Striped red mullet (Mullus surmuletus) is one of the most important target species in the trawl fishery developed by around 37 vessels off Mallorca (Balearic Islands, GSA05). A fraction of the small-scale fleet (~50 boats) also directs to this species during the second semester of the year, using both trammel nets and gillnets. During the last decade, the annual landings of this species have oscillated between 74-117 and 16-29 t in the trawl and small-scale fishery, respectively. In the GSA05, commercial trawlers employ up to four different fishing tactics (Palmer et al. 2009), which are associated with the shallow and deep continental shelf, and the upper and middle continental slope (Guijarro and Massutí 2006; Ordines et al. 2006). Vessels mainly target striped mullet (Mullus sumuletus) and European hake (Merluccius merluccius) on the shallow and deep shelf respectively. However, these two target species are caught along with a large variety of fish and cephalopod species. The Norway lobster (Nephrops norvegicus) and the red shrimp (Aristeus antennatus) are the main target species on the upper and middle slope respectively. The Norway lobster is caught at the same time as a large number of other fish and crustacean species, but the red shrimp fishery is the only Mediterranean fishery that could be considered monospecific.

Although stock abundance and biomass did not show any significant trend, both recruitment and SSB showed a significant decreasing trend (p<0.05). The stock is in overfishing status.