prized species for the Catalan trawling fleet. In recent years, an increase in fishing pressure has been observed in many commercial species and the study of these can help understand their current distribution, what condition they are in and their state of exploitation, among others. This paper describes the biological, reproductive, spatial and fishery parameters required to manage the resource through a biological and reproductive analysis with data obtained from fishing boats of the “Servei d'Assessorament Pesquer” (SAP), and a fishery analysis with data from the Catalan trawling fleet during the years 2019 and 2020. With the results obtained, it has been possible to determine that this species has higher sizes and weights in males and that the reproduction period of the studied females is between the months of March and August, result also confirmed by the peak of the gonadosomatic index in August. Moreover, the females studied have a size at first sexual maturity lower than that previously reported in the Mediterranean. It has been observed that the Norway lobster is found mostly on the upper slope and that the highest catches in the years studied have been in the areas of Palamós and Rosas, their fish markets also being the ones that have sold the largest quantities of this species and that therefore, they have obtained greater profits. On the other hand, incidental captures have been found in the areas of the south coast of Catalonia, a fact that shows that depth may be a key factor for the abundance of Norway lobsters although the geomorphology of the habitat may also be key for the species. It has been observed that 2020 was not a good year for fishing in the area studied mainly caused by the pandemic of COVID-19. The target species had been described as overexploited about 25 years ago and the size at first maturity decrease calculated in this study might indicate that the tendency in exploiting the resource remains the same. Thus, with the knowledge acquired in this study, measures can be applied to try to improve the status of the species with a possible co-management plan for Norway lobster north of the Catalan coast