A POPULATION STUDY ON 3 STOCKS OF A COMMERCIAL ADRIATIC PECTINID (PECTEN-JACOBAEUS)

During the early 1980s, after 30 years of intense exploitation, the It alian pectinid Pecten jacobaeus (Mollusca: Pectinidae) started to show signs of a dwindling population and a reduction in the quantities lan ded. As a consequence of the lack of appropriate controls this resourc e is now on the brink of commercial extinction, and research has there fore begun into the collection and culturing of scallops. This paper p resents observations, taken from January 1991 to July 1994, on three n atural northern Adriatic stocks of Pecten jacobaeus which had been exp loited by fishing. The scallop stocks had decreased markedly after onl y 20 months of observations, and young specimens had disappeared.