Title: Evaluating the sustainability and potential of coastal fisheries in Liberia: A bio-economic analysis.

Liberian coastal waters support both pelagic and demersal fisheries, providing essential resources for local communities. However, increasing pressure on fish stocks, particularly due to the rise in artisanal fishing vessels, raises concerns about potential declines in harvests. This study assesses the sustainability of Liberia’s coastal fisheries using a surplus-production bio-economic model under the CMSY (Catch-Maximum Sustainable Yield) approach to estimate management reference points. A mixed approach used disaggregated data to describe SSF and employed CMSY to aggregate the data, both of which were secondary data. An analysis of the disaggregated data revealed that more Fanti vessels were sampled. In addition, the results showed that SAE (Flat bonny) was the species most caught by Fanti, while ILI (Gbapleh) was the species most caught by Kru. Furthermore, seasonal patterns were observed along the catch composition varieties for different periods within the sampled year. Using catch and effort data from 2001 to 2021, the CMSY model estimated abundance based on catch per unit effort (CPUE). The results suggest a low depletion rate (0.35–0.65) based on prior initial relative biomass (B/k) estimates. Furthermore, the stock displayed medium resilience (0.3–0.68) as classified by CMSY. The study found that the maximum economic yield (MEY) closely aligns with the maximum sustainable yield (MSY), indicating low fishing costs and that the pelagic fishery is approaching full exploitation.