Discards of sharks by Brazilian leased fleet in 2010
Discards of sharks by Brazilian leased fleet in 2010
Andrade, H.A., Ribeiro Simoni, M.E. and Almeida de Melo, M.P.
SUMMARY:
The pelagic longline fishery catches not only tuna and tuna-like species but also sharks as bycatch. There are some concerns about the populations of sharks that are probably very vulnerable to fisheries. Also, there are some enforcement and international recommendations indicating that discards of dead fish should be prohibited. Therefore, after the longline is retrieved, the sharks that are still alive should be released. In this paper we have calculated the proportions of discards and also the mean number of sharks dead per fishing set by the leased fleet off the Brazilian coast. The results indicate that valuable species like mako and blue shark are hardly discarded, dead or alive. Nevertheless, close to half of the threshers were discarded and most of them were alive.
Collect. Vol. Sci. Pap. ICCAT, 68(5): 1938-1948 (2012)