se`' rAo ribheries Technical Paper No. 211 FIRM T211 A REVIEW OF TEE MARINE RESOURCES OF THE WESTERN CENTRAL ATLANTIC FISHERIES COMMISSION (WECAFC) REGION by David K. Stevenson Department of Marine Resources Marine Resources Laboratory West Boothbay Harbor, Maine 04575, U.S.A. FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS Rome 1981 The designations employed and the presentation of material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization oftheUnitedNationsconcerningthelegal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. M43 ISBN 92-5-101153-2 Allrights reserved. No partofthispublicationmay be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted In any form or by any means, electronic,mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, withouttheprior permission of the copyright owner.Applications for such permission, with a statement of the purpose and extent of the reproduction, should be addressed to the Director, Publications Division, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Via delle Terme di Caracalla, 00100 Rome, Italy. FAO 1981 PREPARATION OF THIS REPORT This review of the fishery resources of the Western Central Atlantic Ocean was prepared by Dr. David K. Stevenson of the International Center for Marine Resource Development at the University of Rhode Island *, during the winter and spring of 1979-1980 under contract to FAO, as an updated report on the state of exploitation and the harvest potential of the fishery resources in the region. This is a contribution to the Programme of FAO's Division of Fishery Resources and Environment on world appraisal of fish resources, which was initiated with the publication of the book "The Fish Resources of the Ocean" in 1971. Since that first attempt, a considerable amount of additional information has been gained and, as a consequence, a revision of the initial study has become necessary.This updating has been undertaken by major fishing areas of the world, each of them being assigned to a fishery biologist or a small group of scientists with special experience with the resources in the region under review. This report incorporates published and unpublished material which has become available during the last ten years and represents the first comprehensive review of the fishery resources in the recently expanded WECAFC area, i.e. FAO statistical area 31, plus the north and northeast coasts of Brazil to 10-5 latitude.The author has relied heavily on earlier reviews by E.F. Klima and J.P. Wise published by WECAFC in 1976. Important sources of new information were provided by recent WECAF Stock Assessment Working Parties, a number of U.S. Federal Fishery Management Plans for the southeast U.S. and the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, recent assessments of the fishery resources on the north coast of Brazil (SUDEPE), a fishery development planning document for the Venezuelan fisheries(a MAC-UNDP project) and a series of reports prepared for the WECAF project in Panama. The review has been limited to the crustacean, molluscan and finfish resources of the region and excludes the highly migratory tuna and billfish resources, marine mammals, reptiles and algae. Some potentially significant but unfished finfish resources (e.g. the myctophids) are also excluded. Emphasis has been placed on recent catch statistics, stock assessments and estimates öf resource potential with brief descriptions of the fisheries themselves and the relevant biological features of the exploited populations. * Pre ent address: Zoology Department, University of Maine, Orono, Maine 04469, U.S.A. Distribution For bibliographic purposes this document should be cited as follows: FAO Fisheries Department Stevenson, D.K., A review of the marine resour- ACMRR 1981 ces of the Western Central Atlantic Selector SM Fisheries Commission (WECAFC) region. FAO Fish.Tech.Pap., (211): 132 p. (v) ABSTRACT The marine resources of the Western Central Atlantic Ocean fall under the area of jurisdiction of the WECAF Commission: the international body concerned with problems of fisheries management for the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico and their Atlantic approaches from Cape Hatteras (35°N Latitude) to Recife, Brazil (10°S Latitude) enclosing a total shelf area of 1.9 million km2 inside 200 m, and including highly diverse environments and fisheries from wide, productive estuarine shelves supporting industrial trawl fisheries along the North and South margins, to narrow shelves, particularly of the many island archipelagos dominated by coral reefs whose productivity is limited to supporting a diversity of small artisanal fisheries. Total landings from the whole area reached 2 million tons in 1978 made up of a large variety of species but dominated by the menhaden fisheries of the northern region. The report considers the main resources of the region, their productivity, population dynamics and estimates of potential yield under several headings, namely, sharks, reef fish, coastal pelagics, menhaden, spiny lobster, crabs and molluscs. A description of the principal fisheries by region is followed by a summary of available information on the status of the stocks, including assessments already in the literature, and new assessments reported here for the first time. (vi) ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The author would like to thank the following individuals for their help during the preparation of this report: Albert Jones, Southeast Fisheries Center, NMFS, Miami, who provided me with abundant material including copies of current Federal Fishery Management Plans for the southeast U.S. and the Gulf of Mexico, and who made valuable comments concerning regional shrimp assessments. Luis Villegas, WECAF project, Panama, who provided published and unpublished material from the Panama WECAF office. John W. Reintjes, Bob Chapoton and Gene Huntsman of the NMFS Laboratory in Beaufort, North Carolina, who sent me information on pelagic and reef fish resources, including up-to-date catch and effort data for the Atlantic and Gulf menhaden stocks. Ernesto Ramirez and David Mendizabal of the National Fisheries Institute in 'Mexico City, who made relevant material and catch statistics available to me. Charles Berens of the South Carolina Wildlife and Marine Resources Department, who sent me information on trawl surveys in the southeast U.S. Charles Lyles of the Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission, who responded to my request for papers presented at the Red Drum and Sea Trout Colloquium. Jose Soloncy Cordeiro de Moura, Co-Director of the Fisheries and Fishery Development Programme in Brazil, who provided me with up-to-date reports of assessments of exploited stocks on the north and northeast coasts of Brazil. Eh Dennis Weidner of theDivision of International Fisheries Analysis, NMFS, Washington, D.C., who lent me his copy of planning documents for the fisheries of Venezuela and a report on the lobster fishery of northern Brazil. 9. Alex Dragovish,SoutheastFisheriesCenter, NMFS, Miami, who provided information on the shrimp fisheries of northern Brazil. I would also like to express my gratitude to Bill Clark, former FAO Fishery Resources Officer, who was instrumental in contracting me to do this job and who made the necessary contacts for my trip to Panama, Mexicd and Miami and to John Gulland, FAO, Chief of Marine Resources Service, and John Caddy, FAO Senior Fishery Resources Officer, for their editorial comments and continued support during the preparation and publication of this report. Finally, I would like to thank Penny WasMuth of the Southeast Fisheries Center, Miami, for sending me additonal information from the Federal Fishery Management Plans;Sue. Proulx of the Graduate School of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island, for doing a large share of the draft typing of the report;Lianne Armstrong for her excellent drafting job;Nicole Wautiez of the FAO LiaisonOfficeinWashington, D.C.for herefficienthandlingof communications and travel arrangements; Gloria A. Soave of the FAO Fisheries Department in Rome for the checking and format of the bibliographic references;and Jessica Kwang, FAO Fisheries Department in Rome, for her patience In typing and coordinating the entire report. C TENTS Pag3 CHAPTER 1:INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER 2: GROUNDFISH 9 Southeast U.S. 9 Gulf of Mexico (U.S. coast) 10 Mexico lo Central and South America (Belize to Venezuela) 10 Guianas-Brazil 1 0 A 1,ments 11 Southeastern U.S. 11 U.S. Gulf of Mexico 12 Campeche Bank 13 Central America 13 Northern South America (Colombia and Venezuela) 14 Guianas-Brazil 14 All areas 15 CHAPTER 3: SHARKS 27 A 1+:menta 27 CHAPTER 4:REEF FISH 31 United States 31 Mexico 32 Central America 32 Brazil 33 Assessments 33 Caribbean islands and continental shelves 33 Southeastern U.S. 34 Campeche Bank 34 U.S. Gulf of Mexico 35 Brazil 36 PTE 5:COASTAL PR AGICS 42 _ssrrients 44 CF.APTER 6: DEN 51 ssments 51 Atlantic menhaden 51 Gulf menhaden 53 Page CHAPTER 7: SHRIMP 63 Assessments 63 Southeastern U.S. 64 U.S. Gulf of Mexico 65 Mexico 67 Tampico Fishery (Area 3.1) 67 Campeche Fishery (Area 3.2) 68 Contoy Fishery (Area 3.3) 68 Nicaragua (Area 7.3) 68 Colombia 69 Venezuela 69 Lake Maracaibo 69 Gulf of Venezuela 69 Central and Eastern Venezuela 70 Atlantic Coast of Venezuela 70 Guianas/Brazil 70 CHAPTER 0: SPINY LOBSTER 95 Assessments 95 Brazil 95 Jamaica 96 United States 96 Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands 97 Venezuela 97 CHAPTER 9: CRABS 110 A ments 110 CHAPTER 10: MOLLUSCS 114 Bivalves 114 Gastropods 115 Cephalopods 115 CHAPTER 11: SUMMARY 117 Groundfish 117 Sharks 118 Reef fish 118 Coastal pelagics 119 Menhaden 119 Shrimp 120 Spiny lobster 121 Crabs 122 Molluscs 122 . ,e h, 431-tetet taerHetiasion Hat,Lerw:, :I Ca; r, ; L; t »alarms, ttetts. Le Juar, t (10us latitude) includee eepeeeie-aaely 15 r-nillh-s tarn2,1:1000 ! coastline and 6,400 krn of ielaeit iviajor aubdivisions ess southeast.