Study of fisheries from riverine Danube Delta: Gorgova – Uzlina and Sontea – Furtuna lake-complexes

• Main Authors: NAVODARU Ion, CERNISENCU Irina
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: CITDD Publishing House 2006-09-01
• Series: Scientific Annals of the Danube Delta Institute
• Subjects: inland fisheries; Sontea-Furtuna lakes; Matita–Merhei lakes; catch; Danube delta; fish stock; sustainable use
• Online Access: http://www.ddni.ro/manager/editor/UserFiles/File/Scientific%20annals/volume/12/28.pdf

The fish catch from riverine Danube delta has changed in both structure and size. The average of catches decreased from 1747 t (1963 - 1974) to 252 t (1992 - 2003) in Gorgova–Uzlina lake-complex and from 1,634 t to 211 t in Sontea–Furtuna lake-complex. The catch decline is effect of loosing of habitats and community structure change due to degradation of habitats. The dominant species – Carassius gibelio and Abramis brama has been yearly sampled since 1990 from the commercial catches for stock assessment. The growth, and exploitation parameters as well as the average biomass and the Maximum Sustainable Yields (MSY) based on length frequency structure of landing catch have been estimated. Based on the average catch in the last 13 years (1992-2004) and of the fish stock assessment it resulted that in Gorgova – Uzlina lakes a quantity of 250 tons can be sustainable fished while in Sontea – Furtuna lakes - 210 tones. Lack of fishing effort monitoring and poor quality of catch data has induced uncertainty in stock assessment as well as MSY estimation.