Buencuerpo et a!.: Pelagic sharks associated with the swordfish fishery 
675 
males and females (100 cm FL). The incompleteness of 
these data did not allow any temporal analyses. 
Size distribution by sector varied significantly 
( 3 87.1 3 0 ; df=5, 8214; PcO.OOl). Total mean size 
was greatest in sector 1, lowest in sector 5. Sector 3 
had minimum-size females and males. The largest 
size females were found in sector 1; the largest males, 
in sector 4 (Fig. 7, B and C). 
Table 8 shows biometrical comparisons by sex. 
Bigeye thresher shark 
Longline catch rates for bigeye thresher sharks were 
very low. However, this species was caught in all sec- 
tors, sector 2 having the highest rate (Table 5). There 
was a slight increase in the longline catch rate, from 
