FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 79, NO. 1 



Fishing was done in a fairly restricted area off the 

 northeastern United States. In 1976, however, a 

 new method of fishing for swordfish was developed 

 off the southeast Florida coast. This method in- 

 volved drifting baited lines at various depths at 

 night. Fishing success using this technique has 

 been substantially higher than by the earlier 

 method, and swordfish are now available to 

 fishermen all along the Gulf of Mexico and Atlan- 

 tic coasts of the United States, whereas previously 

 the fishery was confined to a relatively small geo- 

 graphical area. 



Longbill spearfish are rare in the recreational 

 catch. They are believed to be primarily an open 

 ocean species and generally are not common in the 

 areas where recreational fishing takes place. 



Because of the nature of the fishery for swordfish 

 and the scarcity of longbill spearfish in the recre- 

 ational catch, our study involves only the sailfish 

 and the two marlins, and the following discussions 

 deal only with these species. 



Fishing Techniques 



Fishing, using rod and reel, is conducted 

 primarily by trolling dead or artificial baits at 

 speeds ranging from 3 to 15 kn. The baits are fished 

 mainly at the surface, although sometimes baits 

 are rigged to troll down to a meter or more beneath 

 the surface. Generally, three to four lines are 

 fished simultaneously, although as many as eight 

 are occasionally used. In some areas the use of live 

 bait has become increasingly popular. Our study 

 does not include catch and effort data involving 

 the use of live bait. 



Once a billfish is hooked, the boat operator usu- 

 ally maneuvers the boat so that the effort required 

 by the angler is reduced. Once the fish is brought 

 to the boat it is either gaffed and brought onboard 

 or released alive. More and more frequently, 

 anglers and crews are tagging their fish before 

 releasing them in cooperation with the National 

 Marine Fisheries Service Cooperative Game Fish 

 Tagging Program (formerly the National Marine 

 Fisheries Service-Woods Hole Oceanographic In- 

 stitution Cooperative Game Fish Tagging Pro- 

 gram). 



Billfishes are not highly desirable as food in the 

 continental United States, although they are 

 utilized to some extent as a smoked product. How- 

 ever, many fishermen are learning that fresh mar- 

 lin, in particular, is an excellent food fish. In 

 Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands there is a great 



demand for fresh marlin which commands a high 

 price on the local fresh fish markets. 



THE LONGLINE FISHERY 



The high seas longline fishery for tunas was 

 begun in the Atlantic by the Japanese in 1956. 

 Fishing effort increased rapidly, peaking in 1965 

 when almost 100 million hooks were set and the 

 fishery included almost all waters between lat. 40° 

 N and 40° S. Effort fell off rapidly, however, in 

 response to declining catch rates and increasing 

 costs, and by the early 1970's the Japanese were 

 averaging only about 40 million hooks annually. 

 In the mid-1960's, Taiwan and South Korea en- 

 tered the fishery and by the 1970's theirs were the 

 dominant fleets in the Atlantic. An excellent re- 

 view of the development of the fishery is available 

 in Ueyanagi (1974). 



The longline fishery in the Atlantic is directed 

 primarily at tunas, and billfishes are incidental 

 catches, although large numbers are caught. From 

 1956 through 1976, for example, almost 140,000 t 

 of white marlin, blue marlin, and sailfish/ 

 spearfish were caught by longliners in the Atlantic 

 (Table 1). There is some evidence that stocks of 

 white and blue marlin in the North Atlantic and 

 South Atlantic are discrete groups (Mather et al. 

 1972; Wise and Davis 1973). Longline catch per 

 unit effort (CPUE) values for white and blue mar- 

 lins within these two areas in the 1970's are for the 

 most part considerably below those in the 1960's 

 (Figure 1). 



Table L — Estimated landings, in metric tons, of blue marlin, 

 white marlin, and sailfish/spearfish by the tuna longline fishery 

 in the Atlantic Ocean, 1956-76. Data from Conser and Beard- 

 sley,' tables 1 and 4, for blue marlin and white marlin, and 

 Conser,^ table 1, for sailfish/spearfish. 



'Conser, R. J. and G. L. Beardsley. 1979. An assessment of the status 

 of stocks of blue marlin, Makaira nigricans, and white marlin, Tetrapturus 

 albidus, in the Atlantic Ocean. Collect. Vol. Sci, Pap. 8(2):461-489. Int. 

 Comm. Conserv. Atl. Tunas, General Mola 17, l^^adrid, Spain, 



^Conser, R. 1979. Production model analysis of the sailfish and spear- 

 fish stocks in the Atlantic Ocean. Working paper submitted to the Standing 

 Committee on Research and Statistics. Int. Comm. Conserv Atl. Tunas, 

 General Mola 17. Madrid, Spain. November 1979. 



50 



