Growth, Mortality and Exploitation of Sardinella maderensis (Lowe, 1838) in the Liberian coastal waters

Sardinella maderensis also known as flat ‘sardinella’ forms part of the commercially important fish species of Liberia which prefers areas of lower salinities close to the mouth of river. Though S. maderensis appears throughout the year in Ivory Coast coastal waters with a strong reduction from May to July due to the transition from warm season to cold season, adults S. maderensis are more sedentary. S. maderensis fishery is of great importance to fishing households within most coastal communities in Liberia, both economically and food security wise. As a result, S. maderensis fishery like other commercially important fish species in Liberia is currently subjected to intense fishing pressure. Intensive fishing pressure on marine biodiversity by location and depth has led to decline of marine capture fisheries.

In Liberia, factors such as poor fisheries data collection, limited resources, conflicts and illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) do not only make it difficult to estimate the status of almost all of the marine biodiversity but also presents a great challenge to fisheries managers. However, Togba reported that Sardinella, Barracudas, Croakers, Sharks and Ilisha africana constituted 83% and 59.06% of local fish supply in 2004 and 2005 respectively; indicating that there has been a declined in fish catches.