The fishery on horse mackerel (Trachurus spp.) in European Waters

This page will be permanently under construction: Information is added on occasion. If you would like to contribute, please contact the webmaster. Information on horse mackerel fishery in the Mediterranean is currently not available.

Data and elaboration presented here is based on the latest available published report of the ICES Working Group for the Assessment of Mackerel, Horse Mackerel, Sardine and Anchovy, held in Sept. 2000 (processing data up to 1999). For more up-to-date information, visit the ICES homepage.

Fishery | Fleet descriptions | Species mixing | Age-structured information from the catches [ catch in numbers | mean weights | mean lengths] References

International catches of horse mackerel in the Northeast Atlantic varied significantly over the course of the last 30 years. Up to 1980, the fishery on the Southern stock was most important (see Fig. 1 below). Soviet catches might have been taken in the Western areas, but no information on this is available. After the development of the strong 1982 year class in the Western stock, catches of Western horse mackerel increased significantly. As this strong yearclass is now increasingly disappearing from the fishery, it is expected that total catch is further declining in the future.

Fig. 1: Development of the fishery on different Northeast Atlantic horse mackerel stocks 1965-1999.

Tab. 1: Landings and discards of HORSE MACKEREL (t) by year and division 1982-2000, for the North Sea, Western and Southern horse mackerel. (Data submitted by members of the ICES Working Group on the Assessment of Mackerel, Horse Mackerel, Sardine and Anchovy).

The fishery in 1999

The total catch of horse mackerel taken in the Northeast Atlantic in 1999 summed up to 363,000 t, which is 35,500 t less than in 1998. Ireland, Denmark and the Netherlands have a directed trawl fishery and Norway a directed purse seine fishery for horse mackerel. Spain and Portugal have a directed trawl and purse seine fishery.

First quarter: 106,900 t. This is approximately the same as in 1998. The catches this quarter are mainly distributed in the western and southern areas as in previous years.

Second quarter: 46,800 t. This is 23,000 t less than in 1998. As usual, rather low catches were taken during the second quarter and the catches are distributed as in previous years . For the first time catches have been reported east and north east of the Faroe Islands.

Third quarter: 43,800 t. This is 24,000 t less than in 1998, and the catches were distributed as in previous years . The fishery has never been reported as far north as in 1999. The fishery in this area was carried out by the Faroese fleet in the second and third quarter. This is the first year they are reporting catches by statistical rectangles to the working group. However, they have fished horse mackerel in these areas for some of the later years.

Fourth quarter: 165,700 t. This is the quarter when relatively large catches have been taken in Division IVa since 1987. The catches increased by 7,000 t since 1998 and the distribution of the catches were as in previous years.

The fishery in 2000

The total international catches of horse mackerel in the North East Atlantic are shown in Table 1 above and the Figures accessible through clicking on the respective quarter below. The total catch from all areas in 2000 was 272,500 t which is the lowest catch since 1988. Ireland, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands have a directed trawl fishery and Norway a directed purse seine fishery for horse mackerel. Spain and Portugal have a directed trawl and purse seine fishery. The figures are based on data provided by Denmark, England and Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Faroese Isles, Germany, Denmark, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and Spain covering 93 % of the total catches.

First quarter: 76,000 t. This is 30,000 t less than in 1999. The catches this quarter are mainly distributed in the western and southern areas as in previous years.

Second quarter: 45,200 t. This is 1,600 t less than in 1999. As usual, rather low catches were taken during the second quarter and the catches are distributed as in previous years.

Third quarter: 44,800 t. This is 1,000 t more than in 2000, and the catches were distributed as in previous years. In the two later years there were some catches further north than usual.

Fourth quarter: 106,400 t. This is 60,000 t less than in 1999 and the distribution of the catches were mainly as in previous years. Also during this quarter some catches were taken rather far north.

Information on the different national fleets (purse seiners, pelagic trawlers etc) will be added later...

Trachurus spp.

Three species of Trachurus genus, T. trachurus, T. mediterraneus and T. picturatus are found together and are commercially exploited in NE Atlantic waters. Studies on genetic differentiation showed three clear groups corresponding to each species of Trachurus with no intermediate principal component scores, excluding the possibility of hybrids between species (Soriano, M. and Sanjuan, WD 1997).

Following the Working Group recommendation (ICES 2000/ACFM: 5), special care was again taken to ensure that catch and length distributions and numbers at age of T. trachurus supplied to the Working Group did not include T. mediterraneus and T. picturatus. Spain provided data on T. mediterraneus and Portugal on T. picturatus.

In Divisions VIIIab and Subdivision VIIIc East , the total catch of T. mediterraneus was 2692 t in 1999, being the lowest catches since 1989. In Sub-division VIIIc West and Division IXa North there are no catches of this species. As in previous years in both areas, more than 95% of the catches were obtained by purse seiners and the main catches were taken in the second half of the year, mainly in autumn, when T. trachurus catches were lowest. T. mediterraneus catches were lowest in spring.

Catches and length distributions of T. mediterraneus in the Spanish fishery in Divisions VIIIa,b and c were reported separately from the catches and length distributions of T. trachurus. Data of monthly landings by gear and area were obtained from fishing vessel owner’s associations and fishermen’s associations through the existing information network of the IEO and AZTI (Advisory Organisations to Fisheries and Oceanography Administration) in all ports of the Cantabrian and Galician ports. T. mediterraneus is only landed in ports of the Basque country, Cantabria and Asturias. In ports of the Basque country the catches of T. mediterraneus and T. trachurus appear separately, except some small categories, in which the separation is made on the basis of samplings carried out in ports and information reported by fishermen. In the ports of Cantabria and Asturias the separation of the catch of the two species is not registered in all the ports, for which reason the total separation of the catch is made based on the monthly percentages of the ports in which these catches are separated and based on samplings made in the ports of this area.

A fishery for T. picturatus only occurred in the southern part of Division IXa, as in previous years. Data on T. picturatus in the Portuguese fishery for the period 1986-1999 are also available. Catches and length distributions of T. trachurus for the Portuguese fishery in Division IXa do not include data for T. picturatus. Landings data are collected from the auction market system and sent to the General Directorate for Fisheries to be compiled. This includes information on landings per species by day and vessel.

As information is available on the amounts and distribution of catches of T. mediterraneus and T. picturatus for at least eleven years (ICES 1990/Assess:24, ICES 1991/Assess:22, ICES 1992/Assess:17, ICES 1993/Assess: 19, ICES 1995/ Assess:2, ICES 1996/Assess:7, ICES 1997/Assess:3, ICES 1998/ Assess:6, ICES 1999/ACFM:6, ICES 2000/ACFM:5), and as the evaluations and assessments are only made for T. trachurus, the Working Group recommends that the TACs and any other management regulations which might be established in the future should be related only to T. trachurus and not to Trachurus spp. in general, as is the case at present. It would then be appropriate to set TACs for the other species as well.

Catch in numbers

Mean weight at age

Information on these topics will be added later. In the meantime, they can be found in the latest report of the ICES Working Group for the Assessment of Mackerel, Horse Mackerel, Sardine and Anchovy.

...will be added soon...

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