  During the last decades, scientific community has been investigating both
biological and hydrographic processes that affect fisheries. Such an
interdisciplinary and synergic approach is nowadays giving a fundamental
contribution, in particular, in connecting the dots between hydrographic
phenomena and biomass variability and distribution of small pelagic fish. Here
we estimate impacts of hydrographic fluctuations on small pelagic fishery,
focusing on the inter-annual variability that characterizes connectivity
between spawning and recruiting areas for the European anchovy (Engraulis
encrasicolus, Linnaues 1758), in the Northern side of the Sicily Channel
(Mediterranean Sea). Results show that coastal transport dynamics of a specific
year largely affect the biomass recorded the following year. Our work,
moreover, quantifies the specific monetary impacts on landings of European
anchovy fishery due to hydrodynamics variability, connecting biomass
fluctuations with fishery economics in a highly dynamic and exploited marine
environment as the Sicily Channel. In particular, we build a model that
attributes a monetary value to the hydrographic phenomena (i.e., cross-shore
vs. alongshore eggs and larvae transport), registered in the FAO Geographical
Sub-Area (GSA) 16 (Southern Sicily). This allows us to provide a monetary
estimation of catches, derived from different transport dynamics. Our results
highlight the paramount importance that hydrographic phenomena can have over
the socio-economic performance of a fishery.
