Life after catch?
Determining the fate of Atlantic billfishes released
from commercial and recreational fisheries.
John E. Graves
Virginia Institute of Marine Science
Atlantic billfishes (blue marlin, white marlin, and sailfish) are seriously overfished. The pelagic longline fishery represents the largest source of fishing mortality for most billfish species, although recreational fishing mortality is also a significant factor. Because stock levels of most target species of the pelagic longline fishery (bigeye tuna, yellowfin tuna, and swordfish) are at levels close to those necessary to support maximum sustainable yield, there has been little interest to reduce fishing effort in order to protect billfishes, which represent an incidental catch. Live release of billfishes, which is practiced in some recreational billfish fisheries, may provide a means to reduce fishing mortality of billfishes in the pelagic longline fishery without sacrificing catches of target species. However, little is known about the fate of billfishes released from recreational or commercial fishing gears, and very low returns of conventional tags (<2%) are consistent with low post-release survival. Using pop-up satellite archival tags with short (10 day) release times, we have demonstrated high rates of post-release survival for a variety of billfishes released from commercial and recreational fisheries, and learned much about movements and habitat utilization of these species.
- Visit Dr. Gaves' website at VIMS
