Blue Marlin (Makaira Nigricans) Blue Shark (Prionace Glauca)
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Black marlin (Makaira indica) Blue marlin (Makaira nigricans) Blue shark (Prionace glauca) Dolphinfish (Mahi mahi) (Coryphaena hippurus) Opah (Lampris guatus) Pomfret (Taracchthys steindachneri) Shortbill spearfish (Tetrapturus angusrostris) Shorin mako shark (Isurus oxyrinchus) Striped marlin (Kajikia audax) Wahoo (Acanthocybium solandri) Hawaii, Western Central and Eastern Central Pacific Deep-set and Shallow-set longline, Troll/Pole July 12, 2016 Alexia Morgan, Consulng Researcher Disclaimer Seafood Watch® strives to have all Seafood Reports reviewed for accuracy and completeness by external sciensts with experse in ecology, fisheries science and aquaculture. Scienfic review, however, does not constute an endorsement of the Seafood Watch® program or its recommendaons on the part of the reviewing sciensts. Seafood Watch® is solely responsible for the conclusions reached in this report. Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 About Seafood Watch 3 Guiding Principles 4 Summary 5 Final Seafood Recommendations 6 Introduction 10 Assessment 13 Criterion 1: Impacts on the species under assessment 13 Criterion 2: Impacts on other species 27 Criterion 3: Management Effectiveness 58 Criterion 4: Impacts on the habitat and ecosystem 68 Acknowledgements 72 References 73 Appendix A: Extra By Catch Species 79 2 About Seafood Watch Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch® program evaluates the ecological sustainability of wild-caught and farmed seafood commonly found in the United States marketplace. Seafood Watch® defines sustainable seafood as originang from sources, whether wild-caught or farmed, which can maintain or increase producon in the long-term without jeopardizing the structure or funcon of affected ecosystems. Seafood Watch® makes its science-based recommendaons available to the public in the form of regional pocket guides that can be downloaded from www.seafoodwatch.org. The program’s goals are to raise awareness of important ocean conservaon issues and empower seafood consumers and businesses to make choices for healthy oceans. Each sustainability recommendaon on the regional pocket guides is supported by a Seafood Report. Each report synthesizes and analyzes the most current ecological, fisheries and ecosystem science on a species, then evaluates this informaon against the program’s conservaon ethic to arrive at a recommendaon of “Best Choices,” “Good Alternaves” or “Avoid.” The detailed evaluaon methodology is available upon request. In producing the Seafood Reports, Seafood Watch® seeks out research published in academic, peer-reviewed journals whenever possible. Other sources of informaon include government technical publicaons, fishery management plans and supporng documents, and other scienfic reviews of ecological sustainability. Seafood Watch® Research Analysts also communicate regularly with ecologists, fisheries and aquaculture sciensts, and members of industry and conservaon organizaons when evaluang fisheries and aquaculture pracces. Capture fisheries and aquaculture pracces are highly dynamic; as the scienfic informaon on each species changes, Seafood Watch®’s sustainability recommendaons and the underlying Seafood Reports will be updated to reflect these changes. Pares interested in capture fisheries, aquaculture pracces and the sustainability of ocean ecosystems are welcome to use Seafood Reports in any way they find useful. For more informaon about Seafood Watch® and Seafood Reports, please contact the Seafood Watch® program at Monterey Bay Aquarium by calling 1-877- 229-9990. 3 Guiding Principles Seafood Watch defines sustainable seafood as originang from sources, whether fished1 or farmed, that can maintain or increase producon in the long-term without jeopardizing the structure or funcon of affected ecosystems. Based on this principle, Seafood Watch had developed four sustainability criteria for evaluang wildcatch fisheries for consumers and businesses. These criteria are: How does fishing affect the species under assessment? How does the fishing affect other, target and non-target species? How effecve is the fishery’s management? How does the fishing affect habitats and the stability of the ecosystem? Each criterion includes: Factors to evaluate and score Guidelines for integrang these factors to produce a numerical score and rang Once a rang has been assigned to each criterion, we develop an overall recommendaon. Criteria rangs and the overall recommendaon are color-coded to correspond to the categories on the Seafood Watch pocket guide and online guide: Best Choice/Green: Are well managed and caught in ways that cause lile harm to habitats or other wildlife. Good Alternave/Yellow: Buy, but be aware there are concerns with how they’re caught. Avoid/Red Take a pass on these for now. These items are overfished or caught in ways that harm other marine life or the environment. 1 “Fish” is used throughout this document to refer to finfish, shellfish and other invertebrates 4 Summary This report focuses on several billfish, fish, and shark species caught by the Hawaiian longline (shallow and deep-set) fisheries. It also assesses mahi mahi and wahoo targeted in the Hawaii troll/pole fishery. Longline fisheries Included in this report are black marlin (Makaira indica), blue marlin (Makaira nigricans), striped marlin (Kajikia audax), shortbill spearfish (Tetrapturus angusrostris), opah (Lampris guatus), wahoo (Acanthocybium solandri), and pomfret (Taracchthys steindachneri) caught in the deep-set fishery; and blue shark (Prionace glauca), shorin mako shark (Isurus oxyrinchus), and dolphinfish (Coryphaena hippurus) caught in both the deep- and shallow-set fisheries. The Hawaii longline fleet uses two modes of fishing: 1) deep-set longlines that fish in deeper water, with floats spread farther apart and with more hooks between floats, that typically target tunas; and 2) shallow longlines that are buoyed to the surface, with fewer hooks between floats, that typically target swordfish (WPRFMC 2014). The fleet primarily operates in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean but also fishes in the Eastern Pacific Ocean. The statuses of black marlin, opah, wahoo, pomfret, dolphinfish, and shorin mako shark are unknown in these regions. Blue marlin populaons in the Pacific (a single stock) are healthy, as is blue shark in the North Pacific. Striped marlin populaons in the Eastern Pacific Ocean are healthy but they are overfished in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean (WCPO). Bycatch of seabirds, marine mammals, sea turtles, and sharks does occur and remains a concern in this fishery. Many highly effecve management measures have been put into place to reduce these interacons. In addion, the shallow-set longline fishery has 100% observer coverage. In state waters, the state of Hawaii manages this fishery; in federal waters, the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council (WPRFMC) manages species caught in this fishery. In addion, the U.S. is a member of two regional fishery management organizaons, the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) and the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC), which manage these species throughout their ranges in the Pacific Ocean. The management of the fishery is considered effecve. Pelagic longline gear has minimal impact to boom habitats because it fishes at or near the surface, and improvements such as gear modificaons are typically not necessary. Troll/Pole Fishery A number of other pelagic species are captured opportuniscally in the Hawaiian mahi mahi and wahoo fisheries. Yellowfin tuna and bigeye tuna make up the majority of incidental captures in the Hawaiian troll fishery. Recent stock assessments suggest that Western and Central Pacific bigeye is undergoing overfishing. Troll fishing has very low discard rates compared to other commercial fishing methods. Although there are no esmates of fisheries discards for the Hawaiian troll fleets, numerous studies have found that discards with these gear types are negligible. Commercial troll fishers must be licensed by the state of Hawaii and submit logbook data to the state Division of Aquac Resources. This catch database is maintained to monitor the status of marine resources in state waters and the EEZ. Beyond this, there are no specific measures in place to monitor the status of mahi mahi and wahoo stocks in the Western and Central Pacific. Mahi mahi and wahoo are considered mid-trophic level predators; however, keystone species including sharks are very occasionally captured. These species do not compose a significant proporon of the catch. Furthermore, sharks are not generally retained; troll gear is highly selecve, with fishers able to release undesirable species quickly, thus minimizing capture mortality. But there are no efforts underway to assess the impacts of these gears on the Hawaiian pelagic ecosystems.5 Final Seafood Recommendaons CRITERION CRITERION 2: 1: IMPACTS IMPACTS ON CRITERION 3: CRITERION 4: ON THE OTHER MANAGEMENT HABITAT AND OVERALL SPECIES/FISHERY SPECIES SPECIES EFFECTIVENESS ECOSYSTEM RECOMMENDATION Blue shark Green (3.831) Red (1.414) Green (3.873) Green (3.873) Good Alternave Hawaii Western (3.002) Central Pacific, Longline, deep-set Shorin mako Red (1.414) Red (1.414) Green (3.873) Green (3.873) Avoid (2.340) shark Hawaii Western Central Pacific, Longline, deep-set Shorin mako Red (1.414) Yellow (2.124) Green (3.873) Green (3.464) Good Alternave shark (2.519) Hawaii Western Central Pacific, Longline, shallow- set Blue shark Green (3.831) Red (1.343) Green (3.873) Green (3.464) Good Alternave Hawaii Western (2.882) Central Pacific, Longline, shallow- set Opah Yellow