The effects of long‐term exploitation of demersal fish populations off the coast of Sierra Leone, West Africa

Abstract

The present condition of the inshore sciaenid fauna in Sierra Leone, based on the data collected in 1985–86 from commercial inshore trawlers and accumulated records, is compared with the first assessment of the virgin stocks conducted in the 1950s. This has enabled the effects of the long term on this tropical multispecies fishery to be assessed. In addition to the changes in the species composition, the estimation of growth and mortality from both time periods have allowed the population characteristics of the most common dermersal species to be compared.