Resumo

SANTAMARIA, Apolinar  e  CHAVEZ, Ernesto A.. Evaluación de la pesquería de Lutjanus peru (Pisces: Lutjanidae) de Guerrero, México. Rev. biol. trop [online]. 1999, vol.47, n.3, pp.571-580. ISSN 0034-7744.

Red snapper (Lutjanus peru) fishery was analyzed from landings and catch records. Stock age structure was reconstructed after the parameter values of the von Bertalanffy growth model, the length-weight relationship, ages and the natural mortality coefficient through each of nine years of catch records. The Fisat software package was applied to assess population parameters, whose estimates are, for the von Bertalanffy growth model, K = 0.1442 to 0.38; to = -0.2; L = 87 cm; W = 9.4 Kg , and the natural mortality coefficient (M) after several methods (0.14 to 0.38). Cohort size was assessed by the virtual population analysis (VPA), estimating population size in 5.2*10⁶ fish with a biomass of 8 454 tonnes. Current fishing mortality F, ranges from 0.06 to 1.13, depending upon the chosen M value; according to this, when the M value used is low, the results suggest that the stock is underexploited, and vice versa. The yield per recruit model applied suggests improvements to the management strategy. The model indicates recruit overfishing because very small fish are the main target (tc < 1), nearly 50 % of fish caught are immature and under one year of age. Optimum yield levels correspond to first catch age of 2 to 3 years and a fishing mortality of F = 0.35, suggesting the need of limiting small fish catch of to a minimum of 2 year old specimens.

Palavras-chave : Lutjanidae; population dynamics; stock assessment; west central Mexico.