The exploitation of 10 main commercial fish species of Ayamé man-made lake, Ivory Coast, is discussed and their reproductive cycles are analyzed. Two proposals are made for rational stock management, based on the protection of the breeding seasons of the major species, particularly Sarotherodon melanotheron, which forms more than 50% of the landed biomass. The first proposal is to declare a three-month universal closed season from March to May, coinciding with the sexual maturation peak of

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... herodon melanotheron as well as with a period of intense fishing activity. The second proposal, which takes into account the lake's two-compartment morphology, and the duration of the breeding season of Sarotherodon melanotheron, is to proclaim alternating closed seasons in the two compartments throughout that three-months breeding season.