Abstract
The cod fishery at the Faroes has been managed since 1996 by an effort management system where it is assumed that there is a direct relationship between fishing mortality and fishing effort. We show that this relationship is weak. Due to a factor five variation in the primary production on the Faroe Plateau, the annual growth rate of cod may vary by a factor of five. Commercial catch-per-unit-effort data in combination with stock assessment estimates showed that there was a negative correlation between the annual growth rate of cod and their catchability with longlines, as well as with the total fishing mortality of cod on the Faroe Plateau. Furthermore, mark-recapture experiments showed that longline-caught cod in comparison with trawl-caught cod had a lower condition factor, a lower stomach content of natural prey, and a higher content of longline baits. During the feeding season in September-December, longline-caught cod exhibited a larger displacement distance than trawl-caught cod. These results were largely confirmed by storage tag data. Consequently, during low-productive periods, (i) the longline-dominated cod fishery at the Faroes exerted fishing mortalities that by far exceeded safe biological limits, and (ii) longline catch-per-unit-effort series might overestimate stock size considerably.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 230-239 |
Number of pages | 10 |
Journal | Fisheries Research |
Volume | 100 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Nov 2009 |
Keywords
- Catchability
- Food availability
- Gadus morhua
- Individual growth
- Longlines