A Global Review on the Biology of the Dolphinfish (Coryphaena hippurus) and Its Fishery in the Mediterranean Sea: Advances in the Last Two Decades

Abstract

The common dolphinfish (Coryphaena hippurus) is an epipelagic thermophilic species with a worldwide distribution in tropical and subtropical regions that is characterized by its migratory behavior and fast growth rates. This species is targeted by artisanal smallscale and recreational fisheries in most regions where it is found. This paper updates and analyzes the global scientific knowledge on the biology and ecology of this species, which was last revised at a regional level 20 years ago. This review showed an increase in knowledge about the population structure and regional differences in biological traits, in parallel with a notable lack of mechanistic and even empirical knowledge about the ecology of this species, which hampers a good understanding of the population dynamics and the potential impacts of environmental change. This paper also updates the information about the Mediterranean dolphinfish fishery, where the main four countries that exploit this species deploy 30% of fish aggregation devices (FAD) worldwide. The results suggest, among other effects, some temporal synchronicity in landings across countries, potential interannual stock movement affecting inter-country catches, diverging trends in prices and insufficient quality in the estimates of fishing effort. The authors propose a suite of specific measures to ameliorate this lack of knowledge and to better manage this complex living resource.

Future Socio-political Scenarios for Aquatic Resources in Europe: An Operationalized Framework for Marine Fisheries Projections

“…In the CERES project, seasonal closures were incorporated in models of the dolphinfish (Coryphaena hippurus) fishery in the Spanish Western Mediterranean (Peck et al, 2020). The opening of the fishing season, based on juveniles, occurs by law on August 25th and lasts until December 31st (Moltó et al, 2020). In the scenarios where climate change impacts are expected to be most dramatic (WM and NE) marketable sizes would occur 2 weeks earlier due to the effect of higher temperatures on growth (see empirical validated model in Moltó et al, 2020).…”

Stock Status Assessments of Five Small Pelagic Species in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans Using the Length-Based Bayesian Estimation (LBB) Method

“…This mainly concerns the high catches from purse seine fisheries. Though most un-targeted species are highly productive, many factors of these species still make them vulnerable that may cause their populations to decline (i.e., aggregation, high inter-annual variability, and exploitation before sexual maturity; Moltó et al, 2020). Moreover, due to the lack of quality data, consequently, rare stock assessments, it was unclear if current levels of interactions with tuna longline fisheries were placing these nontargeted fisheries populations at risk.…”

“…The maximum reported length for this species is 215 cm TL and a maximum weight of 9 kg (Froese and Pauly, 2020). Coryphaena hippurus also referred to as "Mahimahi" is a marine, brackish, pelagic-neritic and oceanodromous species found in depths ranging between 0 and 85 m and having a maximum reported age of 4 years (Froese and Pauly, 2020;Moltó et al, 2020). Its maximum reported size is 210 cm and reported weight of 40 kg caught in Costa Rica (Froese and Pauly, 2020).…”

Stock assessment of Dolphinfish, Coryphaena hippurus (Linnaeus, 1758) of the Gulf of Hammamet (Tunisia, Central Mediterranean).

“…The population dynamics of Coryphaena hippurus, in the Mediterranean, has only been studied once by Lleonart et al [23] ), who conducted a Virtual Population Analysis (VPA) for two separate years, 1995 and 1996, of the Mallorca island (Spain). Molto et al [30] , report a second assessment exercise that carried out in 2004 by the Working-Group (CORY-Fao/CopeMedI) trying different models using CPUE data for the period 1984-2001 from Malta and Spain. This try resulted in very poor quality of fit (below 4%) which prevented the estimation of the maximum sustainable yield (MSY), due in particular to difficulties in estimating CPUE.…”

“…The Coefficient of natural mortality (M) is determined from the formulas of Taylor [25] and Djabali et al [26] , that values are 1.304 and 0.735 yr -1 respectively. Therefore, taking into account the rapid growth of the dolphinfish [16] , its short longevity [27,28] , and its strong dependence on environmental factors [29,30] , we chose the highest value (M = 1.304 yr -1 ), that of Taylor [25] .…”