Longline

Swordfish is a highly migratory species of fish found throughout most of the world’s oceans. Adults are typically found between 15 degrees North and 35 degrees South, while juveniles are more common within tropical and subtropical waters. In the north Pacific Ocean, there are two stocks of swordfish. The populations are separated by a diagonal boundary that runs from Baja California to the Equator. There are two stocks of swordfish within the eastern Pacific Ocean: the northeastern Pacific Ocean stock and the southeastern Pacific Ocean stock.

A recent stock assessment noted that the biomass of swordfish in the northeastern Pacific Ocean is healthy and fishing mortality rates are stable. The biomass is not expected to decline at current fishing levels. However, the fisheries that target the species have some barriers to remove, like the fact that there are no formally adopted target reference points or harvest control rules in place. Also, there might be issues with bycatch of sea turtles, sea birds, sharks, and other fish species in longline fisheries.

The Mexican Pacific swordfish fishery targets the Northeastern Pacific Ocean stock averaging annual landings of 760 metric tons and registers 52 vessels with commercial fishing licenses for longline of which, an average of 25 vessels operates in the season. 30 are registered in Baja California State and the 22 remaining vessels are registered in Sinaloa State. 95% of the landings are exported to the United States of America subject to the NOAA Seafood Import Monitoring Program requirements for the importation of certain priority fish and fish products that have been identified as being particularly vulnerable to IUU fishing and/or seafood fraud.

The fishery being assessed is StarKist Atlantic Ocean longline tuna fishery. The fishery targets albacore (Thunnus alalunga) tuna, bigeye (T. obesus) and yellowfin (T. albacares) tunas. The pelagic longline vessels are flagged to Taiwan, St Vincent, Senegal, Panama and Belize and fish on the high seas (and occasionally in the national EEZs) in the Atlantic. The fishery is managed regionally by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) in the Atlantic Ocean.

The fishery of the red snapper (Lutjanus campechanus) is one of the most important in terms of the scale resource in the Gulf of Mexico (GM) region, being the fifth species of fish with greater extraction in Campeche (González-de la Rosa, Sánchez and Arreguín-Sánchez, 1994; Government of the State of Campeche, 2015).

During the decade of the 70s, the annual catch of red snapper in this same region was represented in 93% by L. campechanus, without indications of reduction of the population stock (Anderson et al. 2015). During the 80s, González-de la Rosa et al. (1994), Monroy-García, Garduño-Andrade and Espinosa (2002), as well as, Monroy-García, Arceo and Ríos (2004) stated that the red snapper resource was under-exploited and the fishery growing in the north from Yucatan, showing an increase in annual catches from 1,800.0 to 4,500.0 tonnes.

In Mexico, there was a historical maximum in the catch of red snapper during 1993. In the period 1986-1996, 4,956.0 t of the average annual catch was recorded and from 2000 to 2015 a decrease of 39.0% was observed with 2,996.0 t annual average according to the CNP (2018).

Monroy García et al. (2002) estimated that this indicator decreased from 32,957.0 t in 1984 to 16,877.0 in 1999, which is 51.0%, indicating that this population does not show signs of recovery. They also calculated a maximum sustainable yield (RMS) of 1,271.0 t / year. Recording a capture of 3,083.0 t in 1992, and an average of 1,384.0 t in the period 1984-1999, which exceeds the CMS and therefore there is a strong decrease, reporting that landings in the Gulf of Mexico (GM) declined from 71.0 to 80.0% by 2013 (Anderson et al., 2015).

It is noted that the results only showed the decency until 2015, and most recent information was not included in the profile. However, managers concluded that the fishery is exploited to the maximum sustainable extent with a tendency to find deteriorated in the future (DOF, 2023). Garcia-Rodriguez et al. (2024) used the Catch-MSY (CMSY) data-limited to determine the stock status of red snapper in the Gulf of Mexico. The authors used a combination of catch data, resilience, and qualitative stock status information on the data-limited model to estimate the biomass-producing MSY (BMSY), the fishing pressure-producing MSY (FMSY), catch in terms of MSY (CMSY) and reference points such as stock size (B/BMSY) and exploitation rate (F/FMSY). Based on the results, the authors recognized the transition of the red snapper population in recent years and reported signs of a relatively positive trend. With the most recent year putting the species with a status of the biomass above the MSY (BMSY).

Lutjanus synagris:The species in the Gulf of Mexico was classified as near threatened by the IUCN in 2015 (Lindeman et al. 2015). Not recent stock assessment has been conducted in Mexico. In the US, managers assumed that a single unit stock for the GOM. Although some evidence of two genetically distinct stocks in the northern GOM based on microsatellites: a western stock which includes individuals from the northwestern and north central GOM and an eastern stock that includes individuals from the west coast of FL, the Florida Keys, and the Atlantic coast of FL (Karlsson et al. 2009).

Rhomboplites aurorubens:In the Mexican region of the Gulf of Mexico, there are no recent stock assessment for the species, in the US, however, at least five stocks (or subpopulations) of vermilion snapper have been described, as follows: The South Atlantic, the Gulf of Mexico, the Puerto Rico Snapper Complex, the St. Croix Snapper Complex and the St. Thomas/St. John Snapper Complex (NOAA 2023).

According to the most recent stock assessments: The Gulf of Mexico stock is not overfished (2020), and is not subject to overfishing based on 2022 catch data. The stock assessment information from the Stock SMART tool by NOAA explained shows the variations of the estimated stock abundance from 1950 to 2018, but also a constant increasing in landings during the same time period.

Bagre marinus: The stock structure is unknown, the most recent report on the status was published by managers within the National Fisheries Chart (NFC) where it was reported that the species was above the MSY. However, information on how this was estimated or peer-reviewed was unshared.

Currently, in the Mexican states, the use of these resources does not present specific regulations such as a fishing management plan, reproductive closures, quotas, or minimum catch sizes, considering its known status, its a need to update the public information about the resources, and the development of strategies for fishery management for this species, which involve the fisheries, government, academic and civil society organizations to establish standards for responsible fishing.

Fukuichi Fishery Co., Ltd., a Japanese seafood processing company, conducted a MSC pre-assessment in 2018 for patner fisheries  which operate longline tuna in the Pacific Ocean, Pre-assessment report showed the fishery needs improvement on Principle 2, ecosystem impact, although Principle 1, target stock, and Principle 2, effective management, were conditional pass level. It was identified in the pre-assessment report that one of the weakness of the fishery was limited information/data about bycatch and bait. 

To address the issues and achieve and maintain MSC certification, Fukuichi Fishery launches a FIP which has 2 stages as below:

Stage 1 (Sep 2019 - Aug 2020): lanunch and implement FIP focusing on Principle 2 and partially on P1 and P3

Stage 2 (Sep 2020 - Mar 2022): conduct full-assessment and achive MSC certification

Scope of the fishery:

Target species: yellowfin, albacore and bigeye

Fishing method: pelagic long line

Definition: Japanese vessels with "pelagic long line tuna" license which operate in WCPO and land at Yaizu port