

BEARDSLEY and CONSER: AN ANALYSIS OF CATCH AND EFFORT DATA 



fishery refer to number of billfishes hooked per 

 hour of trolling. 



Another problem was the determination of 

 which tournaments were suitable for use in the 

 analysis of any given species. Billfish tournaments 

 may be classified as "all billfish" or restricted to a 

 single species or combination of species. In exam- 

 ining CPUE of white marlin in the Bahamas, for 

 example, it is unreasonable to include data from 

 tournaments that are exclusively blue marlin 

 tournaments, because when fishing for blue mar- 

 lin many boats troll large baits, and white marlin, 

 considerably smaller in average size than blue 

 marlin, either refuse to strike at such baits or are 

 unusually difficult to hook. Accordingly, any anal- 

 ysis of a given species used only data from tourna- 

 ments that were specifically directed at that 

 species or that were designated as "all billfish." 



An additional sampling problem, encountered 

 in almost any kind of fisheries survey, is reliability 

 of recall. We believe that, in general, the respon- 

 dents are able to recall accurately their fishing 

 activity during the day; however, it may occasion- 

 ally be difficult for the angler or crew to recall each 

 species of billfish hooked if fishing was good and 

 several billfishes were hooked during the day. 

 When possible, more than one member of the fish- 

 ing party was consulted if there was some doubt 

 expressed in the original interview. Tournament 

 and port samplers have received excellent cooper- 

 ation at every level, and most of the anglers and 

 crew members make every effort to assist our data 

 collection activities. Consequently, we do not be- 

 lieve that errors in recall significantly affect the 

 results of our analyses. 



Sampling Coverage 



Tournament sampling extends along the east 

 and gulf coasts of the United States from Long 

 Island, N.Y., to Port Isabel, Tex. (Figure 2). Addi- 

 tional tournament sampling has been or is being 

 conducted in the Bahamas, Jamaica, Mexico, 

 Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. Tournaments 

 are scheduled throughout the year to coincide with 

 the presence of seasonal concentrations of bill- 

 fishes. In the Bahamas, for example, the tourna- 

 ment season extends from March through July. 

 In southeast Florida, most tournaments are 

 scheduled from November through January. Most 

 of the tournaments sampled are annual events and 

 occur at approximately the same time each year. 

 Tournament scheduling is also arranged so that 



Figure 2. — Areas in the western North Atlantic Ocean, Carib- 

 bean Sea, and Gulf of Mexico where the recreational fishery for 

 billfishes is sampled. Primary species available by area are: 

 A — blue marlin, sailfish; B — blue marlin, white marlin, 

 sailfish; C — sailfish; D — sailfish; E — blue marlin; F — blue 

 marlin; G — blue marlin, white marlin, sailfish; H — blue mar- 

 lin; I — white marlin. 



there are few instances where two or more tour- 

 naments are held at the same time in the same 

 area. 



Seasonal port sampling on a daily basis is con- 

 ducted in the gulf beginning in April and extend- 

 ing through October. The amount of effort mea- 

 sured and the recorded number offish hooked from 

 daily dock sampling from 1971 through 1978 and 

 from tournament sampling, 1972 through 1978, 

 are shown in Table 2. 



DATA ANALYSIS— GULF OF MEXICO 



Methodology 



There are several areas along the Atlantic and 

 Gulf of Mexico coasts of the United States where 

 recreational and commercial fishermen compete 

 for billfishes. This interaction occurs most fre- 

 quently in the northern Gulf of Mexico where in- 

 tensive recreational fishing for billfishes takes 

 place from a number of ports from Florida to Texas 

 during April through October. During the same 



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