Smith and Zeller: Unreported catch and tourist demand on local fisheries in The Bahamas 
125 
2006 (Table 4). Before 1972, data for The Bahamas 
were not collected during the RBS program, and there 
were also fewer tournaments and, therefore, presum- 
ably, lower total tournament catches (Cleare, 2007). 
Hence, we assumed that billfish catches in 1950 were 
half those in 1972, and we linearly interpolated catch- 
es for 1951-1971 (Table 4). In 2007, the quality of the 
tournament catch data that was reported to the RBS 
program was likely to have deteriorated; after 2007 or- 
ganizers stopped reporting catches for The Bahamas to 
the RBS program altogether (Venizelos 10 ). We, there- 
fore, calculated mean annual tournament catch for the 
years 2000-2006 and held this value constant for the 
remainder of the time series, although this calculation 
could have resulted in an underestimate (Table 4). 
It is important to note that other pelagic species, 
such as dolphinfish ( Corypliaena hippurus), wahoo 
( Acanthocybium solandri), and tunas, are also caught 
during tournaments. We did not, however, have access 
to any data or information on the quantities of non- 
billfish species that were retained during tournaments. 
Therefore, our estimate of total retained catch during 
tournaments is limited to billfish species and is highly 
conservative. 
To estimate catches outside of tournaments, we sep- 
arated data into 2 categories: 1) fish caught by visitors 
and 2) fish caught by residents. 
We relied on 3 information sources to reconstruct 
visitor catches: 1) visitor arrival data; 2) the Ministry 
of Tourism visitor activities survey report; and 3) recre- 
ational fishing regulations for visitors to The Bahamas 
(Table 4). We estimated recreational catch of visitors 
by combining data on the number of visitors per year 
with the proportion of visitors that indicated that they 
fished during their stay (values were based on the Min- 
istry of Tourism 1980 visitor activity survey report, as 
presented in Thompson [1989]), along with per capita 
maximum allowable catch for demersal and pelagic 
species, as stipulated in the Fisheries Resources (Juris- 
diction and Conservation) Regulations of 1986 [avail- 
able at website]. We estimated a per capita recreational 
catch rate of 54 kg-person^-visit -1 during 1986-2006. 
This catch rate was determined with the assumption 
that the proportion of visitors that fished during their 
stay remained constant during 1986-2006 (i.e. , 6.2%, 
5.3%, and 20.0% of stopover visitors to New Providence, 
Grand Bahama, and the Family Islands, respectively), 
and this rate represents 80% of the per capita allow- 
able catch for key taxa. This catch rate is conservative 
given that the number of visitors who have fished in 
The Bahamas during their stay has increased in re- 
cent times and given that catches by visitors to The 
Bahamas were often thought to exceed maximum catch 
limits (Cox et ah, 2005). 
Before 1986, there were no maximum catch limits 
for recreational fishing in The Bahamas. Moreover, 
during this period many visitors exploited this lack of 
10 Venizelos, A. 2012. Personal commun. Southeast Fish. 
Sci. Cent., Natl. Mar. Fish. Serv., NOAA, Miami, FL 33149. 
regulation by actually fishing commercially (Thompson, 
1989). We, therefore, assumed (on the basis of the num- 
ber of stopover visitors per year and the visitor activ- 
ity survey report) that, during 1950-1985, visitors who 
fished in The Bahamas during their stay caught and 
retained twice as much as the maximum per capita 
catch limits stipulated for key taxa in the 1986 legis- 
lation (i.e., -136 kg-person _1 -visit _1 ). In 2007, the gov- 
ernment of The Bahamas revised the maximum catch 
limits for key taxa with the aim of reducing total catch. 
The government assumed that this revision would re- 
sult in a 50% reduction in catches from the catch rate 
observed in 1986 (Braynen 6 ). In the absence of better 
data, we accepted this assumption and applied a recre- 
ational per capita catch rate of 34 kg-person _1 -visit _1 , 
estimating that visitors caught 50% of the 1986 catch 
limits for key taxa (Table 4). 
Much less is known about the regular recreational 
fishing habits of residents. Unlike the existence of legis- 
lation for visitors, there is currently no legislation that 
limits the quantity of fish that may be caught by resi- 
dents for recreational purposes. Therefore, we relied on 
3 sources to estimate catch for this component: 1) resi- 
dent population data; 2) expert opinion of staff from the 
Department of Marine Resources; and 3) The Bahamas 
recreational fishing regulations for visitors (Table 4). We 
assumed that, during 1950-1969, 0.5% of residents of 
the Family Islands fished for recreation 6 times a year 
and 1% of residents of New Providence and Grand Baha- 
ma fished recreationally 4 times a year (Braynen 6 ). For 
each trip, it was assumed that residents caught 50% of 
the 1986 maximum per capita catch limits for key taxa 
for visitors (i.e., 34 kg-person _1 -trip _1 ). This assumption 
amounts to an annual recreational catch rate of 204 
kg-fisherman _1 -year _1 and 136 kg-fisherman _1 -year _1 for 
Family Islanders and residents of New Providence and 
Grand Bahama, respectively. 
With increasing economic opportunities in the 1970s, 
recreational fishing is also likely to have increased, par- 
ticularly on New Providence and Grand Bahama. Ac- 
cording to expert opinion from staff of the Department of 
Marine Resources (Braynen 6 ), during 1970-2010, 2% of 
residents of New Providence and Grand Bahama fished 
for recreation 8 times a year. By comparison, although 
the proportion of residents fishing recreationally in the 
Family Islands did not change, the frequency with which 
they fished increased. Hence, it was assumed that dur- 
ing 1970-2010, 0.5% of Family Islanders fished for recre- 
ation once a month. A catch rate of 34 kg-person _1 -trip _1 
translates to annual catches of 272 kg-fisherman _1 -year _1 
for residents of New Providence and Grand Bahama and 
to a rate of 408 kg-fisherman _1 -year _1 for residents of the 
Family Islands. 
To determine the taxonomic composition for recre- 
ational catches from tournaments, we relied on infor- 
mation from the RBS program; for catches outside of 
tournaments, we relied on 3 sources: 1) recreational 
fishing regulations; 2) Thompson (1989); and 3) demer- 
sal catch composition from commercial fisheries (for 
details, see Smith and Zeller 5 ). 
