Dynamic and process of Palinurus elephas (Crustacea: Decapoda: Palinuridae) recruitment: case of the Calvi-Balagne strata (Corsica, France).
Supervisors: Sylvie Gobert, Michel Marengo (Stareso, University of Liège).
The biology and ecology of the spiny lobster Palinurus elephas (Fabricius, 1787) is still blurry and lacky, despite its important role in the economy and culture of Corsica. According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), overexploitation by professional fishing activity is a major threat for this specie, at an international level. It has been evaluated as “Vulnerable” in the red list of threaten species. In Corsica, same pattern is observed, the CPUE related to the studied stocks are declining since the 50’s, from 229t in 1948 to 61t in 2011, with interannual variations, depending on the technical improvements and legislations. This evolution may be explained, for the studied years (2005-2015), by the environmental factors surrounding these animals, especially the thermocline depth and the zooplankton abundance. In the climate change context, these physical and biological parameters are modified in an unpredictive way, which might induce cascade effects on the whole ecosystem.