Have the Atlantic bluefin tuna management measures influenced the age composition of the Bay of Biscay bait boat catches?

The implementation of regulatory measures of the Atlantic bluefin tuna Recovery Plan in 2007 has produced changes in the fishing strategy of the bait boat fishery in the Bay of Biscay due to market conditions. To maintain bluefin tuna price and to avoid a market boycott of small specimens, fishermen...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Rodriguez-Marin, Enrique, Ruiz, Marta, Pérez-Guerrero, Bernardo, Quelle, Pablo, Luque, P.L., Ortiz-de-Urbina-Gutiérrez, José María
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2013
País:España
Institución:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repositorio:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/326754
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/326754
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Pesquerías
Centro Oceanográfico de Santander
Descripción
Sumario:The implementation of regulatory measures of the Atlantic bluefin tuna Recovery Plan in 2007 has produced changes in the fishing strategy of the bait boat fishery in the Bay of Biscay due to market conditions. To maintain bluefin tuna price and to avoid a market boycott of small specimens, fishermen's cooperatives of the main ports redistributed bluefin catches throughout the fishing season by establishing vessel maximum quotas by time period and size of the tuna and by port maximum daily sale quotas. In order to see whether these limitations are affecting catch composition, we analysed its evolution by commercial category and by catch at age from 1985 to the present. Our results showed that the catch at age since the implementation of regulatory measures of the Recovery Plan in 2007 comprised older specimens than in the previous time period. Strong year-class signal from 1994 and 2003 cohorts can be observed in the data series but this last year-class signal does not explain the increasing trend in the abundance of older fish in the last five year catches.