Anchovy makes the cut in fishing: Official data

ANKARA

Anchovy has taken the top spot in fishing in the Turkish seas with 1,632,361 tons caught in the last 10 years, followed by sprat, sardine, bonito, horse mackerel and bluefish, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) has announced.

In addition to the catch of anchovies, the past decade showed 372,723 tons of sprat, 185,436 tons of sardines, 180,453 tons of bonito, 162,962 tons of horse mackerel and 48,170 tons of bluefish were reeled in, according to TÜİK’s data.

The number of fish netted has run in all directions over the years — the quantity of anchovies taken in 2004 was 96,440 tons, increasing to 273,914 tons last year, making it the highest yielding year for anchovy fishing.

Ranking right after anchovies, the number of sprats caught was recorded as 41,648 tons in 2014 and 45,764 tons last year while the highest sprat catch occurred in 2015 with 76,996 tons.

The number of sardines faced a downfall as the quantity of the catch was determined as 18,77 tons 10 years ago yet decreased to 17,311 tons last year, as the report indicated. During this 10-year period, the most sardines were netted in 2017 with 23,426 tons.

Bonito fishing saw a drastic decrease, as the number came in at 2,083 tons last year, while it was 19,032 tons in 2014. The number peaked at 49,891 tons of bonito netted in 2022.

As for horse mackerel, the numbers remained rather stable during the 10-year period with 16,324 tons caught in 2014 and 14,374 tons last year. The high point for the mackerel catch was in 2021, with 24,500 tons.

Bluefish, on the other hand, remained at low numbers through the fishing periods, as 8,386 tons of the species were caught in 2014 and 2,137 tons last year, with the peak number being recorded as 9,574 tons in 2016.