In overexploitation.
[The GFCM methodology to provide stock status and management advice is described in the Appendix F of the Sixteenth Session of the Scientific Advisory Committee Report. See the Bibliography section.]

Stock assessment in the GFCM area of application is often conducted by management units, based on GSAs. This method does not ensure that the whole stock is assessed, since stocks may cover several different management units. In some cases, when there is scientific evidence of a stock spreading through different GSAs, as well as information on species from different GSAs, existing information is combined across GSAs. This is then defined as a “joint stock assessment of a shared stock”. The GFCM recommends that when scientific evidence of shared stocks exists, joint stock assessments should be attempted. A number of activities aimed at achieving a better definition of stock boundaries are currently being conducted at the GFCM level. [The State of Mediterranean and Black Sea Fisheries, 2016]

In the present assessment, the stock was assumed to be confined within the boundaries of GSAs 9, 10 and 11. In GSA 9, the species shows a wide bathymetric distribution, being present from 50 m to 650 m depth with greatest abundance between 150 m and 400 m depth over muddy or sandy-muddy bottoms. The highest abundances have been found in the Tyrrhenian part of the GSA (south Tuscany and Latium). In GSA 10, aggregations with higher abundance were localised between 100 m and 200 m depth, with some intrusions in the deeper waters in three subareas. Two most important patches were located in the Gulf of Naples and along the Calabrian coasts in correspondence with Cape Bonifati, with a third one in the Gulf of Salerno. These are also the areas where the main nurseries are localised. The deep-water rose shrimp, with European hake and red mullet, is a key species of fishing assemblages in the area. In the last decade it was generally also ranked among the species with higher abundance indices (number of individuals) in the trawl surveys as observed for different Mediterranean areas. The species is caught on the same fishing grounds as European hake and the production of this shrimp has been steadily growing over the last decade in the southern basin and it reached about 10 percent of the demersal landings in 2006. The core of nursery areas in GSA 9 overlaps with crinoid bed (Leptometra phalangium) areas over the shelf break. This is a peculiar habitat in the GSA 9, which is also an essential fish habitat for other commercially important species as the European hake.