It is doing poorly for the sardine stock in the Aegean Sea (GSA 22), the Adriatic Sea (GSA 17 and 18: Northern and Southern Adriatic Sea) and the Strait of Sicily (GSA 16). In all these areas, the stock is overfished and fishing pressure is too high. In the Aegean Sea, biomass is close to the critical limit and fishing pressure is approximately 150% of the sustainable level. In the Adriatic Sea, biomass has declined sharply since 2011 and the stock has been in an overfished state for almost ten years. The stock in the Strait of Sicily is also overfished. Therefore, all three assessments automatically receive a dark red rating.
Fisheries using purse seines in the Aegean Sea, the Adriatic Sea and the Strait of Sicily have low bycatch and cause no damage to the seabed. Discards are low, although additional mortality may occur through slipping. This fishing method more often receives a green score for its environmental impacts, but the fisheries as a whole score red because of the status of the stock and the effectiveness of management. Fisheries using floating pelagic pair trawls in the Adriatic Sea (GSA 17 and 18) perform slightly less favourably because of higher discard rates and greater uncertainty about their effects on the ecosystem. Fisheries using pelagic otter trawls in the Strait of Sicily (GSA 16) also have little impact on the seabed and relatively low discards, but their effects on vulnerable species and the ecosystem are insufficiently known.
Management is insufficiently effective in all areas. Although the stocks are monitored and the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) and the European Union have introduced management measures, either an effective management plan is lacking or the existing measures are not sufficiently complied with. Enforcement and cooperation between countries remain limited, meaning that the current measures have failed to stop overfishing. A number of fisheries participate in a FIP, but none are MSC-certified.