Assessment of the status of the coastal groundfish assemblage exploited by the Viareggio fleet (Southern Ligurian Sea)

The coastal demersal fish assemblage exploited commercially by the Viareggio fleet was assessed in order to define its exploitation status and sustainability. A production model was used provided management benchmarks for the species for which available data are limited. The ASPIC Surplus production model was used. The results showed a depleted population for most of the species involved (B2008/B0 between 0.05 and 0.35) with high relative fishing mortality (F2008/FMSY between 1.18 and 1.64). Population projections using ASPIC-P allowed the exploitation strategies to be evaluated for a 10-year period. None of the populations are predicted to recover to BMSY if fishing effort remains at the 2008 levels. A reduction in effort of about 40% should increase the biomass in the medium-term of most of the species to BMSY or over, with a fairly good increase in yields of the most valuable species.