Population Structure, Exploitation Status, and Prospects of Brown Meagre Sciaena umbra Linnaeus, 1758 From the Turkish Coast of the Black Sea

Abstract

The brown meagre Sciaena umbra Linnaeus, 1758 population has experienced dramatic population declines, and it was regionally assessed as Near Threatened in the Mediterranean. In this study, the current status of brown meagre populations in the Black Sea was evaluated by estimating growth and mortality rates based on age readings from the otolith. All specimens were collected by commercial trammel nets between March 2019 and February 2020 in the Turkish coast of the Black Sea. A total of 324 brown meagre were sampled during the study period, ranging in age from 0 to 26. The peak spawning season of the species was from June to July. The Von Bertalanffy growth parameters of (L∞ = 54.15, k = 0.14 yr-1, t0 = -3.11) supports previous studies and suggests that brown meagre is a long-lived and slow-growing species. The exploitation ratio of 0.53 for females and 0.47 for males. Life-history features and mortalities indicate that the brown meagre has relatively high fertility but may be undefended to intense fishing pressure. However, the impact of overfishing, pollution and climate change can have increasingly detrimental effects on the overall population size of this population.