Fish stock assessment of the northern New Caledonian lagoons: 3 - Fishing pressure, potential yields and impact on management options

The potential yields of demersal reefal and lagoonal finfish, which are val uable for trade or consumption in the Northern Province of New Caledonia, a re unknown. Fishing pressure was estimated from tally-sheets of professiona l fishermen to assess trade fishing and a household consumption survey to a ssess subsistence fishing. Total yield was estimated to be 1 326 tonnes in 1995, 94 % of which correspond to subsistence fishing. Most of the catches were taken from the east and west coasts; in the north zone (Belep Archipel ago) catches were very low. From this fishing pressure and the total stock values, the maximum sustainable yield (MSY) was estimated to be 12 600 t, w hich was about 10 % of the total stocks assessed in the Northern Province ( 138 300 t). This MSY was dominated by five families, namely Lethrinidae, Ac anthuridae, Scaridae, Serranidae and Lutjanidae. The results suggest that f ishing effort in the Northern Province of New Caledonia could increase with out endangering the stock. However, on a smaller geographical scale, some l ocations (Kone and Nepoui on the west coast), reef habitats (near-reef area s) or species groups (fish caught by line) were already being intensively f ished. Fishing techniques should be diversified so that part of the fishing effort be redirected toward the least heavily exploited groups of species and biotopes. (C) 2000 Ifremer/Cnrs/Inra/Ird/Cemagref/Editions scientifique s et medicales Elsevier SAS.