California Yellowtail Seriola lalandi (Seriola dorsalis) © Monterey Bay Aquarium Isla Natividad, Mexico Caught by Sociedad Cooperativa de Producción Pesquera Buzos y Pescadores de Baja California, S.C.L Handline February 24, 2014 Elizabeth Joubert, Consulting Researcher Disclaimer Seafood Watch® strives to ensure all our Seafood Reports and the recommendations contained therein are accurate and reflect the most up-to-date evidence available at time of publication. All our reports are peer- reviewed for accuracy and completeness by external scientists with expertise in ecology, fisheries science or aquaculture. Scientific review, however, does not constitute an endorsement of the Seafood Watch program or its recommendations on the part of the reviewing scientists. Seafood Watch is solely responsible for the conclusions reached in this report. We always welcome additional or updated data that can be used for the next revision. Seafood Watch and Seafood Reports are made possible through a grant from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. 2 Final Seafood Recommendation Stock / Fishery Impacts on Impacts on Management Habitat and Overall the Stock other Ecosystem Recommendation Species California yellowtail Green (3.32) Green (5.00) Yellow (3.00) Green (4.47) Best Choice (3.862) Baja Eastern Central Pacific - Handline Scoring note – Scores range from zero to five where zero indicates very poor performance and five indicates the fishing operations have no significant impact. Final Score = geometric mean of the four Scores (Criterion 1, Criterion 2, Criterion 3, Criterion 4). Best Choice = Final Score between 3.2 and 5, and no Red Criteria, and no Critical scores Good Alternative = Final score between 2.2 and 3.199, and Management is not Red, and no more than one Red Criterion other than Management, and no Critical scores Avoid = Final Score between 0 and 2.199, or Management is Red, or two or more Red Criteria, or one or more Critical scores. 3 Executive Summary This report assesses yellowtail captured by Sociedad Cooperativa de Producción Pesquera Buzos y Pescadores de Baja California, S.C.L. (hereafter Buzos y Pescadores), a fishing cooperative at Isla Natividad, Mexico, according to criteria developed by Seafood Watch to rate the sustainability of wild capture fisheries. The remaining Mexican fisheries and the U.S. fishery are not assessed in this report. Commercial landings of yellowtail are caught using gillnets and hook and line fishing gear, though members of the Buzos y Pescadores cooperative do not use gillnets. California yellowtail, Seriola lalandi, formally known as Seriola dorsalis, is a large member of the jack family, Carangidae. The fish is common in Eastern Pacific coastal waters from Southern Washington to Baja California. Fisheries for yellowtail in Mexico operate primarily in the coastal waters of Baja California, Mexico, where stocks are most concentrated, as well as in southern California. Yellowtail is a prized game fish and recreational fishers from California often target yellowtail off of the coast of Baja. The commercial fishery in Mexico is relatively small as market demand is low. Given the yellowtail’s moderate inherent vulnerability to fishing pressure and low susceptibility to fishing mortality, Seafood Watch considers that the yellowtail fishery has a low impact on the stock. Yellowtail considered to have a moderate inherent vulnerability to fishing pressure given a suite of its life history parameters (e.g., moderate age and size at maturity; broadcast spawner). Because market demand for yellowtail is low and yellowtail are only fished opportunistically, fishing mortality is likely to be below Fmsy, and therefore of low concern. Overall, Seafood Watch considers that the fishery at Isla Natividad has a low impact on yellowtail. Bycatch in the yellowtail fishery is assessed as low concern. The hook and line fishery is thought to have minimal bycatch overall, and because of the nature of the fishing technique, incidentally caught species can be released unharmed. Further, expert opinion is that bycatch in the Natividad fishery is at or near zero. This leads Seafood Watch to deem bycatch in the hook and line fishery a low conservation concern. Management consistently follows scientific advice and enforces regulations, however there are few data to determine the efficacy of management actions in maintaining the health of the stock and in restricting bycatch. Therefore, management is considered moderately effective. The impact of fishing gear on the substrate is considered very low, and some management efforts reduce the impacts of fishing gear. Hook and line gear in the yellowtail fishery do not contact the seafloor and have benign habitat impacts. In addition, two marine protected areas in the region reduce the spatial footprint of fishing and may provide refuge for yellowtail. Yellowtail are generalist predators and the effects of their removal from the food web are unknown. An assessment of the impacts of this fishery on the ecosystem has not been conducted and is not yet underway. Overall, the impacts of the yellowtail fishery to habitats and ecosystem are deemed low. 4 Table of Contents Final Seafood Recommendation ................................................................................................................... 2 Executive Summary ....................................................................................................................................... 3 Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 5 Analysis ....................................................................................................................................................... 12 Criterion 1: Stock for which you want a recommendation ...................................................................................... 12 Criterion 2: Impacts on other retained and bycatch stocks .................................................................................... 15 Criterion 3: Management effectiveness .................................................................................................................. 17 Criterion 4: Impacts on the habitat and ecosystem ................................................................................................ 24 Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................................................... 27 References .................................................................................................................................................. 28 About Seafood Watch® ............................................................................................................................... 30 Guiding Principles ....................................................................................................................................... 31 5 Introduction Scope of the analysis and ensuing recommendation This report assesses the fishery for yellowtail, Seriola lalandi, also known as Seriola dorsalis, captured in the Isla Natividad region of Baja California, Mexico. The common market name for this species is Jurel, or Amberjack yellowtail. The commercial fishery for this species in Mexico exists in Baja California on both the Pacific and Gulf sides as well as on the mainland in the gulf (SAGARPA 2006). Fish are captured with drift gillnets (3.5 inch mesh) and trolling hook and line (curricán). The cooperative Buzos y Pescadores manages the local fisheries, holds 22 finfish permits, and also has exclusive rights to harvest commercial invertebrate species in the region of Isla Natividad on the pacific side of Baja California. The size of the finfish area (also the lobster concesion) is 818.13 square km. The fishers in this cooperative use only hook and line gear to capture yellowtail. The yellowtail fishery is relatively small as market demand is low (e.g., landings data found in SAGARPA 2006; personal communication with Leonardo Vazquez, July 11, 2013), and fishing at Isla Natividad is seasonal, with fishers generally targeting fish during the summer when yellowtail around the Island are larger and more abundant (personal communication with Leonardo Vazquez, July 11, 2013). Overview of the species and management bodies Yellowtail were once thought to be distributed around the globe in subtropical waters, and that the portion of the stock distributed from Mazatlan, Mexico to southern Washington was comprised of two populations that diverged around Cedros Island, Mexico (Eschmeyer et al. 1983,CDFG 2001). However, recent genetic data provide evidence that Seriola lalandi is comprised of four cryptic species that were placed into synonymy in 1986, and that the stock in the northeast Pacific from California to Mexico is a single species that should revert to its original name, Serioloa dorsalis. There are two populations within Seriola dorsalis, roughly divided at central Baja California, Mexico (Larry Allen, personal communication, May 31, 2013). Yellowtail can be found in a variety of habitats throughout their lifecycle including rocky areas, coastal and oceanic waters (Eschmeyer et al. 1983) and off kelp forests. Yellowtail can often be found in schools offshore, near islands and on seamounts throughout the year (Sala et al. 2003). Yellowtail forage on sardines, anchovies, jack mackerel, squid, and red crab (Baxter 1960, Crooke 1983,CDFG