Abstract

Mexico occupies the third place for the world’s highest catches of genus Octopus, whit increases in the past decade. Since the first records of 5,000 tons in 1949, the catch rate of Octopus vulgaris has peaked to 10,000 tons in 2014. Howev-er, the rate of exploitation and the status of the stocks across the different regions in Mexico, is less known. In this regard, the present study aims to estimate, for the first time, the common octopus’ biomass, abundance and distribution on the continental shelf of Yucatan. Data was collected from four research cruises, two before (May and July) and two after (December and January) the fishing season. The biomass was calculated using three different numerical models (swept areas, stratified and geostatistical). The results show low variability in potential biomass between models, these can be explained by the difference in the statistical assumptions of the abundance’s distribution (regionalized and homogeneous). Abundance estimations were higher during July and December (>20 org/km2), which coincides with the end of the recruit-ment period. On the other hand, lower abundances were estimated during May and January, probably due to the higher natural mortality rates associated with the Octopus short life cycle.

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