Evaluation on Minimum Landing Size Regulations in Turkish Marine Fisheries from Scientific Perspective

Crucial point of fishery management is to let the fish or other species reproduce at least once during their life. Therefore it is very important to determine the length at maturity (Lm) for given species before the first capture. Focus of this study is to determine the consistency between scientific results and minimum landing size (MLS) regulations in the marine fishery of Turkey. For this purpose, 4/1 communique on commercial fishery (2016/35) published by the Republic of Turkey Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry was investigated in order to expose the MLS of given species in Turkey. Literature survey on Lm was also conducted preferably on studies which were performed in Turkish waters or from the Mediterranean basin in order to avoid regional differences. While 86 marine species were reported to be landed in the official fishery statistics, only 49 of them were appointed with a MLS in the commercial fisheries regulation. It was determined that MLS of 27 species were below the Lm according to the selected literature, 7 of them require result on Lm, status of the 2 species couldn’t be decided due to different length types and 13 (27% of the decisions on MLS) of them were found to be in accordance with the scientific literature on Lm. This study shows that MLS regulation must be revised for most of the species in the surrounding waters of Turkey and comprehensive maturity studies are urgently needed in order to fulfill the scientific gap.