BEARDSLEY and CONSER: AN ANALYSIS OF CATCH AND EFFORT DATA 



70 



60 



o 

 o 



He 



S 30 



> 



P 20 



u 

 u 



Ik 

 u 



Id 



10 - 







NORTH ATLANTIC 

 WHITE MARLIN 



-1.5 



2.0 



1.0 



in 



* 

 o 

 o 

 z 



o 

 o 

 o 



K 

 lU 



a. 



X 



bJ 



0.5 £ 



u 



56 58 60 



62 SA 66 68 

 YEAR 



— I 1 1 1 IQ 



70 72 74 76 78 



60 r 



ae 

 o 

 o 



50  



40  



P 30 



ui 



> 



5 20 I- 

 bl 



10 







NORTH ATLANTIC 

 ILUE MARLIN 



EFFORT 

 CPUE 



3 <" 



o 

 o 



o 

 o 

 o 



bt 



a. 



1 0. 



u 



56 58 60 62 64 



66 68 

 YEAR 



70 72 74 76 78 



3.0 



2.5 



80 r 



70 



SOUTH ATLANTIC 

 ABLUE MARLIN 



10 - 



76 78 



Figure l. — Effective effort in millions of hooks and catch per unit effort (CPUE) in numbers offish caught per 1,000 hooks for blue 

 marlin and white marlin in the North and South Atlantic Oceans, 1956-77. Data on the Japanese longline fishery are reported by the 

 Fisheries Agency of Japan, Annual report of effort and catch statistics by area on Japanese tuna longline fisheries, 1962-77. 



THE SAMPLING PROGRAM 



Prior to 1970 almost no data are available from 

 the U.S. recreational fishery for billfishes on fish- 

 ing effort, although a considerable amount of in- 

 formation exists on catch. Because of the large 

 number of big-game fishing tournaments taking 

 place throughout much of the range of the bill- 

 fishes, and the fairly continuous and often inten- 

 sive fishing effort at various fishing centers along 



the U.S. coast, it seemed feasible that catch and 

 effort from the recreational fishery could be used 

 to detect changes in relative abundance from year 

 to year as well as short-term changes in availabil- 

 ity. As a consequence, the Oceanic Game Fish In- 

 vestigations Program was organized at the South- 

 east Fisheries Center Miami Laboratory in 1972 to 

 develop an effective system for the collection of 

 billfish catch and effort data in the Gulf of Mexico, 

 Caribbean Sea, and western North Atlantic 



51 



