Assessment of goatfish fisheries in Turkey based on the microdata set of official landing statistics

Although goatfishes (Mullidae Rafinesque, 1815) are among the most important commercial fishes in Turkey, no research has been found investigating the characteristics and spatial patterns of goatfish fishery. Here, we assessed the goatfish fishery of Turkey based on the microdata set of Turkish National Fishery Statistics gathered by Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK) between 2014 and 2017. In this context, we investigated the variation of total goatfish catch by cities. In addition, we compared the contribution of small (boat <10m) and large scale (boat >10m) fishers as well as different fishing techniques to the total goatfish catch in Turkey. Finally, an evaluation was made on the discard rates recorded in the official landing statistics. The results showed that higher red mullet (Mullus barbatus Linnaeus, 1758) catch was reported in the eastern Mediterranean, whereas surmullet (Mullus surmuletus Linnaeus, 1758) catch was significantly higher in the western Black Sea. On the other hand, fishery-independent investigations revealed that the Turkish fishery fleet mostly catches red mullet throughout the coasts of Turkey. Therefore, the separate records of red mullet and surmullet in the landing statistics likely represent the local names of red mullet rather than two different species. Large scale fishers were the main source of fishery pressure in the Mediterranean Sea, the Aegean Sea and the Black Sea. However, the majority of the catch was landed by small scale fishers in the Marmara Sea. The bottom trawl fishery landed 88, 92 and 87% of total goatfish catch in the Black Sea, the Aegean Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, respectively. Purse seiners provided the largest part of total goatfish catch (40%) in the Marmara Sea, where the bottom trawl fishery is prohibited. The overall average for the discard rate was found to be 0.47%. There were no statistically significant differences among the discard rates of two species, marine regions or fishing methods.