Honors Theses

Date of Award

2025

Document Type

Honors Thesis - NSU Access Only

Degree Type

Bachelors of Science

Degree Name

Marine Biology

Department

Halmos College of Arts and Sciences and the Guy Harvey Oceanographic Research Center

Honors College

Farquhar Honors College Thesis

Honors College Dean

Andrea Nevins

Home College Dean

Holly Lynn Baumgartner

Faculty Advisor

David Kerstetter

Abstract

Swordfish and istiophorid billfishes are large pelagic predators with circumglobal distributions. In the Atlantic Ocean, these economically valuable fishes are considered highly migratory species (HMS) and managed domestically by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and internationally by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT). Internationally, swordfish has long supported primarily commercial fisheries but is increasingly targeted by recreational fisheries; although occasionally landed as incidental catch, istiophorid billfish fisheries are primarily fished recreationally. In the U.S. Atlantic, NMFS regulates HMS fisheries, including mandatory recreational tournament registration and monitoring. Commercial landings are often reported to ICCAT, but non-U.S. data on recreational billfish and swordfish landings are scarce, with some ICCAT members claiming to not have recreational fisheries. An online (internet based) census of all the billfish and swordfish recreational tournaments throughout the ICCAT Convention Area (124 countries and territories) was conducted. The Caribbean region previously dominated in numbers of tournaments targeting billfishes and swordfish, but a recent shift can be seen in an increase in tournaments in the North/Central American region. This could indicate a shift in the local billfish and swordfish abundance or economic changes. Additionally, tournaments for billfishes appear to be moving to release formats, supporting conservation efforts for overfished blue and white marlins. Catch per unit effort (CPUE) was calculated based on the catalogued recreational tournaments. These findings will help promote increased data reporting to ICCAT and lead to more transparent and sustainable fisheries.

Download

Available for download on Monday, April 27, 2026

To access this thesis/dissertation you must have a valid nova.edu OR mynsu.nova.edu email address and create an account for NSUWorks.

Free My Thesis

If you are the author of this work and would like to grant permission to make it openly accessible to all, please click the Free My Thesis button.

  Contact Author

Share

COinS