La pêcherie de la mendole Spicara maena dans la région nord de la Tunisie : Dynamique et état d'exploitation

Abstract

The rational exploitation of species requires good knowledge of their biological parameters and that of stock assessment. The data collected on Spicara maena (Linnaeus, 1758) from the coastal fishery in 2018 in a Northern Tunisian region (Bizerte) allowed the description of this species’ bio-dynamic aspects. The analysis of the landings indicates that the blotched picarel is a common species in the north of Tunisia particularly in the area of Bizerte. The sizes of the catches show a uni-modal structure with an average of 16.25± 1.07 cm. The evolution of the sex-ratio in relation to size shows a shift in the dominance of females in favor of males. The overall sex-ratio is 77%. The size-mass relationship shows a minor allometry (b=2.652) with no difference between the two sexes. The estimation of the size of sexual maturity (L50), carried out by two methods, showed that maturity for this species (combined sexes) is reached at 13.22 cm. The fishing mortality profile shows that the exploitation mainly targets the adult fraction of the species with a rate of 0.7. The analysis of the yields per recruit showed that the blotched picarel stock in the northern region of Tunisia is under-exploited.