An Estimate of Postrelease Mortality of School‐Size Bluefin Tuna in the U.S. Recreational Troll Fishery

Marcek, Benjamin J.; Graves, John E.

doi:10.1080/02755947.2014.902411

Cited by 22 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 15 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Studies using pop‐up satellite archival tags have indicated that postrelease mortality of Bluefin Tuna released in recreational fisheries is low (<5%) across size‐classes (Stokesbury et al. ; Marcek and Graves ; Goldsmith et al. ), suggesting that catch‐and‐release angling is a viable conservation strategy that would provide substantial benefits, especially to high‐income anglers.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, the additional value attached by class 1 anglers to nonconsumptive aspects of Bluefin Tuna fishing (catch and release, hooking and losing fish, and other factors captured by the ASC) appear to provide sufficient incentive for this group to continue targeting Bluefin Tuna despite restrictive harvest regulations. Studies using pop-up satellite archival tags have indicated that postrelease mortality of Bluefin Tuna released in recreational fisheries is low (<5%) across size-classes (Stokesbury et al 2011;Marcek and Graves 2014;Goldsmith et al 2017), suggesting that catch-and-release angling is a viable conservation strategy that would provide substantial benefits, especially to high-income anglers.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Characterizing the Preferences and Values of U.S. Recreational Atlantic Bluefin Tuna Anglers

Goldsmith

Scheld

Graves

2018

N American J Fish Manag

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Atlantic Bluefin Tuna Thunnus thynnus is the target of a recreational fishery along the U.S. East Coast that is thought to be of considerable economic value. In some years, recreational landings have exceeded the sector's annual subquota due to changes in fish availability, limited predictability of angler effort, and difficulties in real‐time monitoring of catch. Understanding the drivers of angler behavior is critical for predicting how effort and harvest may vary as a function of changing fish availability, regulations, or costs. To investigate angler decision making, preferences, and values, we surveyed private recreational anglers from Maine to North Carolina and employed discrete choice experiments to determine how regulatory and nonregulatory trip‐specific variables influence trip‐taking behavior. A latent class‐ranked logit model identified two distinct classes of anglers who exhibited differing preferences in regard to the importance of nonconsumptive aspects of Bluefin Tuna fishing (e.g., catch and release). Income and recent Bluefin Tuna targeting were the primary determinants of class membership, and higher‐income anglers who had targeted Bluefin Tuna in the past 5 years were significantly more likely to be in the class that derives substantive benefits from nonconsumptive angling activities. An annual consumer surplus exceeding US$14 million was estimated for the 2015 fishery. We considered potential angler welfare impacts of possible management changes (compensating surplus) and identified a large amount of latent effort currently present in the fishery in the form of consumptive‐oriented anglers. As a result, liberalization of harvest regulations could potentially lead to a large influx of effort into the fishery, which could impede the ability of managers to maintain harvest levels within prescribed limits.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterizing the Preferences and Values of U.S. Recreational Atlantic Bluefin Tuna Anglers

Goldsmith

Scheld

Graves

2018

N American J Fish Manag

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The tag anchor (3.2 cm long × 2.4 cm wide) was a hydroscopic surgicalgrade nylon assembly that was attached to the PSAT with a tether consisting of 16 cm of monofilament fishing line (91-kg breaking strength). A more detailed description of the PSAT assembly and deployment protocol is given by Marcek and Graves (2014).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Short‐Term Habitat Use of Juvenile Atlantic Bluefin Tuna

2016

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Bluefin Tuna Thunnus thynnus are highly sought after in commercial and recreational fisheries along the East Coast of North America. To appropriately assess and manage Atlantic Bluefin Tuna (ABT), it is necessary to understand their habitat use during multiple ontogenetic stages. We tagged 17 juvenile ABT in the northwest Atlantic Ocean with pop‐up satellite archival tags (PSATs) to determine environmental factors that may affect habitat use. The PSATs were deployed off the coast of Massachusetts in August and September 2012. A generalized linear mixed model was applied to determine factors affecting the mean depth occupied by fish, and beta regression was used to understand factors affecting the proportion of time spent below the thermocline. Thermocline depth significantly affected the mean depth occupied by juvenile ABT and the proportion of time they spent below the thermocline. Time period (dawn, day, dusk, and night) also significantly affected the mean depth occupied by juvenile ABT. Additionally, the time period × lunar illumination interaction had a significant effect on the proportion of time spent below the thermocline. This study is the first to demonstrate that environmental factors such as thermocline depth, time period, and lunar illumination can significantly impact vertical habitat use by juvenile ABT and demonstrates the utility of generalized linear mixed models for investigating fish habitat use. Received June 19, 2015; accepted March 13, 2016

show abstract

“…For scenario 2, a tag's remaining in complete darkness for a certain minimum amount of time was considered an appropriate indicator of predation or scavenging. Ingestion of PSATs (and presumably the fish to which they were attached) by predators or scavengers is well-documented [8,9,18,23], and tags generally remain inside the consumer's stomach for at least several days before being egested, floating to the surface, and transmitting data. Given these findings, tags were programmed to release if maintained in complete darkness for 48 h.…”

Section: Tag Configurationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Stokesbury et al [17] deployed PSATs on large medium and giant (≥ 185 cm CFL) Atlantic bluefin tuna captured using bait rigged with barbless circle hooks in an experimental recreational fishery off the coast of Prince Edward Island, Canada, with fight times ranging from 6 to 79 min, and estimated a mortality rate of 3.4% (2 of 59 fish died after release). Marcek and Graves [18] observed a post-release mortality rate of 0% for 19 school-size (91-< 119 cm CFL) Atlantic bluefin tuna tagged with PSATs after being caught using 23-91 kg trolling tackle and fought for 5.5-12 min. Most recently, Tracey et al [19] deployed PSATs on 59 southern bluefin tuna (Thunnus maccoyi), primarily of sizes comparable to the school and large school size classes (91-< 150 cm CFL), caught while trolling artificial lures or drifting with natural baits with 15-37 kg tackle (fight times ranged from 3 to 118 min), estimating a post-release mortality rate of 19%.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Performance of a low-cost, solar-powered pop-up satellite archival tag for assessing post-release mortality of Atlantic bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus) caught in the US east coast light-tackle recreational fishery

2017

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background: Pop-up satellite archival tags (PSATs) are a valuable tool for estimating mortality of pelagic fishes released from commercial and recreational fishing gears. However, the high cost of PSATs limits sample sizes, resulting in low-precision post-release mortality estimates with little management applicability. We evaluate the performance of a lower-cost PSAT designed to enable large-scale post-release mortality studies. The tag uses solar rather than battery power, does not include a depth sensor, and transmits daily summaries of light and temperature data rather than high-resolution habitat profiles, contributing to a substantially lower per-unit price. We assessed the tag's ability to detect mortality while also estimating the post-release mortality of juvenile (119-< 185 cm) Atlantic bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus) caught using light-tackle angling methods along the US east coast. Results: Using high-resolution data from previously deployed PSATs and environmental information from the general tagging location, we established parameters to infer mortality for Atlantic bluefin tuna using only daily summary data. We then deployed 22 PSATs, programmed to pop off after 31 days (thus providing 30 full daily summaries), on Atlantic bluefin tuna caught using light tackle off the coasts of Massachusetts and North Carolina, USA, in 2015 and 2016. Data were recovered for 15 tags with deployments ranging from 7 days (premature shedding) to 95 days (failed pop-off) and indicated that tagged fish spent sufficient time near the surface to keep the solar-powered tags fully charged. Fourteen fish demonstrated strong temporal changes in temperature indicating vertical movement in the water column, consistent with survival. One fish was predated upon after 17 days, likely by a shortfin mako, and was considered a natural mortality, resulting in a post-release mortality estimate of 0%. Conclusions: While low reporting rates complicated inferences about post-release mortality, the concept of using species-specific mortality parameters coupled with a reduced dataset shows promise as a cost-effective tool for detecting post-release mortality using PSATs. In addition, findings suggest that catch-and-release angling is a viable conservation strategy for juvenile Atlantic bluefin tuna caught in the US east coast light-tackle fishery.

show abstract

An Estimate of Postrelease Mortality of School‐Size Bluefin Tuna in the U.S. Recreational Troll Fishery

Cited by 22 publications

References 15 publications

Characterizing the Preferences and Values of U.S. Recreational Atlantic Bluefin Tuna Anglers

Characterizing the Preferences and Values of U.S. Recreational Atlantic Bluefin Tuna Anglers

Short‐Term Habitat Use of Juvenile Atlantic Bluefin Tuna

Performance of a low-cost, solar-powered pop-up satellite archival tag for assessing post-release mortality of Atlantic bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus) caught in the US east coast light-tackle recreational fishery

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About