| Abstract | The ultimate goal of the project is to gather as much information as possible on biology and ecology of small pelagic fishes inhabiting northeastern Mediterranean. With this respect, 133 days spent at sea in 23 monthly cruises. The small pelagic fishes found in the area, the dominant species, distributions, habitat partitioning and preferences, the environmental factors determining habitat selection were determined. Spawning time, length of first maturity, and spawning strategies adopted by some important species were determined. Among the 17 small pelagic species found in the area, Sardinella aurita was the most dominant fish. It was observed that depth, temperature, salinity and the trophic state of the water masses have considerable impact on the distribution of the species in question. The succession in the use of the productive season for reproductive purpose is noted; to ensure the energy required to spawn and to secure sufficient food supply for their offspring, the fishes use the high primary production season in succession. Also, stock parameters of important species were estimated and their stocks were assessed. The results, together with the ecology of the species were used to suggest fisheries management advise. In general the stocks in the region were not overfished; some of the stocks were even under fished. However it was underlined that, considering the deterministic role of climate on critical biological requirement such as timing and sussession in spawning, in the selection of habitat, it was recommended that an extremely liberal fishing strategy such as the one applied today, would eventually harm the stocks Another task of the project was to apply fisheries acoustics to the small pelagic stocks in the region. The high species diversity in the area necessitated statistical modeling enabling acoustical recognition of the species based on their school morphologies.
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