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The main characteristics concerning the distribution of two of the most important decapod crustaceans of commercial interest in the Mediterranean Sea, the deep-water rose shrimp, Parapenaeus longirostris, and the Norway lobster, Nephrops norvegicus, are studied in the European Mediterranean waters. The study is based on data collected under the MED...
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... highest biomass indexes of this species were associated with low temperatures, while biomass decreased with increasing SST (Fig. 4). Figure 5 shows the spatiotemporal distribution of Norway lobster, indicating a slight decrease in biomass indices over time. An inspection of the residuals of the best models for deep-water rose shrimp and Norway lobster shows that there was no evidence of a pattern within the model residuals or deviation from the assumptions of homogeneity and normality of variance (Supplementary material, Figs S2 and S3). ...
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... The decrease of some of those, like the blue whiting (Mir-Arguimbau et al., 2022b, p.), Norway lobster and European hake (FAO, 2022) was already reported previously. For the Norway lobster and blue whiting, the downward trend could be associated with the negative relationship between their biomass and SST as well as the reduced freshwater influx bringing less organic matter for the Norway lobster (Cartes et al., 2009;Sbrana et al., 2020) or reducing the spawning period of blue whiting (Cushing, 1990;Mir-Arguimbau et al., 2022a). This is particularly visible in the 2018-2020 peaks from both long-term trends and the seasonal trends, which could be the aftermath of a mild 2017 winter, followed by the more severe winter of 2018 that benefited the Norway lobster and blue whiting populations (Mir-Arguimbau et al., 2022a, p.). ...
The Western Mediterranean fisheries significantly contribute to the regional blue
economy, despite evidence of ongoing, widespread overexploitation of stocks. Understanding the spatial distribution and population dynamics of species is crucial for
comprehending fisheries dynamics combining local and regional scales, although the
underlying processes are often neglected. In this study, we aimed to (i) evaluate the
seasonal and long-term spatio-temporal fluctuations of crustacean, cephalopod, and
fish populations in the Western Mediterranean, (ii) determine whether these
fluctuations are driven by the spatial structure of the fisheries or synchronic species
fluctuations, and (iii) compare groupings according to the individual species and life
history-based groups. We used dynamic factor analysis to detect underlying patterns in a Landing Per Unit Effort (LPUE) time series (2009-2020) for 23 commercially
important species and 33 ports in the Western Mediterranean. To verify the spatial
structure of ports and species groupings we investigated the seasonal and long-term
spatio-temporal fluctuations and common LPUE trends that exhibit non-homogeneous
and species-specific trends, highlighting the importance of life history, environmental
and demographic preferences. Long-term trends revealed spatial segregation with a
north-south gradient, demonstrating complex population structures of Western
Mediterranean living marine resources. Seasonal patterns exhibited a varying spatial
aggregation based on species-port combinations. These findings can inform the
Common Fishery Policy on gaps challenging their regionalisation objectives in the
Mediterranean Sea. We highlight the need for a nuanced and flexible approach and
for a better understanding of sub-regional processes for effective management and
conservation – a current challenge for global fisheries. Our LPUE approach provides
insight into population dynamics and changes in regional fisheries, relevant beyond the
Mediterranean Sea.
... This shows that discards are affected by the species' bathymetric preferences and/or their size-related distribution. Discards per hour were higher at the shelf break for HKE and DPS, slightly shallower for HOM (100-250 m), while MUT discards occurred mainly in shallower waters (<100 m), more or less in line with the species' habitat preferences (Politou et al., 2008;Sbrana et al., 2019;Sion et al., 2019;Tserpes et al., 2019), juveniles' preferential distribution (Colloca et al., 2015) and results in similar studies (Despoti et al., 2024). Geographic coordinates (Longitude, Latitude or their interaction) contributed to the majority of the models, reflecting local patterns in productivity (where total catches and therefore discards may be high), or possible existence of nursery grounds (where discards may be high due to individuals being smaller than the MCRS). ...
The current study examined the effect of environmental, operational, temporal and catch-related variables on the discard quantities of four species subject to the EU landing obligation (Merluccius merluccius, European hake, HKE; Parapenaeus longirostris, deep-water rose shrimp, DPS; Mullus barbatus, red mullet, MUT; Trachurus trachurus, horse mackerel, HOM) caught in Italian and Greek bottom trawl fisheries. Generalized Additive Models were applied to discards per unit of effort of each species in seven study areas distributed over different sub-divisions of the Mediterranean Sea (Western Mediterranean: (i) Ligurian Sea and Northern Tyrrhenian Sea, (ii) Southern and Central Tyrrhenian Sea; Central Mediterranean: (iii) Southern Adriatic Sea, (iv) Western Ionian Sea; Eastern Mediterranean: (v) Eastern Ionian Sea, (vi) Central and South Aegean Sea, (vii) Crete) and were able to explain 21–96% of the deviance. Geographic coordinates and depth were included as significant covariates in the majority of the final models, showing that discards are affected by bathymetric preferences of the species and sizes, local patterns in productivity and/or possible existence of nursery grounds. Discard rates were higher at the shelf break for HKE and DPS, slightly shallower for HOM, while MUT discards occurred mainly in waters <100 m depth. Positive relationships between discards and volume of catches and negative ones between discards and the mean length (especially for HKE) highlighted the effect of the catch characteristics as well as fishers’ discarding behaviour. Interannual effects seemed to be related to trends in species abundance and recruitment success, while seasonal patterns were usually linked to the recruitment period and/or seasonal fishing intensity. The length of the vessel, vessel age and haul duration were significant in few cases, but there were no common patterns across all regions/species. Overall, the results showed that discarding in Mediterranean bottom trawl fisheries is affected by a large number of variables that should be taken into account for a more effective mitigation of unwanted catches.
... For example, a study on the American lobster (Homarus americanus) shows that females living in warmer waters mature at smaller sizes [51]. Increasing water temperature may have been impacting the redistribution of N. norvegicus in the Balearic Sea [52], particularly after an abrupt warming from 2015 [53]. To our best knowledge, no studies of the direct effect of changes in water temperature on crustacean decapods' reproductive physiology or morphological changes have been reported. ...
The deep-sea Caribbean lobster (Metanephrops binghami) and the Norway lobster (Nephrops norvegicus) are Nephropidae species of high commercial interest. Although the first one still remains unexploited, the second is overexploited in the Mediterranean Sea. For effective fisheries management, size at sexual maturity is an essential indicator to protect immature individuals from exploitation. The estimation of this indicator can, however, be biased due to the difficulty of differentiating juveniles from adults by their size structure due to the natural process of molting. This study aims to estimate the size at sexual maturity of M. binghami and N. norvegicus females by comparing the effectiveness of the morphometric method versus the macroscopic evaluation of gonad maturity. Samples of M. binghami were collected from the Colombian Caribbean. Samples of N. norvegicus were collected from the northwestern Mediterranean Sea from 2019 to 2022. Similar sizes at sexual maturity were found for M. binghami between the morphometric approach (ranging from 28.6 to 33.9 mm cephalothorax length, CL) and the gonadal staging approach (31.4 mm CL). Conversely, for N. norvegicus, the morphometric approach yielded higher measurements (between 27.2 and 30.4 mm CL) than the gonadal approach (26.0 mm CL). This discrepancy might stem from the intense fishing overexploitation conditions of N. norvergicus, leading to a physiological adaptation that enables earlier gonadal maturation at faster rates than morphometric adaptation. Further research is required to elucidate these discrepancies and the effect of overexploitation on physiological (i.e., mature gonads) and functional maturity (i.e., capacity to brood eggs at a larger size). Key Contribution: This research is the first comparative study on the morphological sexual maturity of Nephropidae species populations unexploited in the Colombian Caribbean and overexploited in the Mediterranean Sea.
... These findings highlight that climate change is also influencing deep-sea fishery resources, whose depth range of distribution is partially below the Mediterranean thermocline (200 m threshold) (Houpert et al., The deep-water rose shrimp has gained importance as a fishing resource in the Mediterranean Sea with a global catch increasing from 17,545 t in 2008 to 26,278 t in 2020 (FAO, 2023). In addition, Sbrana et al. (2019) reported an expansion of the deep-water rose shrimp in the Mediterranean from 1998 to 2015, and predicted a further expansion of the species in areas where it was not yet abundant, as demonstrated in the present study. This northern spread of species has been named as "meridionalization" (Bianchi and Morri, 1993), coinciding with regions where water temperature is higher than the average (Azzurro, 2008). ...
... norvegicus), has caused the redirection of the crustacean fleet efforts to the deep-water rose shrimp grounds (Sobrino et al., 2005). However, the observed differences of LPUE of the deep-water rose shrimp and the Norway lobster found in this study, can be understood as different responses to environmental drivers such as sea bottom temperature, related to life history traits of the species (Sbrana et al., 2019), rather than the redirection of the fleet effort. According to Aguzzi et al. (2009Aguzzi et al. ( , 2015 the deep-water rose shrimp is a nektobenthic species whereas the Norway lobster is endobenthic. ...
The deep-water rose shrimp is a main resource for the GSA 6 bottom trawling fleet. In the last decade, landings have increased without a clear understanding of the causes. This study aims to analyze this trend, potentially related to changes in environmental conditions. Results showed an increase in the species' landings, which spread northwards along the GSA 6. GAM models detected a significant effect of location, time, and depth on the distribution of the deep-water rose shrimp, as did for temperature and salinity. Similar values between landings and LPUE were found throughout, suggesting no effects of fishing effort in time. ANOVA tests showed a significant increase of sea bottom temperature and salinity in time, which were correlated with increasing LPUE values. Then, the trend seems to be related to environmental changes rather than changes in fishing effort. Further research is needed to implement management plans that ensure the resource sustainability.
... In our case, we focused the attention on P. elephas and N. norvegicus, typical inhabitants of Mediterranean benthic environments across a very wide bathymetric range, from a few meters to ca. 200 m depth in case of P. elephas and from ca. 200 m up to 800 m depth for N. norvegicus. While showing different movement patterns, with langoustines being more static compared to spiny lobsters (Follesa et al., 2015;Mulas et al., 2022;Sbrana et al., 2019), the two species share the same scavenging behaviour, which has been highlighted as the trophic strategy that most likely expose benthic organisms to the accidental ingestion of MPs (Andrades et al., 2019). Our results confirmed these species as highly exposed to MPs ingestion, with an occurrence of particles in 100 % of analysed specimens. ...
... ind − 1 ; Avio et al., 2020) and the other higher contamination (4.9 ± 2.4; Martinelli et al., 2021). The two crustacean species of this study have similar feeding strategies and prey preferences, but different trophic behaviour: P. elephas is capable of moving for long distances (Follesa et al., 2015;Mulas et al., 2022) and is representative of both rocky and muddy habitats due to its migrations and opportunistic feeding strategy, while N. norvegicus feeds mostly within a small bottom area around its burrows (Sbrana et al., 2019). Because of this, in case both species are collected within the area of their partially overlapping bathymetric distribution, they would essentially provide different information in terms of spatial representativeness for MPs contamination. ...
The present work compares microplastics (MPs) contamination in two charismatic crustaceans: European spiny lobster Palinurus elephas and langoustine Nephrops norvegicus. Samples (P. elephas n = 14; N. norvegicus n = 15) were collected between 76 and 592 m depth, from four sites in west Sardinia, Italy. An extraction protocol was applied on stomachs and intestines, separately, and over 500 particles were further characterized through μFT-IR. We document 100 % occurrence in specimens from both species, with P. elephas being significantly more contaminated (9.1 ± 1.75 vs. 3.2 ± 0.45 MPs individual-1), ingesting larger MPs with different polymeric composition. The scavenging-based feeding strategy of both species could explain such exposure to MPs, mostly derived by single-use plastic. The overall results highlight that both species are clearly affected by plastic pollution, being valuable bioindicators and charismatic species that could thus represent excellent flagship species for raising awareness toward the global issue of plastic in the marine environment.
... The local character of studies is also likely a product of variable field support via the cooperation with institutional monitoring programs [46] and local fishery associations, both of pivotal relevance for sampling and data provision. Examples of this are the current management actions based on: UWTV surveys of Nephrops Functional Units (FUs; [47]); the Mediterranean International Trawl Survey (MEDITS) program [48]; the recent creation of a network of deep-sea fishing no-take areas (Spanish State Official Bulletin, BOE-A-2022-13834), co-managed with fishers for the restoration of N. norvegicus stocks in the northwestern Mediterranean [35]; and, finally, the monitoring program of the Pomo Pits permanent Fishery Restricted Area (FRA) in the Adriatic Sea, established for the protection of essential fish habitats of demersal stocks [49,50]. The latter two strategies fall within the current policy of limiting trawling impacts, recovering the species through the establishment of no-take areas [50][51][52]. ...
Simple Summary
The Norway lobster is a key species for European Atlantic and Mediterranean fisheries. We performed a global bibliographic survey using the VOSviewer software to investigate the status of research on Norway lobsters by extracting data from all relevant scientific literature published in SCOPUS since 1965. The analysis revealed three clusters: (1) fishery performance, stock assessment, and management; (2) biological cycles in growth, reproduction, and behavior; and (3) physiology and ecotoxicology (including food products). Intense research has emerged on ecotoxicology and fishery management (which also includes other commercially targeted and co-existing species). Finally, earlier studies generally focused on the morphological and physiological aspects of this species while more recent studies have focused on fisheries and on Norway lobster as a food resource. In summary, the results indicate that knowledge is scarce on how the burrowing behavior of N. norvegicus is influenced by environmental conditions and how this affects stock assessments. We attribute this to limited use of current and advanced monitoring technologies.
Abstract
The burrowing crustacean decapod Nephrops norvegicus is a significant species in European Atlantic and Mediterranean fisheries. Research over the decades has mainly focused on behavioral and physiological aspects related to the burrowing lifestyle, since animals can only be captured by trawls when engaged in emergence on the seabed. Here, we performed a global bibliographic survey of all the scientific literature retrieved in SCOPUS since 1965, and terminology maps were produced with the VOSviewer software to reveal established and emerging research areas. We produced three term-map plots: term clustering, term citation, and term year. The term clustering network showed three clusters: fishery performance, assessment, and management; biological cycles in growth, reproduction, and behavior; and finally, physiology and ecotoxicology, including food products. The term citation map showed that intense research is developed on ecotoxicology and fishery management. Finally, the term year map showed that the species was first studied in its morphological and physiological aspects and more recently in relation to fishery and as a food resource. Taken together, the results indicate scarce knowledge on how burrowing behavior and its environmental control can alter stock assessment, because of the poor use of current and advanced monitoring technologies.
... Still, in terms of economic revenue, blue whiting has a low value and other species with higher commercial value, such as the crustaceans P. longirostris and N. norvegicus, contributed the most to EVL (€) . Interestingly, P. longirostris has increased in abundance in the Mediterranean and has shown northward expansion presenting new fishing opportunities 69,70 . Climate-related changes have been positively related to the dynamics of the stock 71 . ...
The degree of exposure of fishing communities to environmental changes can be partially determined by the vulnerability of the target species and the landings composition. Hence, identifying the species that ecologically most contribute to the vulnerability of the landings are key steps to evaluate the risk posed by climate change. We analyse the temporal variability in intrinsic sensitivity and the ecological vulnerability of the Portuguese fisheries landings, considering the species proportions derived both from the weights and revenues. To account for the diversification of species of each fleet, we explored the species dependence of the fishery in combination with the vulnerability of them. The analyses were carried out separately for three fleet typologies and three regions. Opposite to what has been observed at a global scale, the ecological sensitivity of the fisheries landings between 1989 and 2015 did not display a decline across areas or fishing fleets. Considering each fleet independently, for trawling, where average vulnerability was lower than in the other fleets, the sensitivity of the landings increased since the 2000s. On the other hand, the high vulnerability found in multi-gear fleets was compensated by diversification of the species caught, while purse-seine fleets targeted low vulnerability species but presented a high fishery dependence on few species. The results highlight the importance of combining information on ecological vulnerability and diversification of fishing resources at a regional scale while providing a measure of the ecological exposure to climate change.
... Stocks of N. norvegicus in the Mediterranean Sea (FAO zone 37) are divided spatially into Geographical Subareas (GSAs; see Figure 1), and stock assessments are conducted by the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) Scientific Advisory Committee on Fisheries (SAC) (Cardinale et al., 2021). The evaluation is typically carried out through stock assessment models (Carpi et al., 2017;GFCM, 2021) fed with biological parameters, including: indices of abundance derived from scientific trawl surveys not specifically targeting Norway lobster (e.g., MEDiterranean International Trawl Survey;Bertrand et al., 2002;Sbrana et al., 2019), size composition of commercial catches and official landings from DCF (EU, 2008). Recent assessments revealed stocks under different conditions (e.g., GSA 6 Northern Spain is overfished, GSA 5 Balearic Islands and 9 Ligurian Sea and Northern Tyrrhenian Sea are being sustainably exploited; GFCM, 2021;GFCM, 2022). ...
The Norway lobster, Nephrops norvegicus, supports a key European fishery. Stock assessments for this species are mostly based on trawling and UnderWater TeleVision (UWTV) surveys. However, N. norvegicus are burrowing organisms and these survey methods are unable to sample or observe individuals in their burrows. To account for this, UWTV surveys generally assume that “1 burrow system = 1 animal”, due to the territorial behavior of N. norvegicus. Nevertheless, this assumption still requires in-situ validation. Here, we outline how to improve the accuracy of current stock assessments for N. norvegicus with novel ecological monitoring technologies, including: robotic fixed and mobile camera-platforms, telemetry, environmental DNA (eDNA), and Artificial Intelligence (AI). First, we outline the present status and threat for overexploitation in N. norvegicus stocks. Then, we discuss how the burrowing behavior of N. norvegicus biases current stock assessment methods. We propose that state-of-the-art stationary and mobile robotic platforms endowed with innovative sensors and complemented with AI tools could be used to count both animals and burrows systems in-situ, as well as to provide key insights into burrowing behavior. Next, we illustrate how multiparametric monitoring can be incorporated into assessments of physiology and burrowing behavior. Finally, we develop a flowchart for the appropriate treatment of multiparametric biological and environmental data required to improve current stock assessment methods.
... The reliability of the collected data is also proved by the almost total absence of zeros in the time series; such a condition is rarely confirmed in other demersal trawl surveys within the Adriatic Sea (e.g. MEDITS survey [145]). Furthermore, the presence from 2015 of another Nephrops targeted survey carried out during autumn season (i.e. ...
Abundance and distribution of commercial marine resources are influenced by environmental variables, which together with fishery patterns may also influence their catchability. However, Catch Per Unit Effort (CPUE) can be standardized in order to remove most of the variability not directly attributable to fish abundance. In the present study, Generalized Additive Models (GAMs) were used to investigate the effect of some environmental and fishery covariates on the spatial distribution and abundance of the Norway lobster Nephrops norvegicus within the Pomo/Jabuka Pits (Central Adriatic Sea) and to include those that resulted significant in a standardization process. N . norvegicus is a commercially important demersal crustacean, altering its catchability over the 24-h cycle and seasons according to its burrowing behavior. A historically exploited fishing ground for this species, since 2015 subject to specific fisheries management measures, is represented by the meso-Adriatic depressions, which are also characterized by particular oceanographic conditions. Both the species behaviour and the features of this study area influence the dynamics of the population offering a challenging case study for a standardization modelling approach. Environmental and catch data were obtained during scientific trawl surveys properly designed to catch N . norvegicus , thus improving the quality of the model input data. Standardization of CPUE from 2 surveys from 2012 to 2019 was conducted building two GAMs for both biomass and density indices. Bathymetry, fishing pressure, dissolved oxygen and salinity proved to be significant drivers influencing catch distribution. After cross validations, the tuned models were then used to predict new indices for the study area and the two survey series by means of informed spatial grids, composed by constant surface cells, to each of which are associated average values of environmental parameters and specific levels of fishing pressure, depending on the management measures in place. The predictions can be used to better describe the structure and the spatio-temporal distribution of the population providing valuable information to evaluate the status of such an important marine resource.
... Numerous studies reported that here the population of Norway Lobster is characterised by high densities of individuals smaller, and growing slower, than those from other areas of the Adriatic Sea [68][69][70][71][72]. Among the other crustacean species occurring in the area, a commercial and ecological relevance is attributable to the Pink Shrimp, Parapenaeus longirostris (Lucas, 1846), which in the last decade showed a relevant abundance increase in the Mediterranean Sea [73,74]. An abundance peak occurred in the Pomo/Jabuka Pits in 2017; furthermore, as described by Martinelli et al. [75], this species shows periodic fluctuations in the area, which could also be linked to environmental parameter changes (e.g., salinity and temperature [76]). ...
... Following the establishment of the first management measures from 2015 to 2017 (i.e., "INTERMEDIATE-AFTER"), a significant positive effect on biomass indices resulted only for N. norvegicus and M. merluccius, suggesting an early positive effect probably due to the implementation of the first fishing bans. For P. longirostris, this positive effect was not significant, while both the indices in the "BEFORE-INTERMEDIATE" comparison showed a significant increase that could be related not only to the implementation of management measures but also to other variables such as possible changes in environmental conditions (e.g., temperature and/or salinity) that may favour this species [73,74]. In fact, the effects of salinity on the spawning of this species and of temperature on its catch rates were already reported in the literature [74]. ...
... For P. longirostris, this positive effect was not significant, while both the indices in the "BEFORE-INTERMEDIATE" comparison showed a significant increase that could be related not only to the implementation of management measures but also to other variables such as possible changes in environmental conditions (e.g., temperature and/or salinity) that may favour this species [73,74]. In fact, the effects of salinity on the spawning of this species and of temperature on its catch rates were already reported in the literature [74]. The mean CPUE for Munida spp. in stratum "A" over the fishery Closure levels was quite stable, hence the establishment of a fishery ban in the area appears to have no evident effects on this species. ...
A Before–Intermediate–After Multiple Sites (BIAMS) analysis, namely a modified version
of the Before–After–Control–Impact (BACI) approach, was used to evaluate the possible effects of fishery management measures implemented in the Pomo/Jabuka Pits area, a historically highly exploited ground for Italian and Croatian fisheries, whose impact may have contributed over the years to the modification of the ecosystem. Since 2015, the area was subject to fishing regulations changing the type of restrictions over time and space, until the definitive establishment in 2018 of a Fishery Restricted Area. These changes in the regulatory regime result in complex signals to be interpreted.
The analysis was carried out on abundance indices (i.e., kg/km2 and N/km2) of five commercially or ecologically relevant species, obtained in the period 2012–2019 from two annual trawl surveys. BIAMS was based on the selection of a Closure factor, declined in three levels (i.e., BEFORE/INTERMEDIATE/AFTER) and accounting for regulation changes in time, and on three adjacent strata (i.e. “A”, “B”, and “ext ITA”) a posteriori determined according to the latest regulations. BIAMS allowed us to identify early effects (i.e., changes in abundances), overcoming the unavailability of a proper independent control site; furthermore, the selection of adjacent strata allowed the inference of possible interactions among them.
