The narrow-barred Spanish mackerel, Scomberomorus commerson , is a highly valuable commercial species in the Red Sea. Annual landings along the Saudi Arabian Red Sea coast average approximately 2, 380 tonnes, generating nearly 35 million USD in revenue. Given this economic importance, effective fishery management is essential. This study assessed the growth, maturity, and mortality of S . commerson using fishery-dependent samp...

This study presents updated biological and stock assessment information for two coral groupers, Plectropomus areolatus and Plectropomus marisrubri, in the Eastern Red Sea. A large sample collected from nine landing sites provided new estimates of growth, maturity, mortality, and exploitation, derived from otolith ageing, length–weight relationships, and yield-per-recruit and spawning potential ratio analyses. The two species s...

The yellow-edged lyretail grouper, Variola louti , is ecologically and commercially important in the Red Sea. As a carnivorous species, V. louti plays a vital role in maintaining coral reef ecosystem health. Annually, an estimated 260 tonnes of V. louti are landed along the Saudi Arabian Red Sea coast, contributing approximately 6.5 million USD to the national economy. Given its significance, effective fishery management is cr...

This study aims to enhance our understanding of the marbled spinefoot (Siganus rivulatus) population along the Red Sea coast of Saudi Arabia. It investigates whether the stock is subject to overfishing and tests the hypothesis that current fishing mortality exceeds sustainable thresholds. A total of 6192 specimens were sampled during a comprehensive survey conducted from 2022 to 2024, utilizing a range of fishing methods, incl...

This study evaluates the stock status of Scomberomorus commerson in the southern Arabian Gulf, particularly in Abu Dhabi waters, using length-based models to address data limitations in fisheries assessments. The findings contribute critical insights into management practices using four length-based models, namely, LBI, LBB, LBSPR, and LIME, to analyze length frequency distributions from commercial catches between 2011 and 202...

This study assessed catch composition, size selectivity, and fishing efficiency of demersal trawls targeting penaeid shrimp species in the Red Sea. It first compared the currently used diamond mesh codends in two fishing areas, Al Qunfudhah and Jazan, and then compared alternative square mesh codends to diamond mesh codends in Jazan. A total of 33 valid hauls were conducted in 2023, yielding 10,869 kg of total catch. The resul...

The Mediterranean Large Elasmobranchs Monitoring (MEDLEM) database contains over 3000 records (more than 4000 individuals) of large elasmobranch species from 20 different countries around the Mediterranean and Black seas, observed from 1666 to 2017. The main species included in the archive are the devil fish (1 813 individuals), the basking shark (939 individuals), the blue shark (585 individuals) and the great white shark (33...

The deep‐water giant red shrimp, Aristaeomorpha foliacea (Risso, 1827) (Decapoda, Aristeidae), represents a highly valuable resource for bottom trawling in the Mediterranean Sea. Recent assessments have described both a worsening of the status of the traditionally exploited stocks and low levels of annual‐based instantaneous natural mortality (M 0.4–0.7 year −1 ) in the unexploited stocks. The mortality (M) figures, however, a...

Marine reserves are widely used throughout the world to prevent overfishing and conserve biodiversity, but uncertainties remain about their optimal design. The effects of marine reserves are heterogeneous. Despite theoretical findings, empirical studies have previously found no effect of size on the effectiveness of marine reserves in protecting commercial fish stocks. Using 58 datasets from 19 European marine reserves, we sho...