Life in the Slow Lane: Ecology and Conservation of Long-Lived Marine Animals

Wreckfish Polyprion americanus in the North Atlantic: Fisheries, Biology, and Management of a Widely Distributed and Long-Lived Fish

George R. Sedberry, Carlos A. P. Andrade, Joel L. Carlin, Robert W. Chapman, Brian E. Luckhurst, Charles S. Manooch, III, G. Menezes, B. Thomsen, and G. F. Ulrich

doi: https://doi.org/10.47886/9781888569155.ch4

Abstract. —The wreckfish Polyprion americanus is a long-lived, globally distributed species that supports fisheries on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, in the Mediterranean, and in the western South Pacific. Wreckfish in the western North Atlantic have a life history that includes an extended (perhaps for two years) pelagic juvenile stage that drifts in the North Atlantic gyre; slow growth rates after assuming demersal existence; recruitment to the American fishery resulting from migration to the grounds at an advanced age (four years); and a long life (31 years at 1460 mm total length and 47 kg total weight). Experience with wreckfish in isolated geographic habitats such as Bermuda indicates that wreckfish can be quickly overfished as fishing technology develops to target the species. Because of its life history and evidence for a single stock of wreckfish for the northern hemisphere, recruitment to local fisheries may depend on management imposed by agencies that regulate distant fisheries. In the United States, the fishery is managed with an individual transferable quota (ITQ), which has sustained a small fishery (annual total allowable catch [TAC] = 907 metric tons) similar in magnitude to that in the Azores and mainland Portugal. There is no management in other portions of the northern hemisphere range. With the exception of Bermuda and perhaps the Mediterranean, northern hemisphere wreckfish stocks do not appear to be in decline; however, landings in the Azores and Madeira have decreased since 1994, after initial increases resulting from introduction of longlines. Current exploratory fishing on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and probable expansion of landings of deepwater species in the North Atlantic islands may result in expansion of the fishery and may necessitate international management plans.