Census of Non-U.S. Billfish and Swordfish Recreation Tournaments in the ICCAT Convention Area

Census of Non-U.S. Billfish and Swordfish Recreation Tournaments in the ICCAT Convention Area

Alvin Sherman Library

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 National Oceanographic Atmospheric Association (NOAA) Fisheries 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, NOAA Fisheries 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. As a first step to address this data gap, we conducted an online (internet based) census of all the billfish and swordfish recreational tournaments throughout the ICCAT Convention Area (124 countries and territories). 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. These findings could indicate a shift in the local billfish and swordfish abundance or economic reasons (COVID restrictions). Additionally, tournaments for billfishes appear to be moving to release formats, supporting conservation efforts for overfished blue and white marlins. Future analyses will examine publicized landings at non-U.S. tournaments, including individual fish weights and catch-effort trends, and temporal comparison with U.S. tournaments from NOAA mandatory reporting data.