Can Mediterranean cephalopod stocks be managed at MSY by 2020? The Balearic Islands as a case study

According to the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), all European sh stocks should be brought to a state where they can produce at MSY by 2015 wherever possible or by 2020 at the latest. Despite the high socioeconomical importance of cephalopods in the Mediterranean and the increased availability of stock assessments during the recent past, only few European cephalopod stocks have been assessed to date. Surplus production models were applied to analyse the exploitation state of octopus and cuttle sh stocks from the Balearic Islands (western Mediterranean) to estimate how far away they were from the MSY target established by the CFP using a long-term data series (1977–2013). The stocks were overexploited (cuttle sh) or about to be overexploited (octopus) during the late 1970s; this state remains even now and will only recover from overexploitation by 2020 if severe measures are taken.

The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013) under grant agreement MYFISH n° 289257. The article does not necessarily reflect the views of the Commission. We would like to express our gratitude to the Federació Balear de Confraries de Pescadors and the Instituto Social de la Marina for kindly providing data on landings and fleet activity. Thanks to M. H. Prager (NOAA, North Carolina, USA) for his help with the ASPIC software. Special thanks to Pep Domingo, retired fisher from Mallorca, for giving us information about fleet activity, vessel characteristics and life on board from the fifties, when he began to fish.

Peer reviewed