FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 79, NO. 1 



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PALM BEACH* 

 STUART 



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1973-74 ■74-75 '75-76 76-77 77-7g 78-79 



FLORIDA KEYS* 



— I 



1971 



72 



— r- 



'73 



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'74 



75 



'76 



— I 

 '78 



YEAR 



Figure 14. — CPUE, in number offish hooked per hour of fishing, 

 from the recreational fishery for sailfish, 1971-78. The panel 

 labeled Palm Beach-Stuart is an area along the southeast 

 Florida coast about 40 nautical miles long and fishing is concen- 

 trated at the end of one year and the beginning of the next. 



sharp decline in the northern gulf in 1978 when 

 CPUE fell to the lowest level of the 8-yr time 

 series. 



By inspection of Figure 14, it can be seen that 

 there is an inverse relationship between CPUE in 

 the Florida Keys and the Palm Beach-Stuart area 

 except for the 1978 Keys point and the 1978-79 

 Palm Beach-Stuart point. It is also interesting to 

 note that if we shift the CPUE data from the 

 Florida Keys forward by 1 yr, we obtain a strong 

 positive correlation, significant at the 99% level, 

 between the two areas. Our sampling in the Keys 

 occurred in November and early December and 

 much of the catch consists of very small sailfish, 

 often averaging only 4-7 kg. Our sampling in the 

 Palm Beach-Stuart area was in late December and 

 January and the average size of sailfish in this 

 area during those months was about 14-18 kg. 

 Jolley (1977) concluded as a result of his studies of 

 growth by analysis of dorsal spines that age-2 

 sailfish averaged about 7 kg and age- 3 sailfish 

 about 14 kg. This approximates the difference in 

 size of sailfish caught at the two areas. We believe 

 that tournament sampling in the Keys is provid- 

 ing a measure of the strength of the incoming year 

 class (age 2) and that this strength is reflected in 

 CPUE from the Palm Beach-Stuart area (mostly 

 age-3 fish) some 12-14 mo later. 



ing areas for sailfish in the continental United 

 States. Although fishing effort for sailfish is fairly 

 intensive all year long along the southeast Florida 

 coast, we divided the area into two specific loca- 

 tions: the Florida Keys and the Palm Beach-Stuart 

 area. Our sampling at these two areas was concen- 

 trated into two separate time periods and we be- 

 lieve that different groups of fish are exploited in 

 each area. 



CPUE fluctuates widely in all three areas. One 

 might expect this from a relatively short-lived 

 species where the effect of year-class strength on 

 the fishery is pronounced. In addition, the sailfish 

 is more coastal in its habitat than the marlins and 

 availability may be more strongly influenced by 

 environmental conditions (Jolley 1979). CPUE fell 

 sharply in the gulf in 1977 and again in 1978. This 

 overall decline was strongly influenced by a large 

 decline off the coast of Texas where fishing for 

 sailfish is usually better than in any other area of 

 the gulf (Figure 15). CPUE in 1977 and 1978 was 

 the lowest since we began sampling and 8(F/c below 

 the average of the previous 3 yr. There was also a 



DISCUSSION 



Catch and effort statistics for white marlin and 

 sailfish from the northern Gulf of Mexico appear to 

 be reliable. With the exception of cases where 

 sample size was inadequate, the data from three 

 nearly independent sources, i.e., dock, tourna- 

 ment, and longline fishing, were consistent over 

 an 8-yr period. It seems likely that if significant 

 biases were present in the data sources, they 

 would have behaved differently over the time 

 series and inconsistencies would have resulted. 

 This consistency over time provides greater confi- 

 dence in each of the individual data sources and 

 enables the pooling of data to form reliable indices 

 of abundance. Although only tournament data are 

 available from areas outside the gulf, a compari- 

 son of these data for white marlin indicates a con- 

 sistency in trends among areas and suggests that 

 catch and effort statistics are providing a reliable 

 means of indexing abundance. We also believe that 

 they provide some evidence that a single stock of 

 white marlin exists throughout the sampling 

 area. 



66 



