REPORT OF THE STANDING COMMITTEE ON RESEARCH ... - Iccat

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY SWO-ATLOther implicationsThe Committee is concerned that in some cases regulations have resulted in the discard of swordfish caught inthe North stock and, to a certain extent, could have influenced similar behavior of the fleet that fishes the SouthAtlantic swordfish stock. The Committee considers that regulations may have had a detrimental effect on theavailability and consistency of scientific data on catches, sizes and CPUE indices of the Atlantic fleet. TheCommittee expressed its serious concern over this limitation on data for future assessments.SWO-ATL-6. Management recommendationsNorth AtlanticIn order to maintain the northern Atlantic swordfish stock close to a level that would produce MSY, theCommittee continues to recommend continuing the present TAC (14,000 t). Given the estimated stockproductivity (r=0.49) and MSY (14,100 t), this TAC should be sustainable into the future, and reflects themaximum yield that could be harvested from the population under existing environmental and fishery conditions.South AtlanticUntil sufficiently more research has been conducted to reduce the high uncertainty in stock status evaluations forthe southern Atlantic swordfish stock, the Committee recommends that annual catch should not exceed theprovisionally estimated MSY (about 17,000 t).ATLANTIC SWORDFISH SUMMARYNorth AtlanticSouth AtlanticMaximum Sustainable Yield 1 14,133 t (12,800-14,790) 3 ~17,000t 4Current (2007) Yield 2 11,938 t 15,416 t2006 ReplacementYield 14,438 t Not estimatedRelative Biomass (B 2006 /B MSY ) 0.99 (0.87 - 1.27) 3 Likely >1Relative Fishing Mortality1F 2005 /F MSY 0.86 (0.65 - 1.04) 3F 2005 /F max1.2F 2005 /F 0.12.4F 2005 /F 30%SPR 2.4Management Measures in Effect: Country-specific TACs [Rec. 06-02];125/119 cm LJFL minimum size.1234Base Case production model (Logistic) results based on catch data 1950-2005.Provisional and subject to revision.80% confidence intervals are shown.Provisional and preliminary, based on production model (exponential) results based on catch data 1970-2005.Likely