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Publication
Effect of bait type on the octopus fishery in Algarve, Southern Portugal
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Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
In Algarve, southern Portugal, a fishery regulation was established forbidding the use of live crab as bait for the
octopus fishing. Such a regulation was not established under a scientific fundament. The objective of this work
was to identify if using live crab as bait affects the octopus fishery. Time series (1989–2015) were analysed in
order to calculate octopus catch rates (as Landing Per Unit Effort or LPUE) and revenues (as revenue per unit
effort or RPUE) before and after the crab bait ban in 2009 and also by bait type (crab and fish) before ban.
Overall, total annual fishing effort decreased as result of the decreasing number of boats and fishing days in the
local and coastal fleets. After the ban both the LPUE and RPUE increased, with total landings showing no change
through time but mean landings per boat increased. Between 1989 and 2009, the mean monthly fishing effort in
the coastal fleet was higher when crab bait was used (3.88%) in comparison to using fish bait (0.3%). This result
is superimposed by the large inter annual variability between the local and coastal fleets (39.11%). In consequence,
no substantial evidence was found indicating that crab bait produced high octopus catch rates, while
fishing effort indicated that such high octopus catch rate and revenue increase was due to the decline of number
of boats and fishing effort, that was decreasing significantly regardless of the bait type and fleet before to crab
ban, and not to the bait type used during this period.
Description
Keywords
Local fishers knowledge Algarve-south Portugal Inter-annual catch variability Sustainable resource management
Citation
Publisher
Elsevier