Stock overexploitation, bycatch, discards and gear impacts on the environment are outstanding issues for Mediterranean fisheries. The adoption of alternative fishing gears is an appealing solution to ensure a more sustainable exploitation of resources. We discuss the pros and cons of pots as alternative gears by reviewing their main designs, spatial distribution and target species in the Mediterranean basin. We assessed the technical factors affecting the catch efficiency of the different pot designs for four target species: spiny lobster, Palinurus elephas; Norway lobster, Nephrops norvegicus; common octopus, Octopus vulgaris and pandalid shrimps, Plesionika spp. We found that pot volume is important to catch Octopus; mesh size to catch Nephrops and Plesionika; entrance surface to catch Octopus, Nephrops and Plesionika; pot shape/colour and entrance shape/position to catch Octopus and Plesionika; and bait type to catch Octopus and Nephrops. The literature review shows that pot fisheries have several considerable advantages over conventional gears, especially in terms of discards, bycatch, seabed impacts (particularly compared with bottom trawls and passive set nets), size and species selectivity, gear depredation, catch quality and gear cost, besides saving time and labour. Disadvantages hampering their wider diffusion include ghost fishing, a low catch of finfish species, the narrow range of species targeted by each pot design and the current early stage of research. These data make a clear case for using pots as alternative gears to traditional ones in the Mediterranean Sea in some areas and seasons to catch certain target species.

种群过度开发、兼捕、丢弃和渔具对环境的影响是地中海渔业的突出问题。采用替代渔具是确保更可持续地开发资源的有吸引力的解决方案。我们通过回顾地中海盆地的主要设计、空间分布和目标物种来讨论盆作为替代齿轮的利弊。我们评估了影响四种目标物种不同盆栽设计捕捞效率的技术因素：多刺龙虾、象猴；挪威龙虾，Nephrops norvegicus；普通章鱼、Octopus vulgaris和pandalid 虾、Plesionika spp。我们发现锅的体积对于捕捉章鱼很重要; 筛目大小以捕获螯和Plesionika ; 入口表面捕捉章鱼、Nephrops和Plesionika；捕捉章鱼和Plesionika 的锅形状/颜色和入口形状/位置；以及捕捉章鱼和海蜇的诱饵类型. 文献综述表明，盆栽渔业与传统网具相比有几个相当大的优势，尤其是在丢弃物、兼捕物、海床影响（特别是与底拖网和被动固定网相比）、尺寸和物种选择性、网具掠夺、捕捞质量和网具成本方面，除了省时省力。阻碍其更广泛传播的缺点包括幽灵捕鱼、有鳍鱼类的捕获量低、每个盆设计所针对的物种范围狭窄以及目前的研究处于早期阶段。这些数据为在地中海的某些地区和季节使用罐作为传统渔具的替代渔具提供了明确的理由，以捕获某些目标物种。