Potential impacts of emerging mahi-mahi fisheries on sea turtle and elasmobranch bycatch species

Abstract

Mahi-mahi ( Coryphaena hippurus) is a resilient pelagic species that could provide long-term highly productive fisheries. Using FAO data we document enormous increases (746%) in reported global mahi-mahi landings since 1950. Detailed mahi-mahi fisheries records are limited, but an observer program monitoring Costa Rica’s Pacific mahi-mahi pelagic longline fleet between 1999 and 2008 ( n = 217 sets) provided a rare opportunity to quantify bycatch in these fisheries. Several sea turtles and sharks of global conservation concern were caught incidentally: olive ridley turtle ( Lepidochelys olivacea; n = 1348, mean = 9.05 per 1000 hooks), silky shark ( Carcharhinus falciformis; n = 402, mean = 2.96 per 1000 hooks), thresher sharks ( Alopias sp.; n = 158, mean = 1.12 per 1000 hooks), green turtle ( Chelonia mydas; n = 49, mean = 0.35 per 1000 hooks), and three other threatened sharks in small numbers. Pelagic stingray ( Pteroplatytrygon violacea; a ray of low conservation concern) was also a common bycatch ( n = 625, mean = 4.77 per 1000 hooks). Generalized linear models (GLMs) of catch rates showed increases in olive ridley turtles and decreases in mahi-mahi and silky sharks over the decade examined. The high hooking survival rates of olive ridley and green turtles in observed sets (95% and 96% respectively) suggest that widespread training of the fleet in careful gear removal and turtle release methods could be one effective bycatch mitigation strategy for these species. GLMs also provide evidence that closing the fishery during peak olive ridley nesting times (at least near nesting beaches), in combination with reduced gear soak times, could help minimize the fishery’s impacts on threatened bycatch species while still maintaining a productive fishery.