Colmenero et al. : Reproductive biology of Lophius budegassa in the northwestern Mediterranean Sea 
399 
in females and 33.4 cm TL in males in our study, were 
very similar, in contrast to the sizes observed for indi- 
viduals in the Aegean Sea, 34 cm TL in females and 24 
cm TL in males (Tsimenidis, 1980). These variations 
in L, 5 o could be related to environmental and anthro- 
pogenic factors (e.g., temperature, food availability, or 
fishing pressure) (Trippel et al., 1997). 
Conclusions 
Black Anglerfish is a bycatch species in commercial 
fisheries off the Catalan coast of Spain. Despite not be- 
ing a target species for these fisheries, the rise of its 
economic value has led to an increase of captures in 
the northwestern Mediterranean Sea. The lack of infor- 
mation about reproduction and fecundity of the Black 
Anglerfish off the Catalan coast has been a problem for 
management of the fishery for Black Anglerfish. The 
results of our study improve the current understanding 
of the reproductive dynamics of this species. From the 
morphological point of view, the structure and the de- 
velopment of ovaries and testes do not differ from the 
development of gonads in other Lophiiformes, although 
Black Anglerfish presents variation in its spawning 
season — a variation that is linked to its geographic 
area. 
Our most important results are for L 50 . Males and 
females both reach L 50 at large sizes: 33.4 cm TL for 
males and 48.2 cm TL for females. As a consequence, 
the large catch and retention of individuals below the 
L 50 , 57% of males and 83% of females landed, indicate 
that overfishing of this species could be a concern in 
the northwestern Mediterranean Sea. Therefore, our 
study provides new data that are needed for a bet- 
ter understanding of the biology and ecology of Black 
Anglerfish; this knowledge will be useful in assessment 
and management of the stock that is exploited by the 
fisheries of the northwestern Mediterranean Sea. 
Acknowledgments 
We thank the crews of the fishing vessels Avi Pau, Estel. 
lada, Germans Felix, San Benito, and Port de Roses for 
their collaboration during sampling. We also recognize 
M. Baeta and L. Martinez for their help with data col- 
lection; S. Torres, R. Sanchez, and I. Salvo for their as- 
sistance with histological and fecundity analyses; and A. 
Ospina for development of the study area map. We ap- 
preciate M. Casadevall and M. Munoz for their valuable 
comments about male reproduction. Special thanks go to 
C. Vestfals for editorial help. This study was conducted 
within the project, Monitoratge dels recursos pesquers i 
marisquers al litoral catala (Direccio General de Pesca 
i Afers Marftims, Generalitat de Catalunya). V. Tuset 
is a scientist of CSIC within the modality JAE-Postdoc 
of Programme Junta para la Ampliacion de Estudios 
cofunded by the European Social Foundation. 
