Revealing the role of crab as bait in octopus fishery: An ecological and fishing approach to support management decisions

In southern Portugal, artisanal octopus fisheries play an important socioeconomic role. Live crab bait in traps was used up to 2010 and banned in 2012. Such regulation, based on co-management advice, was not established under a scientific fundament. As a result, a long-standing controversy ensued with some fishing associations claiming that live crab bait increased fishing effort and exploitation rates and therefore risked the octopus stock status, while other fishers denied all these alleged impacts. The issue has not been resolved so far due to lack of scientific studies. In this study, we resolve the controversy conducting experimental fishing to determine by-catch and octopus catch rates using live crab bait versus other types of baits based on fish and assess the stock status of octopus over-time with constant parameters (hypothesis of no effect of the use of live crab bait) versus time-varying parameters (hypothesis of raised exploitation rates and riskier stock status). Bycatch was very low regardless of bait type. Our experimental fishing trials showed that fish-based baits increase bycatch and octopus catch rates. Stock assessment models showed that exploitation rates and stock status do not worsen in years of use of crab bait. We conclude that the use of crab bait in octopus fishery does not lead to increased exploitation rate or risks for stock sustainability status. Other considerations involving fishing costs and fishing operations further highlight the advantages of lifting the ban on the use of live crab bait in the Algarve octopus fishery.