Monitoring brown meagres and groupers

The second annual monitoring campaign for brown meagres and groupers has just concluded.

These two species with high heritage value are protected and prohibited from fishing in the Principality of Monaco. They also benefit from protection in French Mediterranean waters through renewable moratoriums every 10 years for the grouper and every 5 years for the brown meagre.

These surveys are conducted by Thalassa Marine Research & Environmental Awareness at 2 sites along the Monaco coastline: the Sporting jetty in the Larvotto Marine Protected Area and under the Oceanographic Museum. The method used involves visual counts of the abundances and sizes of individuals observed along transects 25 meters long and 5 meters wide, with 6 replicates for each site.

This standardized protocol allows for the measurement of certain indicators of the health of populations, such as the density and biomass of fish present per unit of surface area. These biomass data are one of the most useful variables for assessing the impact of conservation measures for these species. They also enable comparisons with data collected in other Marine Protected Areas or in the surrounding areas.

Another inventory campaign, conducted every 3 years using a different protocol, will take place in October by the EDirection de l’Environnement in collaboration with the GEM (Groupe d’Étude du Mérou) along the entire Monaco coastline.