NOAA 97-R118

CONTACT: Gordon Helm                   FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
                                       3/18/97

FISHERIES SERVICE TO CLOSE SWORDFISH FISHERY TO MEET ICCAT QUOTA

Actual catch data for past two years higher than estimates - forces closure.

Citing higher than expected numbers of swordfish discards, the National Marine Fisheries Service will close the Atlantic swordfish fishery effective 12 noon, April 12, 1997, the Commerce Department's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced today. The swordfish fishery will reopen June 1.

The closing is to ensure that the United States stays within its quota, established in an agreement under the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) which also regulates sharks, billfish, and tunas.

"Updated actual data on dead swordfish discards in 1995 and revised estimates of dead discards for 1996, have forced us to reduce the second semi-annual 1996 swordfish quota to meet our international obligations," said Rebecca Lent, chief of the fisheries service's highly migratory species management division.

The major fishery affected by this closure is the directed longline fishery. The 1996 second semi-annual quota of 1,064 metric tons dressed weight for the directed longline fishery has been lowered to 749 metric tons to include the revised figures for discards from the previous two years. Discards are generally undersized swordfish or those swordfish that are otherwise not marketable.

The annual swordfish quota is specified under ICCAT agreement. The annual quota is divided into two six-month fisheries, the first running from June 1 through Nov. 30, with the second fishery running from Dec. 1 through May 31. The fisheries service is required to monitor the catch and landings statistics and, on the basis of those statistics, to project a date when the catch will equal the quota, and close the fishery.

In addition, the fisheries service is authorized to adjust bycatch allowances for longline fishermen during a closure of the swordfish fishery. During the most recent swordfish directed fishery closure, December 1995, the fisheries service had adjusted the bycatch rate to six swordfish per vessel per trip. Fisheries service officials believe, based on the length of the swordfish fishery closure (from April 12 through May 31, 1991), that it is necessary to revise the bycatch allowance to five swordfish per trip.