Standardized Catch Rates for White Marlin (Tetrapturus albidus) from the U.S. Recreational Tournaments Fishery in the Northwest Atlantic and the U.S. Gulf of Mexico

摘要

Update of indices of abundance for white marlin from the United States recreational billfish tournament fishery are presented for the period 1973-2001. The index of weight (kg) per 100 hours fishing was estimated from numbers of billfish caught and reported in the logbooks submitted by recreational tournament coordinators and NMFS observers under the Recreational Billfish Survey (RBS) Program. The standardization analysis procedure included the following variables; year, area, and season. The standardized index was estimated using Generalized Linear Mixed Models under a delta lognormal model approach.