Growth, mortality and exploitation of European hake Merluccius merluccius in the Moroccan North Atlantic Sea

Growth, mortality and exploitation of European hake
Merluccius merluccius in the Moroccan North Atlantic Sea
Sadia Belcaid1
and Md. Sagir Ahmed2
*
1
National Institute of Fisheries Research, Regional Center, Tangier, BP: 5268-Dradeb, Tangier, Morocco.
[email protected]
EJAR
2
University of Dhaka, Department of Zoology, Laboratory of Aquatic Resource Management, Dhaka 1000,
Bangladesh. E-mail: [email protected] [email protected]
＊Corresponding author’s present address:
Aquatic Resource Management Lab
Department of Zoology
University of Dhaka, Dhaka 1000, Bangladesh
Fax: 880-2-8615583; Tel. 880-2-9661900 Ext. 7597
E-mail: [email protected]
Received 31st October 2010, Accepted13th July 2011
Abstract
The European hake (Merluccius merluccius) is one of the most heavily exploited fish species in Northeast
Atlantic demersal fisheries and is taken as part of mixed-species fisheries in the Moroccan waters. The growth and
mortality of M. merluccius in Northeast Atlantic (Moroccan coast) were investigated based on length frequency data
using the FiSAT software. Total length of the sampled 4440 fish ranged from 9.5 to 70.2 cm. The von Bertalanffy
growth function estimates were L∞ = 72.45 cm, K = 0.28 /year, t0 = -0.72 years. The total, natural and fishing
mortality were computed as Z = 1.80, M = 0.50 and F = 1.31 /year, respectively. The exploitation rate E = 0.73,
indicating that the southern stock of hake fishery is over-exploited in the Moroccan North Atlantic sea.
Keywords: Merluccius merluccius, Southern Stock, exploitation, Northeast Atlantic, Moroccan sea.