Diagnóstico de la Pesquería Chilena de Jurel (Trachurus symmetricus murphyi)

The purpose of this paper is an updated diagnosis of descriptive character of the Chilean jack mackerel fishery, independent from stock assessment models. In 1997 the jack mackerel fishery underwent a significant decrease in the landings and showed an important increase of the recruits. From this year the fishery was managed through recruitment and reproduction closures and fishing for research purpose, to reduce the fishing effort. In this period an intensive monitoring of the fishery was implemented and the sampling scheme was intensified with sampling in the fishing plants and on board of the industrial fishing vessels. This made possible to produce information about the fishery in real time. To produce a diagnosis the emphasis was put on the main fishery indexes (landings, spatial distribution of the catch, size composition of the catch, catch at age, recruitment, gonad weight, gonad index, sexual maturity and condition factor) and its interpretations in terms of the population dynamic processes. From an empirical point of view this management system allowed to stabilize the catch levels, but did not permitted the sustainability of the stock.