Fish Stock Indicators as Measure for Sustainability

Abstract

Particular species may be good indicators of specific environmental factors in their local environment. It was found that one of the main objectives for effective and sustainable management of the fish stocks is to make regular annual assessment of the parental stock biomass, length and weight growth, age determination, mortality estimation and reproductive potential estimation. The Black Sea sprat (Sprattus sprattus L.) is a key species in the Black Sea ecosystem. Small pelagic forage fish and especially local one with shared stocks are very important from ecological (key trophic level) and commercial (intensively exploited) point of view. Fishery management strategies must ensure that fishing mortality will not exceed that which corresponds to MSY, and that the biomass will not fall below a predefined threshold. The goal of the chapter is to define the main objectives and measures for sustainable sprat exploitation in order to be in favour of decision makers and fishery managers.