The Assessment of Production Levels and the Algerian Fishing Fleet in the Western Mediterranean

Abstract

Around the world, fishing is a significant industry that supports economies and food security of countries. Given the current circumstances of partial and insufficient fishery data in Algeria, it is imperative to begin an inventory of fishing activity and its statistics among Algeria's major harbours. The purpose of this study is to establish a description on the state of the fishery at the level of 13 maritime ports, including 06 maritime sectors (Ain-Temouchent, Oran, Mostaganem, Chlef, Algiers, and Tlemcen) where the state of knowledge is very limited. Also, the current work was conducted to generate information that facilitates the understanding of the functioning of the fishery including data on the fleet and total production of the 05 major fishery groups (small pelagics, large pelagics, demersals, crustaceans and molluscs). The methodology consisted of an analysis of data from the official reports of the fisheries directorates, on statistics from 06 maritime sectors and 13 ports in central and western Algeria between 2010 and 2015.

Our findings indicate  that both, the fishing activity of the fleet segments increased during 2015, as well as the quantity of vessels (trawler and sardine fleet). Among the results, we found a production rate of 85% of small pelagics followed by 10% of demersal, 2% of crustaceans and molluscs and lastly only 1% of large pelagics with a total fleet size of 1799 gears and a maximum of 49584.43 tonnes in the 13 harbours combined in 2015.

The findings of statistical analysis show that mollusks and demersals are strongly correlated (r>0.80), but crustaceans and tiny pelagics are well correlated (r>0.60). It was demonstrated, however, that there was no proof of a relationship between large pelagic species and other species. In addition, The results of the principal component analysis (PCA) indicate a correlation between the trawler and demersal, small pelagic, mollusc, and crustacean species, indicating that this gear is used to catch these fish in Algeria. However, tuna seiners and huge pelagics are correlated.