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Int'l Journal of Marine Science 2012, Vol.2, No.8, 57
-
61
http://ijms.sophiapublisher.com
57
Research Report Open Access
Stock Assessment of the Common Octopus (
Octopus vulgaris
) in Monastir;
the Mid-eastern Coast of Tunisia
Widien Khoufi
1*
, Chédia Jabeur
2*
, Amina Bakhrouf
2
1. Laboratory of marine resources, National Institute of Marine Sciences and Technology, Tunisia
2. Laboratory of Analysis, Treatment and Valorization of Products and Pollutants of the Environment, Faculty of Pharmacy, Tunisia
Corresponding author email: khoufi_widien@yahoo.fr;
Authors
* The authors who contribute equally
International Journal of Marine Science, 2012, Vol.2, No.8 doi: 10.5376/ijms.2012.02.0008
Received: 02 Nov., 2012
Accepted: 08 Nov., 2012
Published: 13 Nov., 2012
Copyright:
©
2012 Khoufi et al., This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted
use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Preferred citation for this article:
Khoufi et al., 2012, Stock Assessment of the Common Octopus (
Octopus vulgaris
) in Monastir; the Mid-eastern Coast of Tunisia, International Journal of
Marine Science, Vol.2, No.8 57
-
61 (doi: 10.5376/ijms. 2012.02.0008)
Abstract
The common octopus, (
Octopus vulgaris
Cuvier, 1797) is widely distributed through the world. It represents an important
resource with high economic value. It is exploited by trawl and by other gears such as trammel net, pots and it is also captured by
diving. Although the multitude of assessment techniques, few fisheries cephalopods were well managed. In Tunisia, common octopus
(
Octopus vulgaris
) is captured particularly in southern coast and the Sahel defined by three regions (Mahdia, Sousse and Monastir).
Our study constitutes the first assessment stock in Monastir situated in the mid of the eastern coasts of Tunisia. Using surplus
production models, an under fishing state of Octopus in the East of Tunisia is shown. This study confirms also the necessity of the
incorporation of environmental parameters for a better explanation of the variability of common octopus abundance and the
importance of these results in the assessment and management of this species.
Keywords
Octopus vulgaris
; Stock; East of Tunisia; Management; Surplus production model
Introduction
The common octopus (
Octopus vulgaris
Cuvier, 1797)
is widely distributed through the world. It is highly
exploited by trawl net and by other gears such as
trammel net, pots and also catches by diving. About
90% of the catch is coming from artisanal fisheries
(Jabeur et al., 2010).
The octopus fishery represents an important resource
with a high economic value in almost all countries
(Faure, 2002) included Tunisia. In this country, the
importance of
Octopus vulgaris
is due to the high
market value because of its exportation.
Common octopus is captured along the Tunisian coast
and particularly in the south part (Gabès gulf) and the
Sahel (central eastern).
Octopus vulgaris
fishery is
forbidden in summer out of the fishing season
(Ezzeddine-Najai and El Abed, 2004) limited from 16
May to 16 October of the next year.
Octopus vulgaris
is a cephalopod characterized by a
short longevity and by a fast-growing. Although, the
large literature on common octopus in the world
which describes the growth (Hermosilla et al., 2010),
the reproduction (Otero et al., 2007) and the
management (Guerra et al., 2010), in Tunisia a few
studies were presented. It concerns particularly
biology (Ezzeddine-Najai, 1992; Zghidi-Barraj, 2002;
Nouira, 2006; Khoufi, 2007; Jabeur et al., 2007;
Jabeur et al., 2012), characterization of populations
(Ben Youssef, 2006), stock variability in the Gulf of
Gabès (Ezzeddine-Najai and El Abed, 2004) and well
detailed by Jabeur et al (2010) determining the role of
the sea surface temperature and rainfall on fishery of
common octopus.
For ICES WGCEPH (2010), analytical assessments
are currently impractical because of the vulnerability
of common octopus stocks due to the short life span
and the semelparity (Guerra et al., 2010). It is
insufficient to assess this stock with monospecific models.