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 Sardine (Sardina pilchardus, Walb.) 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) 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) sardine landed catches

10. Adriatic (northern and central) anchovy landed catches

12. The trend of mid - year total (=stock) biomass at sea derived fromthe VPA performed using data from 1975 to 2004, is compared with the average density (t/nm 2 ) of sardine, obtained by acoustic survey in North Adriatic (1987- 2004; in 2002 and 2003 acoustic survey was not performed )

13. Sardine GSA17: CPUE calculated for the fleet of Porto Garibaldi (mid-water trawlers or volanti), from 1975 to 2004

14. Sardine 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 A continuous decline of stock biomass has been observed after the peak in the first half of 1980s. The present assessment shows a slight increase of the biomass and the exploitation rate is around the threshold. Therefore, it is recommended not to allow the fishing effort to rise. Furthermore, difficulties in obtaining economically satisfactory catches by fishermen were perceived in Italy.