Improving assessment and management of small pelagic species in the Mediterranean. The project aims at developing a series of tools which will enable a better understanding, stock assessment and fishery management of small pelagic fish resources (anchovy and sardine) of the Mediterranean.
The three major stocks and fisheries i.e. the NW Mediterranean, the Adriatic and the Aegean have been chosen.
Investigations will aim at detecting nursery areas, at developing echo-surveys for recruitment strength estimation, at filling the gap in knowledge on the ecology af late larvae and juveniles, at improving the selectivity of current fishing gear, at assessing the impact of fry fisheries on the stocks, at exploring the application of novel stock assessment methodologies to Mediterranean small pelagic stocks.  [SSP8 No 44294]