Overexploitation for Fish Maw: The Case of a Valuable Black‐Spotted Croaker Stock

ABSTRACT The demand for fish maw, a dried swim bladder considered a seafood delicacy, is expanding to new species and regions worldwide. Elevated demand increases the price of maw‐supplying species, which drives higher exploitation rates (i.e., fishing pressure). This situation is exacerbated when fishers increase their catch to maximize economic gain from selling maw. However, few case studies have explicitly explored the relationship between the value of maw‐supplying species and exploitation rates. Further, the weight of fish needed to yield a kg of maw (the ratio of body‐to‐maw weight) is unknown for many traded species. Here, the black‐spotted croaker ( Protonibea diacanthus ), one of the most valuable maw‐supplying species, in Kuwait waters was used as a case study to: (i) assess the historical status of the stock using a catch‐based assessment model; (ii) examine the relationship between fish price and exploitation rate; and (iii) quantify the body‐to‐maw weight ratio from body and maw weights. The current stock was overexploited and price was strongly associated with exploitation rate, with years of higher prices coinciding with higher exploitation rates. Moreover, the body‐to‐maw weight ratio indicated that 33.3 kg of black‐spotted croaker was harvested to produce 1 kg of maw. The future of black‐spotted croaker was discussed under two scenarios: continue business‐as‐usual, where the species is fished without strong management intervention, or minimize the risk of stock collapse through understanding its population dynamics, implementing fishery regulations (e.g., minimum size limit, seasonal closures) based on that understanding, and using international trade agreements such as Appendix II of CITES.