Size-Structured Method Applied to the Brown Crab Fishery Callinectes bellicosus in the Gulf of California

Abstract

The crab fishery of the genus Callinectes is one of the most important fisheries in Mexico. Sonora and Sinaloa are the states on the eastern coast of the Gulf of California, the mainland coast. Sinaloa encompasses the greatest production in Mexico of these species, in particular the Bahía Santa Maria La Reforma (BSMR), supplying the most important catches. A mandatory administrative document for the fishery is the Management Plan of Crab. One of the main weaknesses found in it for Sonora and Sinaloa is the lack of fishery assessment in both states. For this reason, a size-structured method called CASA (Catch-at-Size Analysis) was applied in the BSMR, in the seasons 2000, 2011, and 2014, to C. bellicosus. The first catch size (CW50%) estimated for females was 97.5, 102.5, and 100 mm, while in males, it was estimated at 117.5, 107.5, and 102.5 mm. In the specific case of fishing mortality (F), the algorithm allowed us to find that in the larger sizes, a greater fishing pressure is applied for both females and males, yielding a weighted exploitation rate of 0.047 (2000), 0.119 (2011), and 0.426 (2014) for females and 0.045 (2000), 0.295 (2011), and 0.132 (2014) for males, all below 50% (E = 0.50). The crab C. bellicosus in BSMR is not at risk of overexploitation.