Gulf of lions octopus pot and portuguese trap fishery

Overview 

	SPECIES Common octopus, Octopus vulgaris
	FISHING GEAR Octopus pots and Portuguese traps

 

VOLUME OF LANDINGS :  353.9 tons for the octopus pots in 2014

 

FISHING FLEET : 106 french vessels in 2014 (74% between 6-10 m)

 

LANDINGS PORTS :

Octopus pots : all fishing ports in Occitanie and from Saintes-Marie-de-la-Mer to Marseille in PACA

Boite portugaise : ports in the eastern part of PACA ( Marseille (MA), Toulon (TL) and Nice (NI) )

 

Fishery

This fishery utilises two types of fishing gear: octopus pots and Portuguese traps. The octopus pot is specifically designed for octopus fishing as it makes use of the octopus’ behaviour of seeking out holes to shelter in. It is mainly used in Languedoc-Roussillon and in certain areas of the PACA region (between Sainte Marie de la Mer and Marseille). In the eastern part of the Gulf of Lions, octopus are also caught using Portuguese traps. which are small, baited traps that are set out in lines.

Octopus are caught year-round. In some prud’homies, there are seasonal closures during the summer months.

Pre-assessment results

Results of the MSC pre-assessment, conducted using the precautionary principle (bar fully filled in orange = benchmark achieved). Only some of the data is presented here. For a full listing of the results, please visit the Medfish website.

Gulf of Lions octopus pot fishery	Gulf of Lions octopus Portuguese trap fishery

 

STRENGTHS	POINTS FOR IMPROVEMENT
Healthy stocks and biomass monitoring Highly selective fishing gear used, with little impact on the ecosystem Fishing activities limited through prud’homies regulations	Increase knowledge about female octopus mortality after hatching Harvest control rules to be specified/defined A distinction is to be made in data on landings that accounts for gear used A mechanism is to be put in place to evaluate management system effectiveness

> Download this fishery factsheet

> Read the pre-assessment report of this fishery