Case study of the impact of recent management measures on overall fishing capacity and fishing effort of the United States North Atlantic Ocean longline fleet

摘要

A bnet case study 01 recent management actions taken regarding the United States Atlantic pelagic longline fleet and their combined effect on several indicators of fleet effort and capacity for harvesting swordfish is presented. This fishery began during the 1960s, targeting primarily swordfish, and has since diversified to its present form, targeting different species, depending on the abundance of desirable species regularly taken by the gear in the area-time strata in which the vessels are able tofish. North Atlantic-wide, the amount of catch taken and the longline fishing effort expended evolved quickly, especially after mercury level restrictions for swordfish marketed in the United States were loosened in the late 1970s. Resource status evaluations of North Atlantic swordfish indicated a pattern of rapid increase in fishing mortality, leading to a period of overexploitation, followed by a period of rebuilding after management actions were adopted by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT). There has been a measurable decline in various measures of United States Atlantic pelagic longline fishing effort and fishing capacity, which correlates with the suite of management measures taken by the United States to limit its harvest of swordfish to levels agreed by ICCAT. Over the past few years, the catches of United States vessels have been less than their total allowable catches (TACs), even though their catch rates have increased as the swordfish population has rebuilt. Fishery participants attribute the recent low harvest levels to reduced access and lower participation levels in the fishery. From the information available, there appears to be potential to improve average per hook efficiency and, by doing so, improve fleet-wide capacity to a level more appropriate for achieving the United States TACs.