684 
Fishery Bulletin 96(4), 1 998 
Shortfin mako may be the shark species most affected 
by current fishing procedure despite the fact that the 
most common species caught is blue shark. As Casey 
and Kohler (1992) suggested with reference to the 
shortfin mako shark population in western north 
Atlantic, this species has a continuous distribution 
throughout the central and northeastern Atlantic 
Ocean, preferentially in the high production area of 
Saharian Bank (sector 3). 
As it has been shown in this study, sharks greatly 
affect and are greatly affected by swordfish fishing. 
Therefore, the management of this fishing industry 
should be reoriented to multispecies models in which 
the effect of bycatch and the economic implications 
of bycatch should be included in the management 
models for a proper approach to the present situa- 
tion in the industry. 
Acknowledgments 
We are indebted to Enrique Majuelos who has been 
indispensable in collecting data used in this paper 
and to Emilio Garcia, Florencio Gonzalez, Jesus 
Gutierrez, and Pedro Giiemes for collaboration in 
sampling. We would also like to thank Julio Alonso 
for his help in the statistical analyses. Finally, we 
want to acknowledge Manuel Alcantara for collabo- 
ration with the computer analyses and Jaime Mejuto 
and J. I. Castro for valuable review comments. 
Beverly Rising helped with manuscript translation. 
This work has been financed through project 2481 
(1990) of the Universidad Complutense of Madrid. 
Literature cited 
Amorin, A., C. Arfelli, A. Garces, and J. C. Rey. 
1979. Estudio comparative sobre la biologia y pesca del pez 
espada, Xiphias gladius L. (1758) obtenidos por las flotas 
espanolas y brasilena. Col. Vol. Sci. Pap. ICCAT 8(2):496- 
503. 
Anonymous. 
1986. Anuario de pesca Maritima 1985. Secretaria Gen- 
eral Tecnica. Ministerio de Agrieultura, Pesca y Alimen- 
tacion, Madrid, 501 p. 
Bass, A. J., J. D. D’Aubrey, and N. Kistnasamy. 
1975. Sharks of the east coast of southern Africa. IV. The 
families Odontaspididae, Scapanorhynchidae, Isuridae, 
Cetorhinidae, Alopiidae, Orectolobidae and Rhiniodon- 
tidae. Inv. Rep. Oceanogr. Res. Inst., Durban 39:1-102. 
Belloc, G. 
1934. Catalogue illustre des poissons comestibles de la cote 
occidentale d’Afrique (du Cap Spartel au Cap Vert). 
Premiere partie, Poissons cartilagineux. Rep. Trav. Off. 
(Scient. Tech.) Pech. Marit. 7(2):117— 195. 
Berkeley, S. A., and W. L. Campos. 
1988. Relative abundance and fishery potential of pelagic 
sharks along Florida’s East Coast. Mar. Fish. Rev. 
50( 1):9 — 16. 
Bigelow, H., and W. C. Schroeder. 
1948. Fishes of the western north Atlantic. Pt. 1: sharks. 
Mem. Sears Found. Mar. Res. 1:59-576. 
Blasco, M., and R. Munoz-Chapuli. 
1981. Presencia de Alopias superciliosus en las costas 
ibericas y datos sobre su morfologia. Arq. Mus. Bocage, 
ser. B. 1(6):53— 61. 
Bravo, J. 
1974. Contribucibn al conocimiento de los Peces Con- 
droictios del Archipielago Canario. Bol. Inst. Espa. 
Oceanogr. 201:1-77. 
Bravo, J., and E. Santaella. 
1973. Observaciones biologico pesqueras en el banco pes- 
quero sahariano. Bol. Inst. Espa. Oceanogr. 171:1-79. 
Burke, T. W., and T. C. Francis. 
1990. Options for the management of tuna fisheries in the 
Indian Ocean. FAO Fish. Tech. Pap. 135:1-74. 
Cailliet, G. M., and D. W. Bedford. 
1983. The biology of three pelagic sharks from California 
waters, and their emerging fisheries: a review. CalcCOFI 
Rep. 24:57-69. 
Cailliet, G. M., L. K. Martin, J. T. Harvey, D. Kusher, and 
B. A. Welden. 
1983. Preliminary studies on the age and growth of blue, 
Prionace glauca, common thresher, Alopias vulpinus, and 
shortfin mako, Isurus oxyrinchus, sharks from California 
waters. In E. Prince and L. M. Pulos, (eds.). Proceedings 
of the international workshop on age determination of oce- 
anic pelagic fishes: tunas, billfishes, and sharks, p. 179- 
188. U.S. Dep. Commer. NOAA Tech. Rep. NMFS 8. 
Casey, J. G., and J. J. Hoey. 
1985. Estimated catches of large sharks by U.S. recreational 
fishermen in the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico. U.S. Dep. 
Commerce, NOAA Tech. Rep. 31:15-19. 
Casey, J. G., and N. E. Kohler. 
1992. Tagging studies on the shortfin mako shark (Isurus 
oxyrinchus ) in the western north Atlantic. Aust. J. Mar. 
Freshwater Res. 43:45-60. 
Compagno, L. J. V. 
1984. FAO species catalogue. Vol. 4: Sharks of the world: 
an annotated and illustrated catalogue of sharks species 
known to date. Part 2: Carcharhiniformes. FAO Fish. 
Synop. 125, p. 251-655. 
De Metrio, G., G. Petrosino, C. Montanaro, A. Matarrese, 
M. Lenti, and E. Cecere. 
1984. Survey on summer-autumn population of Prionace 
glauca L. Pisces, Chondrichthyes) in the Gulf of Taranto 
(Italy) during the four year period 1978-1981 and its inci- 
dence on sword fish (Xiphias gladius L.) and albacore 
(Thunnus alalunga (Bonn)) fishing. Oebalia 10 N.S.:105- 
116. 
Du Buit, M. H. 
1989. L’exploitation des Selaciens en France. Oceanis 
15(3):333-344. 
Garces, A. G., and J. C. Rey. 
1983. Analisis de la pesqueria espanola de pez espada, 
Xiphias gladius, entre los anos 1973 y 1981. Col. Vol. Sci. 
Pap. ICCAT 18:622-628. 
1984. La pesqueria espanola del pez espada (Xiphias 
gladius ) 1973-1982. Col. Vol. Sci. Pap. ICCAT 20:419- 
427. 
Garcia, C. 
1970. La pesca en Canarias y en el banco sahariano. Publ. 
Cons. Eco. Soc. Sind. Inter. Canarias. Tenerife, 168 p. 
