Critical lengths and Fisheries management of Rhabdosargus haffara (Forsskål, 1775) from Hurghada fishing area, Red Sea, Egypt

S. M. Et Al., El-Mahdy,

doi:10.21608/ejabf.2021.197171

Critical lengths and Fisheries management of Rhabdosargus haffara (Forsskål, 1775) from Hurghada fishing area, Red Sea, Egypt

Document Type : Original Article

Author

El-Mahdy, S. M. et al.

10.21608/ejabf.2021.197171

Abstract

The present study aimed at determining the critical lengths and the population parameters required for the management of Rhabdosargus haffara in the Hurghada fishing area, Red Sea, Egypt. During the fishing season 2018-2019, 466 specimens of R. haffara were gathered monthly from the Hurghada landing site. The length at first capture (L_c) was 14.0 cm, while the length at first sexual maturity (L_m) was 17.9 cm. The L_c was greatly smaller than the L_m in an indication for heavy exploitation of this species. Total mortality (Z) was estimated to be 1.98/y, natural mortality (M) was 0.66/y, and accordingly, the fishing mortality (F) was 1.32/y. The rate of exploitation (E) was calculated at 0.67 in another indication for the overfishing status of the R. haffara stock in the Hurghada fishing ground, Egypt. The yield per recruit model was used to confirm the stock's overfishing status and to determine the optimal fishing mortality that could save this important fishery in the Egyptian Red Sea.

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