We conducted a review of small pelagic fisheries of anchovy (Engraulis encrasicolus) and sardine (Sardina pilchardus) in the northern Alboran Sea (western Mediterranean Sea). This overview focuses on a long historical series of landings (from the 1940s to the present), the number of fishery vessels (from the 1970s onward), the fishery effort during the last decade, and acoustic assessment. Sardine and anchovy landings since the 1940s show very strong oscillations. The highest landings correspond to periods when the Spanish fleet could fish in the southern part of the Alboran Sea: before 1959, Morocco was not yet an independent country and later in the 1980s due to fishing agreements with that country. The fleet has been decreasing, since 1973 till nowadays; in 2017 the fleet only represents 24% of that of the year 1973. Currently, landings are low and correspond only to fishing in the northern waters of the Alboran Sea.

SI