Black marlin (Makaira indica) Blue marlin (Makaira nigricans) Blue shark (Prionace glauca) Opah (Lampris guatus) Shorin mako shark (Isurus oxyrinchus) Striped marlin (Kaijkia audax) Western Central Pacific, North Pacific, South Pacific Pelagic longline 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 5 Introduction 8 Assessment 10 Criterion 1: Impacts on the species under assessment 10 Criterion 2: Impacts on other species 22 Criterion 3: Management Effectiveness 45 Criterion 4: Impacts on the habitat and ecosystem 55 Acknowledgements 58 References 59 Appendix A: Extra By Catch Species 69 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 Black marlin (Makaira indica), blue marlin (Makaira nigricans), striped marlin (Kaijkia audax), blue shark (Prionace glauca), shorin mako shark (Isurus oxyrinchus), and opah (Lampris guatus) are caught by a variety of pelagic longline fisheries operang in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean (WCPO), including the North and South Pacific regions. There are several broadly defined categories of longline fisheries covered in this report. These fisheries may not all directly target the species included in this report but may retain them upon capture. These fisheries include: 1. South Pacific albacore fishery, which comprises domesc vessels from Pacific Island countries that operate in subtropical waters targeng albacore, and distant water vessels from Chinese-Taipei, China, and Vanuatu that fish south of 20° S. 2. South Pacific distant water swordfish fishery, which mostly comprises vessels from Spain. 3. Tropical offshore and distant water tuna fisheries; the offshore fishery includes vessels from Chinese-Taipei and China that are based in the Pacific Island countries, and the distant water fleet comprises vessels from Japan, Korean, Chinese-Taipei, China, and Vanuatu. 4. North Pacific distant water albacore and swordfish fisheries, made up of vessels from Japan, Chinese-Taipei, and Vanuatu. In addion to these fisheries, there are a number of domesc longline fisheries operang in the sub-tropical and temperate areas of the WCPO {SPC 2014}. We have included in this report the North and South Pacific pelagic longline fisheries along with more tropical (WCPO in this report) pelagic longline fisheries. Populaons of striped marlin in the North Pacific Ocean are overfished and undergoing overfishing, but are healthy in the Southwest Pacific region. Blue marlin populaons are healthy throughout their range in the Pacific Ocean. Blue shark populaons in the North Pacific are healthy but their status in the South Pacific is unknown. The statuses of striped and black marlin, opah, and shorin mako shark are unknown. These fisheries interact with a number of bycatch species including other sharks, sea turtles, and seabirds. These species are typically highly suscepble to fishing pressure, and many have been negavely affected by this fishing pressure and are listed as Endangered or Near Threatened by the Internaonal Union for Conservaon of Nature (IUCN). The Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) manages tuna and tuna-like species, including billfish and sharks, in the WCPO. There are few management measures in place for target species included in this report, and no formally adopted reference points or harvest control rules are currently in place. Management of bycatch species is also of concern because best-pracce bycatch migaon techniques are not always required. Pelagic longline gears typically have lile to no contact with boom habitats but do interact with ecologically important species, which could cause negave effects to the ecosystem. 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 marlin Green (3.831) Red (1.000) Red (1.000) Green (3.873) Avoid (1.962) Western Central Pacific, Pelagic longline Black marlin Yellow (2.644) Red (1.000) Red (1.000) Green (3.873) Avoid (1.788) Western Central Pacific, Pelagic longline 5 Striped marlin Red (1.414) Red (1.000) Red (1.000) Green (3.873) Avoid (1.529) Western Central Pacific, Pelagic longline Shorin mako Red (1.414) Red (1.000) Red (1.000) Green (3.873) Avoid (1.529) shark Western Central Pacific, Pelagic longline Opah Yellow (2.644) Red (1.000) Red (1.000) Green (3.873) Avoid (1.788) South Pacific, Pelagic longline Opah Yellow (2.644) Crical (0.000) Red (1.000) Green (3.873) Avoid (0.000) North Pacific, Pelagic longline Blue marlin Green (3.831) Crical (0.000) Red (1.000) Green (3.873) Avoid (0.000) North Pacific, Pelagic longline Black marlin Yellow (2.644) Red (1.000) Red (1.000) Green (3.873) Avoid (1.788) South Pacific, Pelagic longline Blue marlin Green (3.831) Red (1.000) Red (1.000) Green (3.873) Avoid (1.962) South Pacific, Pelagic longline Opah Yellow (2.644) Red (1.000) Red (1.000) Green (3.873) Avoid (1.788) Western Central Pacific, Pelagic longline Shorin mako Red (1.414) Crical (0.000) Red (1.000) Green (3.873) Avoid (0.000) shark North Pacific, Pelagic longline Shorin mako Red (1.414) Red (1.000) Red (1.000) Green (3.873) Avoid (1.529) shark South Pacific, Pelagic longline Striped marlin Red (1.414) Crical (0.000) Red (1.000) Green (3.873) Avoid (0.000) North Pacific, Pelagic longline Black marlin Yellow (2.644) Crical (0.000) Red (1.000) Green (3.873) Avoid (0.000) North Pacific, Pelagic longline Striped marlin Green (3.318) Red (1.000) Red (1.000) Green (3.873) Avoid (1.893) South Pacific, Pelagic longline Blue Green (3.831) Red (1.000) Red (1.000) Green (3.873) Avoid (1.962) shark:Northern stock 6 Western Central Pacific, Pelagic longline Blue Red (1.414) Red (1.000) Red (1.000) Green (3.873) Avoid (1.529) shark:Southern stock Western Central Pacific, Pelagic longline Summary Large pelagic species caught in the Western and Central Pacific longline fishery (blue marlin, black marlin, striped marlin, shorin mako shark, and opah) have an overall recommendaon of “Avoid.” Scoring Guide Scores range from zero to five where zero indicates very poor performance and five indicates the fishing operaons have no significant impact.