Understanding pelagic stingray (Pteroplatytrygon violacea) bycatch by Spanish longliners in the Mediterranean Sea

• Main Authors: Báez, J.C. (José Carlos), García-Barcelona, S. (Salvador), Ortiz-de-Urbina-Gutiérrez, J.M. (José María), Serna-Ernst, J.M. (José Miguel) de-la, Macías-López, A.D. (Ángel David), Ortuño-Crespo, G.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Centro Oceanográfico de Málaga 2015
• Subjects: North Atlantic; North Atlantic oscillation
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10508/9411

The pelagic stingray Pteroplatytrygon violacea is known to be a frequent by-catch in longline fisheries around the world. The aim of this study is to analyze the parameters affecting to the bycatch of pelagic stingray by the Spanish surface drifting longline fleet that operates in the Mediterranean Sea. Since the year 2000 until the year 2013, 3007 longline fishing operations were monitored. In these 14 years, we recorded 57,574 pelagic stingrays by-catches by Spanish longline. Two gear types concentrate 96.05% of pelagic stingray by-catch observed: traditional surface longliners targeting swordfish (LLHB) and surface drifting longliners targeting albacore (LLALB). We obtained two statistically significant explicative models for the gears LLHB and LLALB. In both cases, fisheries over continental shelf and summer variables are important parameters. Furthermore, for the LLHB explicative model included the variables: number of hooks, latitude where the setting started, Distance between both extremes of the longline and spring. Moreover, for the LLHB we obtained a relationship between the Capture per Unit of Effort of pelagic stingray from favour sets per year and the North Atlantic Oscillation in winte Versión del editor