European Ocean Biodiversity Information System

Thus, in order to obtain reliable time series for the lagoon-fishery alone, the raw data were treated with the aim of separating from the total catch the product from aquaculture and landings from sea-fisheries. Moreover, different unofficial sources were used to verify and correct official statistics taking into consideration unreported catch from illegal fishing. Species were reported in the original documents with their vernacular/dialectal names, thus it was necessary to attribute them their scientific name according to personal knowledge and interviews with fishermen and fish sellers. Marketed categories may include one or more species. Multispecies categories usually group taxonomically similar species, i.e. species of the same genus or family. The Mediterranean shore crab (Carcinus aestuarii) was registered into three categories, according to the life stage: ripe females, moulting individuals, and the other specimens. The different stages have different commercial values, with moulting individuals being the most valuable. The European seabass (Dicentrarchus labrax) was registered in two categories according to the size (juvenile or adult). Overall, landings for 19 market categories were obtained.