DESCRIPTION AND MANAGEMENT OF A CLAM FISHERY (GARI-SOLIDA, PSAMMOBIIDAE) FROM BAHIA-INDEPENDENCIA, PERU (14-DEGREES-S)

Despite an important small scale bivalve fishery in Peru, hardly any m anagement plans are applied to exploit the resource. Furthermore, litt le of the ecological data necessary to develop management strategies h ave been published so far. The present paper deals with the fishery of the most important infaunal bivalve of Peru, Gari solida, from Bahia Independencia where the largest Peruvian population is located. Growth parameters of the von Bertalanffy growth function were L-infinity = 1 01.6 mm and k = 0.495. total mortality was Z = 1.64 [yr(-1)], fishing mortality F = 1.31 [yr(-1)] and mean natural mortality (M) over bar = 0.38 [yr(-1)]. Total biomass, calculated by direct sampling surveys wa s 627 t ash-free dry weight (AFDW) in August 1990, 435 t AFDW in Febru ary 1991;md 137 t AFDW in October 1991. The observed exploitation rate , calculated from Z and F was E = 0.80, whereas exploitation rate corr esponding to the maximum yield (calculated by Beverton and Holt yield per recruit model) was E-max = 0.65. Therefore, it is assumed that the biomass reduction (corresponding to a total decline of 78%) was cause d by fishing activities. Other sources reveal a decline of 92% from 19 90 to 1994. It is necessary to establish and apply management plans fo r a sustainable exploitation of this resource. (C) 1998 Elsevier Scien ce B.V. All rights reserved.