1. Scientific Cooperation to Support Responsible Fisheries in the Adriatic Sea General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) Subcommittee on Stock Assessment (SCSA) - Rome, 26-30 September 2005 Anchovy (Engraulis encrasicolus, L.) stock assessment in the Adriatic Sea: 1975-2004 N. Cingolani a, A. Santojanni a, E. Arneri a, A. Berlardinelli a, S. Colella a, F. Donato a, G. Giannetti a, G. Sinovcic b, B. Zorica b, B. Marceta c a Istituto di Scienze Marine - Sezione Pesca Marittima, Ancona (Italy) b Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries, Split (Croatia) c Fisheries Research Institute of Slovenia, Ljubljana (Slovenia)

2. FAO – Fishing area 37: Mediterranean and Black Sea - GSA GSA 17

3. Map showing the boundaries of the Adriatic Sea Geographical Sub-Areas (formerly Geographical Management Units) as originally indicated by the GFCM (solid line) and with the recent revision (dotted line)

4. Fishing gear used Mid-water pair trawls (volante) Purse seines with light (lampara)

5. 08 1 01 Trieste 08 1 02 Grado 08 1 03 Marano L. 08 2 00 Caorle 08 2 01 Chioggia 08 2 02 Goro 08 3 01 P. Garibaldi 08 3 02 Cesenatico 08 3 03 Rimini 08 3 04 Cattolica ITALY: List of ports 08 4 01 Fano 08 4 02 Ancona 08 4 05 S. Benedetto T. 08 5 01 Giulianova      = sampling port  = main port        08 6 01 Vieste 

6. SLOVENIA: List of ports 11 1 04 Izola 11 1 02 Koper 11 1 06 Piran 11 1 08 Portoroz  = sampling port 

7. 03 1 04 Novigrad 03 1 02 Umag 03 1 06 Porec 03 1 08 Rovinj CROATIA: List of ports 03 1 12 Pomer 03 2 04 Lovran 03 2 02 M. Draga 03 2 06 Ika 03 2 08 Opatija 03 2 10 Rijeka 03 2 12 Kraljevica 03 2 14 Crikvenica 03 2 18 Krk 03 2 16 Novi Vinodolski 03 2 20 Senj 03 2 22 Cres 03 2 24 Rab 03 2 26 Mali Losinj 03 2 28 Pag 03 3 04 Zadar 03 3 06 Sali 03 3 08 Vrgada 03 3 10 Biograd 03 3 12 Vodice 03 3 14 Sibenik 03 3 16 Primosten 03 3 18 Trogir 03 3 20 Split 03 3 22 Omis 03 3 24 Brac 03 3 26 Postira 03 3 28 Makarska 03 3 30 Hvar 03 3 34 Komiza 03 3 36 Korcula 03 3 38 Vela Luka 03 3 40 Ploce (Metkovic) 03 3 42 Ston (Broce) 03 3 32 Vis 03 3 44 Slano 03 3 46 Lastovo 03 3 48 Dubrovnik 03 3 50 Cavtat 03 3 02 Novigrad 03 1 10 Pula (Vodnjan) 03 1 14 Labin (Rabac)  = sampling port    

8. Data collection  Monthly and daily landings  Fishing effort  Biological sampling  Sub-sampling  Catch-weighted length frequency (0.5 cm length class)  CPUE  Standardised fishing effort  Age-length keys Data obtained  Time series of catch and effort data

9. Adriatic (northern and central) anchovy landed catches

10. Adriatic (northern and central) sardine landed catches

12. The trend of mid - year total (=stock) biomass at sea derived fromthe VPA performed using data from 1976 to 2004, is compared with the average density (t/nm 2 ) of anchovy, obtained by acoustic survey in North Adriatic (1987- 2004; in 2002 and 2003 acoustic survey was not performed )

13. Anchovy GSA17: CPUE calculated for the fleet of Porto Garibaldi (mid-water trawlers or volanti), from 1976 to 2004

14. Anchovy GSA17: empirical relationship between the abundance at sea of spawners in the year n and recruits in the year n+1 (the latter being reported near the data points), on the basis of VPA estimates

16. Conclusions Stock biomass of anchovy dropped at very low level in 1987. After this collapse a slow, but continuous recovery of biomass took place. The present assessment shows a stronger recovery during last two years. Due to high biomass fluctuations of small pelagics it is recommended to maintain the current level of fishing effort.