ISSN 2070-7010 FAO 643 FISHERIES AND AQUACULTURE TECHNICAL PAPER 643 The Caribbean Billfish Management and Conservation Plan The Caribbean Billfish Management and Conservation Plan This Caribbean Billfish Management and Conservation Plan has been prepared to reverse the trend of declining stocks of billfish species within the Western Central Atlantic Ocean and its adjacent seas, and to address unsustainable fishing practices. The Members of the Western Central Atlantic Fishery Commission (WECAFC), Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM), Central America Organization for Fishery and Aquaculture (OSPESCA) and the Caribbean Fisheries Management Council (CFMC) are concerned about the billfish stocks in the region. Therefore, they developed together, through the Recreational Fisheries Working Group, and in close collaboration with all key stakeholders in the Consortium on Billfish Management and Conservation (CBMC) this plan in the period 2015–2018. The plan recognizes the mandate of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) over the billfish stocks, and supports the implementation of the ICCAT recommendations in the region. The objective of this Plan is to outline and guide the implementation of a suite of billfish management measures over a five-year period at regional and sub-regional scales to help secure the potential future benefits that can accrue from billfish stocks in the Caribbean. The overarching goal is to improve the management and conservation of billfish stocks. ISBN 978-92-5-131302-2 ISSN 2070-7010 978 9251 313022 FAO CA3366EN/1/02.19 Cover photograph: Courtesy of Captain Stuart Simpson (2016) FAO FISHERIES AND The Caribbean Billfish AQUACULTURE TECHNICAL Management and PAPER Conservation Plan 643 by Roy Bealey Regional Project Coordinator of the Caribbean Billfish Project Bridgetown, Barbados Manuel Pérez Moreno International Fisheries Consultant Managua, Nicaragua and Raymon van Anrooy Fishery Industry Officer Fishing Operations and Technology Branch FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Department Rome, Italy FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS Rome, 2019 Required citation Bealey, R., Pérez Moreno, M., and Van Anrooy, R. 2019. The Caribbean Billfish Management and Conservation Plan. FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Technical Paper. No. 643. Rome, FAO. 106 pp. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO. 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FAO information products are available on the FAO website (www.fao.org/publications) and can be purchased through [email protected]. Requests for commercial use should be submitted via: www.fao.org/contact- us/licence-request. Queries regarding rights and licensing should be submitted to: [email protected]. iii Preparation of this document The Caribbean Billfish Management and Conservation Plan was prepared by Roy Bealey and Manuel Perez Moreno, Regional Project Coordinators of the Caribbean Billfish Project of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in the years 2015–2018, and Raymon van Anrooy, Secretary of the Western Central Atlantic Fishery Commission (WECAFC) in the period 2011–2017, with assistance of many regional fisheries experts. The preparation of this Plan started in 2015, through several desk and field studies conducted by the Caribbean Billfish Project which was financed by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), implemented by the World Bank, and executed by FAO/WECAFC. These studies provided background information on the status of billfish resources, potential rights based fishery management approaches, an estimation of the value of billfish species to artisanal, commercial and recreational fisheries and a diagnosis of Caribbean national legal and institutional fisheries frameworks. A primary outline of the Table of Contents and a draft proposal of regional management measures for inclusion within this Management Plan were presented at the 2nd Regional Workshop on Billfish Management and Conservation that took place in November 2015 in the Republic of Panama. A first draft was elaborated by March 2016, following a consultation process with the assistance of the WECAFC/OSPESCA/CRFM/CFMC Working Group on Recreational Fisheries. A second draft was reviewed and technically endorsed during the 3rd Regional Workshop on Billfish Management and Conservation held in Barbados in April 2017. Comments obtained at the 3rd Regional Workshop, as well as further comments from specialists at the World Recreational Fisheries Conference in Canada and from members of the Global Ocean Think Tank (GLOTT) were all incorporated to produce this Caribbean Billfish Management and Conservation Plan. The Plan was reviewed and scientifically endorsed by the 8th Session of the WECAFC Scientific Advisory Group (SAG) held in Merida, Mexico in November 2017. The Plan was technically edited by Sjef van Eijs, international fisheries consultant, in the second semester of 2018 and was reviewed for layout and formatted by Marianne Guyonnet and Chorouk Benkabbour at FAO. The Plan was distributed to the WECAFC, CRFM and OSPESCA member governments in late 2018 and early 2019. iv Abstract This Caribbean Billfish Management and Conservation Plan has been prepared to reverse the trend of declining stocks of billfish species within the Western Central Atlantic Ocean and its adjacent seas, and to address unsustainable fishing practices. The Members of the Western Central Atlantic Fishery Commission (WECAFC), Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM), Central America Organization for Fishery and Aquaculture (OSPESCA) and the Caribbean Fisheries Management Council (CFMC) are concerned about the billfish stocks that are harvested in the region. Therefore, they developed together, through the Recreational Fisheries Working Group, and in close collaboration with all key stakeholders in the Consortium on Billfish Management and Conservation (CBMC) this plan in the period 2015–2018. The plan recognizes the mandate of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) over the billfish stocks, and supports the implementation of the ICCAT recommendations in the region. The objective of this Plan is to outline and guide the implementation of a suite of billfish management measures over a five-year period at regional and sub-regional scales to help secure the potential future benefits that can accrue from billfish stocks in the Caribbean. The overarching goal is to improve the management and conservation of billfish stocks. Specific objectives of the plan include: 1. Improve billfish catch, effort, biological and socio-economic data collection and reporting programs from all fisheries that target these shared stocks; 2. Reduce bycatch, discards and overall fishing mortality of billfishes in order to achieve sustainable stock levels throughout the region; 3. Increase coordination