Gulf of Cadiz - Exploitation

A wide diversity of species are exploited by the fisheries in the Spanish waters off the Gulf of Cadiz. Purse-seiners concentrate mainly on small pelagics (anchovy, sardine), while the bottown-trawl and gillnet fisheries focus mainly on cephalopods (Octopus vulgaris and Sepia officinalis), flatfish (Solea, Dicologlossa cuneata), hake (Merluccius merluccius), some species of Sparidae and some crustaceans (Squilla mantis, Melicertus kerathurus).

A special case is the shellfish harvesting of striped venus clam (Chamalea gallina) in the Huelva’s region, where 120 vessels, 90 hydraulic dredges and 30 traditional trace towed gears, with a daily tare of 200 kg/vessel represents the most important single species fishery in the Gulf of Cadiz.