Buencuerpo et al.: Pelagic sharks associated with the swordfish fishery 
679 
280 and 275 cm TL for males, respectively, in longline 
and gillnet landings. Minimum size was greater in 
the gillnet fishery (185 cm TL for males, 165 cm TL 
for females) than in the longline fishery ( 105 cm TL 
for males, 115 cm TL for females). The mean size 
from longline landings was slightly greater for fe- 
males ( 170 cm TL) than for males (150 cm TL). The 
mean size from the gillnet fishery was greater than 
from the longline fishery, with no difference between 
sexes ( 220 cm TL). Although biometrical information 
can be found in Table 8, the small sample size did 
not permit analyses by sex. 
Discussion 
The total proportion of sharks in relation to sword- 
fish observed in the present study was similar to that 
found by Gouveia (1992) for an adjacent area, but 
the species composition was different (P. glauca, I. 
oxyrinchus, Dasyatis violacea, Alopias spp., Mustelus 
mustelus, Sphyrna spp., T. obesus, and Alepisaurus 
ferox). Sharks comprised a greater proportion of land- 
ings in the study area than in other Atlantic longline 
fishing grounds, i.e. off the Florida coast (Berkeley 
and Campos, 1988), the Caribbean coast (Tobias, 
1991), and the northwestern coast of Cuba (Guitart, 
1975). “Other bony fish” (the other category of fish) 
taken by longlines had a similar proportion to that 
found in data from other Mediterranean longline fish- 
eries (Rey and Alot, 1984). The abundance of the most 
common shark species, blue and shortfin mako 
sharks, also agrees with results presented for the 
same area by Garces and Rey (1984). 
Shortfin mako shark 
This species was very common in the study area. This 
finding agrees with reports by Munoz-Chapuli ( 1985), 
although catch rates obtained were slightly lower 
than estimates of Moreno and Moron (1992b) from 
the same area. Proportions of shortfin mako sharks, 
